James Rockton is ready to die. In fact, he plans on it. Having lost his life partner to AIDS, he books the South Pacific cruise Richard didn't live to share. James will spread Richard's ashes at sea, and then slip overboard to join him forever. He’s too old and too heartbroken to continue on alone.<br><br>But James doesn’t count on meeting a young man whose parents constantly put him down. Then there’s the obviously gay young art dealer who ogles a crazy young photographer traveling with an older gay man about James’s own age.<br><br>James and Herb begin spending time together, trying not to laugh too hard or get too involved with these young men, who circle each other in rapidly shrinking orbits. After all, James and Herb are old, with gray hair and less stamina. With time, talk, and martinis, will love manage to find them, too?

Fade to Gray

At the shark stop, the water was about three to four feet deep. People were snorkeling, swimming, or just standing around while our boat drivers and tour guides (parlez vouswhatever the hell they were speaking because it sure wasn’t English), fed chum or fish guts to the sharks and rays. It was awesome, and both Herb and I and half the other people took dozens and dozens of underwater pictures, getting in each other’s way and bumping butt first into people. I couldn’t use my fins or even my feet really, because if you stretched your legs out, you’d kick someone.


The sharks and rays all swam around us and never attacked anyone and totally ignored my bleeding knee. These were mostly black-tipped reef sharks and one long blue one that I will identify when I get somewhere with free Wi-Fi. If I remember. I even managed to enjoy the group singalong and ukulele playing that accompanied our leisurely cruise back to the port.


Chapter 30