The Normal Heart and The Destiny of Me: Two Plays (22 page)

NED:
Why aren’t you fighting back?

ALEXANDER:
When he hit me last week I vowed I’d never talk to him again. (
Singing to himself.
) “Waste no time, make a switch, drop him in the nearest ditch . . .”

RENA:
This time I won’t come back when you turn up begging.

NED:
Never run from a fight.

ALEXANDER:
“Don’t try to patch it up, Tear it up, Tear it up . . .”

RICHARD:
That was a million years ago in another lifetime.

ALEXANDER:
“You can’t put back a petal when it falls from a flower. . .”

RENA:
I can do it again!

ALEXANDER:
“Or sweeten up a fella when he starts turning sour. Oh, no! . . .”

RENA:
It’s never too late to correct our mistakes.

ALEXANDER:
“Oh, nooooo!”

NED:
(
To
RICHARD
.) Daddy, why did you hit me?

RICHARD:
You have an awful life ahead of you if you’re a sissy.

NED:
How do you know?

RICHARD:
Everybody knows. (
To
RENA
.) You want to see something? You who always defends her darling son. You want to see what he does to himself?

ALEXANDER:
“If you laugh at diff’rent comics, If you root for diff’rent teams . . .”

(
RICHARD
rips the skirt and underpants off him.
)

RENA:
Stop tearing my dress! It’s all that’s left!

ALEXANDER:
“Waste no time, Weep no more . . .”

RICHARD:
I come home from the ball game, I smell this awful smell, like something died. I caught him. Rena, I really let him have it.

(
RICHARD
is trying to get ahold of
ALEXANDER’S
penis. It becomes a tussle of him almost getting it, and
ALEXANDER
evading his grasp just in time.
)

RENA:
You hit him?

RICHARD:
Of course I hit him!

ALEXANDER:
“Show him what the door is for . . .”

RICHARD:
He had his privates all covered up with depilatory cream!

ALEXANDER:
“Rub him outa the roll call and drum him outa your dreams!” LET GO!

RICHARD:
(
To
RENA.
) Don’t you even care?

RENA:
I do care!

ALEXANDER:
I’m the only boy in my entire class except Ponzo Lombardo who has any puberty hair and everybody laughs at him!

RICHARD:
(
Starts ripping down the theater posters from the walls.
) Thank God at least I’ve got one son who’s a man.

ALEXANDER:
Don’t! They’re the most precious thing I have!

RICHARD:
So this is what it takes to get you to talk to me.

RENA:
Don’t do that to the boy!

RICHARD:
This is what we do to sissies.

(
ALEXANDER
crawls around trying to smooth out his beloved posters and piece them back together.
)

ALEXANDER:
It’s Halloween! I wrote a play. Mr. Mills divided my scout troop, half into boys and half into girls. I didn’t have any choice!

RICHARD:
You wrote a play?

RENA:
Tonight’s his opening night. He invited us.

ALEXANDER:
(
Screaming with all his might.
) I hate you!

RENA:
Don’t say that!

ALEXANDER:
You taught me to always tell the truth!

NED:
Go for it! (
Feels dizzy. Swallows more pills.
)

ALEXANDER:
(
To
NED
,
furious.
) Get me out of this!

RENA:
Apologize to your father immediately!

ALEXANDER:
(
To
RENA
and
RICHARD
.) I hate both of you!

RICHARD:
(
Really hitting him.
) Do what your mother says!

ALEXANDER:
(
Grabbing the Russian shawl, stepping into women’s shoes, and standing up to both of them.
) Go to hell! (
Running off, as best he can, yelling.
) Trick or treat! Trick or treat!

(
HANNIMAN
rushes into the room. Her white coat is heavily bloodied.
)

HANNIMAN:
Are you happy now? Look what your people did to me!

End of Act One

(
NED
enters in a wheelchair, singing an Andrews Sisters’ song.
HANNIMAN
,
in a clean white coat, wheels in a cart with a small insulated chest.
DR. DELLA VIDA
follows
.
NED
carries a huge poster that reads
TONY AND GEORGE, YOU ARE MURDERING US
over big blow-ups of
DELLA VIDA
and George Bush. He holds it in front of the window, which provokes cheers from outside.
)

TONY:
Why do they hate me?

HANNIMAN:
These are all over the hospital. Plastered on the corridor walls, in the johns, in the cafeteria, in the Director’s office. On the X-ray machines!

NED:
(
Putting up the poster on a wall.
) I had my CAT scan lying under a picture of you. It was very sexy.

TONY:
You wish. Get into bed.

(
NED
does so.
HANNIMAN
pulls back a curtain along the wall, revealing elaborate equipment—a high-tech orgy of gleaming cylinders, dials, tubes, bells, and lights, all connected to a computer.
)

NED:
This is it? Wouldn’t it be easier if I just checked into a monastery and took sleeping pills?

TONY:
You drown my wife in fake blood. You chop the legs off my lab tables. You’ve got some crazy gay newspaper up in New York
that claims I’m not even studying the right virus. They call me Public Enemy Number One. Why aren’t you guys proud of me? If I’m not in my lab, I’m testifying, lobbying, pressuring, I’m on TV ten times a week, I fly to conferences all over the world, I churn out papers for the journals, I supervise hundreds of scientists, I dole out research grants like I’m Santa Claus—what more do you want?

