The Normal Heart Page #9

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Can't you see how important it is for us

to love openly without hiding, without guilt?

(SOBBING) Why can't you see that?

I went to the top of the Empire State Building.

Okay, I'm taking you home.

You can jump off from there

when nobody's looking.

TOMMY:
All right, Mickey.

Let's go home right now.

I'm not a murderer. I'm not.

All my life I've been hated for being gay,

for being short, for being Jewish.

So go ahead. You tell everybody.

Tell everybody that we were wrong

and I'm sorry.

Someday, somebody's gonna come along

and they're gonna stick the knife in you

and tell you everything that

you've fought for your whole life is sh*t!

Mickey! Mickey! Get up! Get up. Get up.

- It's okay.

- TOMMY:
Come on.

I'm gonna take you home now, okay?

I don't want to go home.

Take me to St. Vincent's.

Okay. That's fine. Come. Let's go.

Look, we're all real tired, you hear me?

We got ourselves here

a lot of bereavement overload.

We're the fighters. Aren't we? We're the...

You bet, sweetness. And you're a hero.

You hear me?

You're a hero whether you know that or not.

You're our first hero. Let's go.

(DOOR CLOSES)

- You want to be president?

- I just want Felix to live.

(TELEPHONE RINGING)

Gay Men's Health Crisis.

Hiram, old buddy, how's it hanging?

- (SCRIBBLING)

- Mmm.

- Are you ready?

- Yeah.

The Mayor's found a secret little fund

for giving away money secretly.

We are not allowed to tell anyone

where we got it, and if we do,

we'll never get any more.

- How much?

- $9,000.

Ned.

Albert's dead.

His mother wanted to see him in Phoenix

before he died,

and this was the last

week when it was obvious,

so I got permission from Emma

and took him to the airport.

And when we got to the airport,

- (INDISTINCT CONVERSATION)

- The pilot refused to fly the plane,

so I refused to get off of it.

You would have been very proud of me, Ned.

So finally we get another pilot,

and when we take off,

Albert just loses his mind.

- I don't want to be in this plane.

- It's okay.

I don't want to be in this...

I'm just gonna go.

- No. Albert.

- I don't want to be here.

- I don't want to...

- MAN:
Tell him to sit down.

(PASSENGERS MURMURING)

Sorry. Sorry.

Sir? Sir? You have to keep seated.

MAN:
Sit down!

- Sir, I repeat. You have...

- (SCREAMS) No!

(GRUNTING)

- Sir! Sir!

- Stop!

You have to sit down, okay?

MAN:
Get him back in his seat.

BRUCE:
He doesn't recognize me.

- (BREATHING HEAVILY)

- It's me.

He doesn't know where we're going.

We're almost home.

That we're going to see his mother

in Phoenix, nothing.

He just becomes...

(RETCHING)

Oh, sh*t. Can I get a goddamn towel, please?

When we land in Phoenix

and when we get to the hospital

where his mother had fixed up

the room real nice,

Albert's dead.

The hospital doctors refused to examine

him and give him a cause of death

on his death certificate.

Without the death certificate,

the undertakers will not take him

and neither would the police.

Come on, man. Pull it down.

Finally, some orderly comes

and then stuffs my Albert

in an oversized Glad garbage bag

and puts him in the alley

with the rest of the garbage.

I did you a favor, man. I got him out.

I want 50 bucks.

(WHINING)

(MOTHER WAILING)

(SCREAMING)

(SOBBING)

Is that all of him?

Yep. You want him? $3,000.

He's gone. He's gone.

Oh, my God.

(GASPING) Oh, God.

NED:
I am telling you, they are murdering us

and we are letting them.

- We're gonna die.

- (COUGHING)

We're gonna die very soon

unless you get off your f***ing asses

and fight back.

(COUGHING)

(DISTANT SIREN WAILING)

Emma's in there waiting.

Come on, two bites. Come on.

(SIGHS)

Don't make me break out the yogurt.

- One more.

- Have you talked to your brother yet?

NED:
Mmm.

I remember that about you.

You don't talk to the people

you love most in the world.

You want me to get better, and I'm not

getting better and I feel so f***ing guilty.

(PAPER RUSTLING)

You have a lunch meeting

with Bill Blass on Friday. Fancy.

Mmm.

I'll call with my regrets.

What are you doing?

I'm making a date with you

two months from now.

I've been invited to speak

at Yale's Gay Week and we're going.

Remember how I told you they had

those dances there now?

You're my date.

(SCRIBBLING)

(SOBBING)

I want you to live so much.

- Don't say it.

- I'm not supposed to say that.

(SIGHS)

Please, God, give us one more year.

I promise I'll eat my spinach.

(CHUCKLES)

(WHEELCHAIR MACHINE HUMMING)

I am taking care of more victims of

this disease than anyone in the world.

We have more frozen blood samples,

more data of every kind

and much more experience.

(CLICKS)

MAN:
Dr. Brookner,

the government's position is this.

There are $5 million

in the pipeline for which we have received

over $55 million worth of requests.

5 million doesn't seem quite right

for some 2,000 cases?

The government spent 3 million

investigating seven deaths from Tylenol.

We're entering the third year.

We voted to reject

your application for funding.

Oh.

I'd like to hear your reasons.

The direction of the research you're

suggesting is imprecise and unfocused.

Oh, it is, is it?

You don't know what's

going on any more than I do.

Could you tell me precisely

why you're blocking my efforts?

Dr. Brookner,

there are now other investigators.

This is no longer only your disease,

though you seem to think it is.

Oh, I do, do I?

And you're here to take it away from me,

is that it?

Well, I'll let you in on a little secret, Doctor.

You can have it.

I didn't want it in the first place.

You think it's a privilege

to watch young men die?

What am I arguing with you for?

You do not know enough

to study boiled water.

How dare you come down here and judge me?

We only serve on this peer review

panel at the behest of Dr. Murray.

Another idiot, and, by the way,

a closeted homosexual

doing everything in his power

to sweep this under the rug.

And I vowed I'd never say anything

like that in public.

How does it always

happen that all of the idiots

are always on your team?

How can you refuse to fund my research

or not invite me to participate in yours?

Your National Institutes of Health received

my first request for money two years ago.

It took you one year

just to print up application forms.

It's taken you three years from my first

reported case just to show up here for a look,

and the paltry amount of

money you are forcing us to beg for

out of the $4 billion

you now receive each and every year

to protect the health of the American people

won't come to anyone

before only God knows when.

A promising virus has been discovered

in France.

Why do you refuse to cooperate

with the French?

Why are we

told not to cooperate with the French

just so you can steal a Nobel Prize

while something is being passed around

that causes death?

Women have been discovered

to have it in Africa

where it is clearly transmitted heterosexually.

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