The Day Off

Drive for awhile. No comments about how fast or how long. Visit old haunts, surprise myself at the changes. Find new haunts, like this great buffet place that you can all you can eat. Cute waitress, too.

Go to a bookstore, not the stuffy kind. This one has a kinky side. Then go to the amusement park and take the camera out for awhile. Lots of new faces, watch relationships. Feel like the world is big, and full, but at the same time, somewhat lonely.

The hours take awhile, they’re almost longer. And I tried so hard to not think about it at all. But there he was. In the saltiness of the bacon, in the blond hair of the waitress, in the laughter of the kids on the Ferris wheel. And on the cover of GQ.

It’s particularly dark with only a quarter moon and a dime in my hands. The day’s not over yet, but I think I give up. I dial, it rings. He answers without saying a word.

“I couldn’t do it.”

“What are you talking about?” Hutch answered.

“See, that’s what I mean.”

“Huh?”

Starsky had to smile and wipe a moist eye. “It’s always like this–between us.”

Hutch started to shake his head, but instead smiled to himself. “I wish I could see you right now so I could read what the holy hell you’re talking about.”

“Oh, Hutch, you just know exactly what to say. I think you see me in your mind, anyway.”

The phone had a breath in it. “Yeah.” Then it got very, very quiet. “Did you call me for a reason? Are we talking about something?”

“Yes. Yes, we are. And I’m on a pay phone.”

“For what reason?”

“Because I’m staring at a duck picking at some junk in the water, and I want to get back to it.”

“Down at the park? In the middle of the night? That pond we sit at sometimes?”

“Mm hmm.” Another bout of quiet. Hutch bit his lip, Starsky rubbed his head on the earpiece. “Will you come?”

“Over there? For what?”

“To watch a duck.”

“Buddy, what’s going on? I’d like to hear a sentence at least five words long or more.”

“I wish you’d come over here, to sit with me. Before midnight.”

“It’s eleven fifteen…”

“You got time.”

Hutch sighed, but it was in anticipation more than in frustration. “That was three words.”

“Hutch, my partner, I don’t ever want to take a day off. Without you, ever again.”

Hutch beamed a grin so bright the room lit up fifty watts. “I’ll come check out your duck. Keep him under surveillance.”

As he hung up, he heard Starsky say, “God, I love this man.”