The Normal Heart Page #10

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It is only a question of time.

We could all be dead

before you do anything. You want my data?

You want my ideas? You want my pages?

Take 'em!

(SCREAMS) Just do something with them!

You're f***ing right.

I am imprecise and unfocused,

and you are all idiots!

(CLICKS)

DICK:
Did you organize

that picketing of the Mayor?

NED:
Yes.

- And the signs?

- Yes.

And your next play is about a first lady

who gave the best blowj*bs in Hollywood?

- Yes.

- This place is perfect for a new office.

Yes.

Tidy.

Here.

- Oh.

- I got him. I got it.

Come on. Let's get you back to bed.

Okay.

There you go.

Estelle made you some stuffed cabbage

for later.

FELIX:
Ooh.

NED:
There's this new drug in Paris.

Kessler's lover's flying out to get it.

Here it is.

HPA-23.

Ned...

He looks awful.

Do you think this is anything or

is this just another sh*t drug like all the rest?

I think you need to prepare yourself

for letting go.

You can't stop fighting for the ones you love.

Haven't you ever had to

fight for somebody you love?

(SIGHS)

Tommy, you gotta start

putting yourself out there

in a way that everyone else

could see what I see.

- What kind of a f***ed up love scene is this?

- (CHUCKLES)

(TELEPHONE RINGING)

Yes? Yes, ma'am.

4:
30 tomorrow?

Yes, ma'am.

The f***ing White House.

F*** the Mayor.

I've just been invited to the White House!

They're gonna do something!

- (SCANNING)

- N ED:
Oh, just so I understand,

what exactly does your title mean

in terms of our plague?

Ah...

We prefer not to use negative terms.

It only scares people.

Well, there's 3,339 cases so far.

1,122 dead.

It sounds like a plague to me.

I'm scared. Aren't you?

What does your title mean again?

I come up with ideas for the President about

what he ought to be doing and not doing.

Okay, good. Got it.

So, the money's there, right?

It just hasn't been spent.

So there's this new drug in France.

Why doesn't the NIH study it?

I mean, what I want, what we want,

what we desperately need is for somebody

to help us cut through all this red tape.

I can assure you that not a week goes by

that I don't bring new information

and reports to the President.

The progress that's been made

on this disease is unprecedented.

But it's contagious.

Can't you see that because it's contagious,

(STAMMERS) you have to work faster?

Do you really believe that anybody

in a serious public policy position

in their heart of hearts, or even in their

most closeted meeting says to each other,

"Hey, guys, let's not get

too upset about this"?

Yes. Your boss hasn't said

the word "AIDS" out loud.

Answer me this one question. Um...

This sh*t, can hookers get it or, you know,

someone who had a one-night stand?

- Of course!

- You can't prove that.

I mean, from what I understand,

from what I've read,

female-to-male transmission through

normal vaginal intercourse

does not seem to be very efficient.

That simply isn't true. It's a virus.

It doesn't discriminate.

Yes, but it's very difficult, isn't it?

It's almost impossible for a straight,

you know, regular

heterosexual guy to get it. Am I right?

- I'm sorry?

- There's no documented cases, am I right?

I mean, there's not a single

documented case of a heterosexual man

getting it, not from f***ing or a blowj*b.

I don't have that information.

Great. That's what I thought.

Susan, call my meeting.

I'll be about 15 minutes late. Thanks.

Thank you so much.

- Call me any time.

- Wait. Please, sir. Wait...

(TELEPHONE RINGING)

(YELLING) One hundred million predicted and

nobody is paying any attention!

(TELEPHONE RINGING)

WOMAN:
I need security on the second floor.

(DOOR CREAKS)

Why are you sitting on the floor?

I fell down trying to get from there to here.

Oh, don't touch me. God.

(SIGHS SHARPLY)

I hate it when you look at me.

You hungry? I'm hungry. How about you?

I looked in all my date books.

No one else I slept with is sick.

Maybe you're the carrier.

We don't have to do this to each other.

You're gonna get better, Felix. You are.

- Emma says the NIH...

- Emma, oh, God.

...is finally starting research.

We have to hope.

- Oh, do we?

- Yes, we do.

Do we?

And how am I supposed to do that? Huh?

Stop eating that sh*t!

No!

You know how important it is

to watch your nutrition!

I have a life expectancy of 10 more minutes.

I'll eat what I want to eat.

(GROANS)

Ned...

It's getting messier, okay?

I don't want to make you see it.

Nobody can make me do anything.

You should know that better than anybody.

Now are you gonna sit there

on the floor for the rest of your life?

- Do you hear me?

- Do you hear me?

No!

- No?

I've had over 40 treatments. No?

I've had three, no, four different

kinds of chemo. No!

I've had three different experimentals.

Emma has spent more time on me

than anyone else, and it hasn't done a thing!

You cannot force the goddamn sun

to come out!

I am so sick of fighting and everybody's

stupidity and blindness and guilt trips.

You know, if you can't

eat the food, don't eat the food.

I don't care. Take your poison. I don't care!

Fish is good for you!

Don't want any of that, do we?

No green salad!

No broccoli! No vegetables!

No bread with seven grain!

Why would anyone ever want any milk?

- You might get some calcium in your bones!

- (YELPS)

- (CRASHES)

- Do you want to die, Felix? Die!

(CLATTERS)

(SOBS)

- (WHIMPERS) Please don't leave me, Felix.

- I'm sorry.

CROWD:
(CHANTING)

Keep out! Keep out! Keep out!

Keep out! Keep out! Keep out!

Keep out! Keep out!

Keep out! Keep out! Keep out!

Keep out! Keep out! Keep out!

Keep out! Keep out!

Keep out! Keep out! Keep out!

(CHANTING CONTINUES)

(GRUNTS)

A**holes.

- Gay Men's Health Crisis.

- NED:
And the other reporter,

and they're gonna be there?

Thrush is a fungus, yes.

Can you tell him that we'll be picketing there?

And not afraid of arrest or police brutality.

That's right.

The Mayor has four more hours before

we carry out our threats of civil disobedience

if he doesn't meet with us.

Tommy got the call yesterday, Ned.

Why didn't you tell me?

You see, it works!

- When? When?

- Only two can go to the meeting, Ned.

When?

- Tommy's executive director.

- I'm going.

- I polled the f***ing board, Ned.

- I wrote that letter to the Mayor.

That meeting is mine. I am going to

go and represent this organization

that I've spent every minute

of my life fighting for

and that was started in my living room,

or I quit.

You'd let me quit?

(CLEARS THROAT)

The board asked me to read this

out loud to you.

- Read what?

- A letter.

(CLEARS THROAT)

Go on. Read it.

"We are circulating this letter widely among

people of judgment and good sense.

"You are on a colossal ego trip

we must curtail.

"To manipulate fear, as you have done

repeatedly, is to us sheer barbarism.

"To exploit the deaths of gay men,

as you have done on television

"and in publications all over America,

is to us an act of vandalism.

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