The Normal Heart Page #7

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Don't need everybody's love and approval.

Ned, your organization is worthless.

I can't get anyone important on the board.

I've seen over 300 patients, me, one doctor.

All these guys who made millions off of us,

fashion, rock, movies, real estate, forget it.

And anytime Bruce doesn't agree with me,

he puts it to a board vote.

And you lose.

I can't pass along sex recommendations

or any information that isn't 100% certain.

Nothing is 100% certain in science.

It wouldn't matter what you say anyway.

Don't yell at me for what I'm not doing.

What the f*** is your side doing?

- I don't know!

- Well, where's your AMA?

Does being Jewish always make you hungry?

I don't know. I'm not Jewish.

I'm German.

- Everybody thinks you're Jewish.

- I know.

In medicine, it helps.

You stayed in bed

the whole way through school?

By college I had my first braces

and I could walk a little.

I don't walk so good anymore,

probably because I'm too busy to practice.

You must practice. Right now. I mean it.

Right now. Come on.

- Don't scratch my Mathis.

- (CHUCKLES)

(CHANCES ARE PLAYING)

May I have this dance?

(CHUCKLES)

Okay. You asked for it.

Give me crutches.

Mmm. Thank you.

Mmm-mmm. I got it.

Oh! Okay. Okay.

Mmm-mmm. (CHUCKLES)

I'm afraid to leave him alone now.

I'm afraid a cure won't come in time.

I'm afraid of my anger.

I'm a terrible leader and...

A lousy dancer. Put me back.

(CLATTERING)

(I-HUFFS)

Polio was a virus, too.

Nobody gets polio anymore.

(ELECTRICITY CRACKLING)

Where is he? I mean, we've been here

for an hour and a half.

Who are these people?

We're in a f***ing dungeon here!

He can't do this to us.

He cannot do this to us and get away with it.

(DOOR OPENS)

- Did you start? No? Thank God. Hi.

- Hi.

Jesus Christ, what a tomb.

What, do they not want us

to be seen above ground?

Where is he? I'm an hour late.

- NED:
An hour and a half.

- Yeah, don't start on me, lamb chop.

- Tommy, where were you?

- I was up at Bellevue.

I had to put a sweet, dying child together

with his momma.

(SIGHS) They hadn't seen each other

for 15 years.

He never told her he was gay.

He didn't want to see her.

He refused to see her for weeks.

Oh, he was angry when I waltzed in with her.

That was a real weeper,

momma holding her son. He's dead now.

(DOOR OPENS)

(SIGHING) I'm truly sorry I'm late.

I'm Hiram Keebler.

- Hello.

- Hi.

Are you related to the folks who make

the crackers? I'm kidding.

- I'm Tommy Boatwright.

- Ned Weeks.

Bruce Niles. I'm the president.

The Mayor wants you to know how much

he cares and how impressed he is

with how you've been shouldering

your own responsibilities.

- Thank you.

- NED:
Thank you? Responsibilities?

Everything we're doing is the stuff you

guys should be doing, and we need help.

What Mr. Weeks is trying to say,

sir, is that we're swamped,

and we're fielding over 500 calls a day

on our emergency hotline,

and we're providing information that quite

frankly the city should be providing and isn't.

Sir, we need office space.

We have one small room.

We have over 100 people calling or walking in

and out every day,

and plus, it's real hard when

people don't want to rent to us because...

- Oh, that's illegal discrimination.

- Yeah, we know that to be true, sir.

Mr. Keebler, it is not illegal

to discriminate against homosexuals.

We've been waiting for 14 months

to see the Mayor.

It's taken us a year

to get this meeting with you.

You're an hour and a half late.

Have you told the Mayor

there's an epidemic going on?

- Says who?

- The government.

Which government? What, our government?

An epidemic?

- The Centers for Disease Control declared...

- Seventeen months ago.

You can't not know this!

Will you please reduce your level of hysteria?

Certainly.

New York City, San Francisco,

Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Denver,

every single major American city is now

showing cases.

At least 25 foreign countries,

but New York City, our home,

the city that you have pledged to protect

has more than half of everything.

Half the cases, half the dead.

I know 57 of the dead ones.

I don't want to know any more.

Now, when do we get to see the Mayor?

Fourteen months is a long time

to be out to lunch.

- You wait a minute.

- No, you wait a minute. We can't.

Time is not on our side. Now if you won't

take word to the man, what are we gonna do?

Hire a hunky hustler

and send him up to Gracie Mansion

with a plea tattooed to his cock?

Mayor Koch is not gay!

- Oh, come on, Blanche!

- (ALL MURMURING)

(CHUCKLES)

Listen, don't you think I want to help you?

I have a friend who is dying of this sh*t

right now in the VA hospital.

But it's very tricky.

You can see that. It is very tricky.

Tricky, sh*t. There are a million gay people in

New York, a million and one counting you!

You know what? A fire goes out

in a school furnace on the West Side,

I get 3,000 calls in one day.

You know what I mean?

If so many of you are so upset,

why am I only hearing from this loud mouth?

That's a very good question.

Okay, so there are half a million

gay men in our area.

315 cases doesn't seem too high considering

how many of us, of you, there are.

- This is bullshit!

- Ned, please.

Look, I understand this is tricky,

sir, but we need your help.

I think, that is, the Mayor thinks,

you guys are overreacting.

You tell that cocksucker

he is a selfish, heartless son of a b*tch.

You are Michael R. Marcus.

You hold an unsecure job

with the city's Department of Health.

I'd watch out for your friends if I were you.

(CHUCKLES)

I don't believe that just happened.

Mickey, I am going on The Today Show

tomorrow and I am telling them

that the Mayor just threatened your job

to shut us up!

The Today Show? You're gonna what?

They are treating us like sh*t

and we're allowing them!

No politicians... The only thing

they really respond to is pressure!

You heard him with his 3,000 West Side calls!

We're not yelling loud enough!

- (DOOR CLOSES)

- Get your stuff. Get your stuff.

(DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES)

(TYPEWRITER CLACKING)

(TELEPHONE RINGING)

- This is Tommy. Hey.

- Tommy, it's Ned. Nick died.

Sh*t. God damn.

I'll call later when I know more

about the memorial.

TOMMY:
I have this tradition.

It's something I do now when a friend dies.

I save his Rolodex card.

What am I supposed to do?

Throw it away in the trashcan? I won't do that.

No, I won't. It's too final.

Last year, I had five cards.

Now I have 50.

A collection of cardboard tombstones

bound together with a rubber band.

I hate these f***ing funerals. I really do.

And you know what else I hate?

I hate the memorials.

That's our social life now,

going to these things.

Nick was a choreographer.

I don't know if any of you knew that.

He was just starting out.

He didn't tell a lot of people.

(SNIFFLING)

He was waiting to invite you

to his big debut at Carnegie Hall

or some sh*t so we could all be proud of him.

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