(
HANNIMAN
carefully takes a sack of blood from the container and gives it to
TONY
.
He inserts it into part of the machine. They repeat the procedure for two more sacks.
)

NED:
A cure.

TONY:
I’m not a magician.

NED:
Now’s not the time to tell me. There’s no end in sight. That’s why they hate you. You tell every reporter you have enough money. That’s why they hate you. You tell Congress you have everything you need. That’s why they hate you. You say more has been learned about this disease than any disease in the history of disease. That’s why they hate you. You say the President cares. That’s why they hate you.

(
TONY
and
HANNIMAN
attach
NED
to the machine.
)

TONY:
He does care! He tells me all the time how much he cares!

NED:
You asked me, I told you. You’re the one in charge and you’re an apologist for your boss. That’s why they. . .

TONY:
If I weren’t, do you think I’d get
anything!
You don’t understand the realities of this town.

NED:
The reality of this town is that nobody can say the word “penis” without blushing.

(
RENA, ALEXANDER
, and
RICHARD
enter. It’s evening, shadowy, at a seaside boardinghouse in Connecticut, on Long Island Sound.
)

HANNIMAN:
The President named him a hero.

NED:
No comment. On the grounds he might murder
me.
Wait!

TONY:
(
Pulling a lever to release the blood into
NED.
) This construct is the first transfect of anti-sense. Competing protein mechanisms will effect a cross-reactive anti-self.

RENA:
(
Talking into a pay phone on the wall. Dropping in coins with each call.
) Jane, we’ve finally made it!

NED:
That’s what we want?

TONY:
That’s what we want.

RENA:
Get your date book out. You’re first!

TONY:
If we’re lucky, it will screw up your reproductive process.

NED:
I’d assumed that already was screwed up.

TONY:
Of your
viral
load.

RENA:
It’s been the longest year.

NED:
Tell me again there isn’t any down side.

TONY:
I never told you there wasn’t any down side.

NED:
You did too!

TONY:
It’s too late now.

ALEXANDER:
(
To
NED.
) Come with me.

TONY:
(
Taking
NED’
s hand.
) Relax.

NED:
(
Grabbing
TONY.
) Tony, I’m afraid.

TONY:
We’re going to be just fine.

RENA:
Friday night at seven! Perfect! We can hardly wait! (
Hangs up, enters the engagement in her date book.
)

ALEXANDER:
Ned, come back. Only two more weeks to Yale! No more Eden Heights. My new life! We don’t have much time left before I grow into you and you kick me out. (
Pulls
NED
with him.
) Come on!

(
TONY
and
HANNIMAN
leave.
ALEXANDER
helps
NED
,
still connected by tubes to the machinery, get out of bed and walk to sit beside
RICHARD
on a porch swing.
)

NED:
(
Applying salt liberally to some food.
) Hi, Poppa.

RENA:
(
To
RICHARD
,
as she dials another number
.) Jane, and Barney are taking us to their new country club that costs a thousand dollars a year per family just to join. (
Into phone.
) Grace, darling, this is Rena! Just this minute! Tell me when you’re free!

ALEXANDER:
(
To the audience.
) Every summer we come back to Connecticut for two weeks at Mrs. Pennington’s Seaside Boarding House, and every year everyone Mom and Pop grew up with has become richer and richer.

(
RICHARD
grabs the salt away from
NED.
)

(
To
NED.
) Did I say that well?

NED:
First-rate. And every summer you feel more and more different.

ALEXANDER:
(
To the audience.
) And every summer I feel more and more frightened. Of what I don’t know.

RENA:
A swim in your new pool and lobsters for luncheon! Saturday at noon. We can hardly wait! (
She hangs up, enters the engagement, checks her address book, and dials another number.
)

(
NED
grabs the salt back from
RICHARD.
)

Grace and Percy bought that big estate in Westport.

(
RICHARD
grabs the salt back from
NED.
)

Cole Porter wrote some famous song there.

(
NED
grabs the salt hack from
RICHARD.
)

NED:
I want to eat it the way I want to eat it.

RENA:
Percy sold his business for a million dollars and retired.

RICHARD:
Who’s going to pay the bills when you get sick?

NED
and
ALEXANDER:
I’ll let you know when I get sick.

ALEXANDER:
Tradition means a great deal in our family.

RENA:
Dolores, darling, this is Rena! Quiet, both of you! Oh, my God! (
To
RICHARD.
) Dolores and Nathan are going around the world for an entire year.

RICHARD:
I can’t take it anymore. (
To
NED.
) Why are you always so ungrateful?

RENA:
I’ve always dreamed of a trip like that.

NED:
Everything you always blame me for demands I defend myself.

ALEXANDER:
You’re playing me really well.

RICHARD:
Blame? What are you talking about? (
Grabs the salt back.
) Blame!

RENA:
An informal candlelight dinner for fifty on your outdoor terrace under the stars! Saturday at nine. You’ll send a car and driver! We can hardly wait! (
Slamming down the phone.
) I’ve heard this fight for the last time! This is supposed to be a wonderful vacation! I’ve been on the phone calling people I haven’t seen or spoken to or heard from in a year. Why don’t you ever call them? They’re your old childhood chums, too. I feel like such a suppliant. Inviting people to take us out and feed us. (
Having dialed another number.
) Tessie, it’s Rena!