The Curriculum

A gloved finger pointed at me across the street like a summoning.Like an idiot, I went.Bruce was 30. Former Calvin Klein model. Cocaine dealer. And somehow carrying the entire history of European luxury in his head — Louis XIII cognac at $4,000 a bottle, which Dom Pérignon vintage paired with which caviar, cloistered nuns spinning silk from New Guinea silkworms.This was 1982. No internet. No Wikipedia. How did he KNOW this?What followed was a 5-year education in excess, danger, beauty, and something I'm only now beginning to understand.He died of AIDS. I didn't.It took me 40 years to figure out why I was spared.This episode is that answer.