Counting the Sunrises
The sun was just above the horizon, it's rays melting away the soft grayness of the predawn hours giving way to the brilliant reds and oranges that bathed the San Gabriel mountains in the east. A light rain the night before had washed away the smog leaving a unobstructed view from our spot on the hospital rooftop.
This was the Forth sunrise that I counted since Belamey gave Starsky a lethal dose of a poison that was meant to take his life.
It was the third since I was able to find the antidote that would save my partners life.
The second since my friend woke up and was coherent enough to know he made it another day.
And the first sunrise he was able to watch since that day four sunrises ago.
Yesterday afternoon he insisted coming up here to watch the sunrise. At the time I didn't understand why. My partner was never one to get up before 11 in the morning if he didn't have to. But he was persistent and very adamant about it. And after what he and I went through I would be a fool to deny his request no matter how out of character it was, not that I could any other time for that matter.
So I pleaded his case to the doctors, who at first did not want to let him out of bed much less make a trip to the roof to watch a sunrise. Starsky had made it very clear he was not going to watch from the window. Finally they relented only with the exception that I go with him, like there was a way I would let him go alone, and he had to go in a wheelchair.
Sitting here on the ground next to my partner who sat in his wheelchair, His face turned toward the sun and eyes closed, I now understood why he wanted to come up here. It was his way at thumbing his nose at the two men who sought to make sure he never saw another sunrise, and in all actuality also keeping me from another one also. I say that because I don't know how many more I would have lasted if I had failed and my friend, the person who is the other half of my soul had died.
The man sitting next to me places a hand on my shoulder and I look up, realizing he has read my thoughts once again and knows the feelings running deep inside, as he should because for a moment in time roles were reversed on a roof top not to far from here. My life was on the line and he sacrificed his, literally gave his for mine. Like him I knew what was on his mind at that moment. Me and thee without one the other would die also.
I reach across and place a hand over his, he smiles before turning back to the horizon and I follow closing my eyes and letting the sun warm me. As I sit I wonder how long it will be before we put this behind us, how long I will be counting the sunrises.