So it was particularly heartbreaking after all of these years and after all that they had been through together—and this is where things come crashing into the present—that it was DB who had to tell Ed that he had to leave. The building was being converted into condos and everyone with the exception of DB, who was going to remain to manage the rehab, was told to vacate. This had been months ago and Ed was still in partial denial about what was happening. He was now the last remaining resident in a building that was the only real home he had ever known. And it had come to this: DB showed Ed a letter from the landlord that the contractors were coming in a few weeks and that the landlord was going to call the sheriff and have him physically removed if he didn’t move out. DB burst into tears. All of DB’s friends were either dead from AIDS or had moved away—and now he was the one who was sending Ed away—his flower child. He was so sorry he kept repeating. There was nothing that he could do to stop it.
DB told Ed that he could stay with him for a while until he got another place; but things were different now—he wasn’t a teenager, DB was getting old and had cats; it just wouldn’t work out and they both knew it. Ed said that he had a few leads on places to live; maybe their friend Hank could get him a room at the Ambassador Hotel. But he really didn’t know what he was going to do or where he would go.
DB told Ed that he could keep his things in his storage locker in the basement where he kept his old costumes and wigs from the Gilded Cage.
Yes, he would come back for them.