Angels in America (31 page)

HARPER
: Where's that?

     
(Pointing toward Manhattan)
Want to buy an island? It's going out of business. You can have it for the usual cheap trinkets. Fire sale. The prices are insane.

JOE
: Harper.

HARPER
: Joe. Did you miss me?

JOE
: I . . . I've come back.

HARPER
: Oh I know.

     
Here's why I wanted to stay in Brooklyn. The Promenade view.

     
Water won't ever accomplish the end. No matter how much you cry. Flood's not the answer, people just float.

     
Let's go home.

     
Fire's the answer. The Great and Terrible Day. At last.

Scene 8

That night. Rain and thunder outside. Prior, Hannah and Emily (Prior's nurse-practitioner) in an examination room in Saint Vincent's emergency room. Emily is listening to Prior's breathing, while Hannah sits in a nearby chair
.

EMILY
: You've lost eight pounds. Eight pounds! I know people who would kill to be in the shape you were in, you were
recovering
, and you threw it away.

PRIOR
: This isn't about WEIGHT, it's about LUNGS, UM . . . PNEUMONIA.

EMILY
: We don't know yet.

PRIOR
: THE FUCK WE DON'T ASSHOLE YOU MAY NOT BUT I
CAN'T BREATHE
.

HANNAH
: You'd breathe better if you didn't holler like that.

PRIOR
(Looks at Hannah, then)
: This is my ex-lover's lover's Mormon mother.

(Little pause. Emily nods, then:)

EMILY
: Keep breathing. Stop moving. STAY PUT.

(Prior startles at her last two words, and stares hard at Emily as she exits.)

HANNAH
(Standing to go)
: I should go.

PRIOR
: I'm not insane.

HANNAH
: I didn't say you—

PRIOR
: I saw an angel.

(She doesn't respond.)

PRIOR
: That's insane.

HANNAH
: Well, it's—

PRIOR
: Insane. But I'm not insane. Do I
seem
insane?

HANNAH
: You . . . I'm not sure I—

PRIOR
: Oh for pityfuckingsake just answer the fucking—

HANNAH
: No.
Driven
, and, and rude, but—

PRIOR
: But then why did I do this to myself? Because I have been driven insane by . . . your son and by that lying . . . Because I'm consumed by this ice-cold, razorblade terror that shouts and shouts, “Don't stay still get out of bed keep moving! Run!” And I've run myself into the ground. Right where She said I'd eventually be.

     
What's happened to me?

     
She seemed so real.

HANNAH
: Who?

     
Oh, the . . .
(Angel gesture)

(Prior nods yes
.

     
Hannah hesitates, then:)

HANNAH
: Could be you had a vision.

PRIOR
: A vision. Thank you, Maria Ouspenskaya.

HANNAH
: People have visions.

PRIOR
: No they—Not sane people.

HANNAH
(A beat before deciding to say this)
: One hundred and seventy years ago, which is recent, an angel of God appeared to Joseph Smith. In Upstate New York, not far from here.

PRIOR
: But that's ridiculous, that's—

HANNAH
: It's not polite to call other people's beliefs ridiculous.

PRIOR
: I didn't mean to—

HANNAH
: I
believe
this. He had great need of understanding. Our Prophet. His desire made prayer. His prayer made an angel. The angel was real. I believe that.

PRIOR
: I don't. And I'm sorry but it's repellent to me. So much of what you believe.

HANNAH
: What do I believe?

PRIOR
: I'm a homosexual. With AIDS. I can just imagine what you—

HANNAH
: No you can't. Imagine. The things in my head. You don't make assumptions about me, mister; I won't make them about you.

PRIOR
(A beat; he looks at her, then)
: Fair enough.

HANNAH
: My son is . . . well, like you.

PRIOR
: Homosexual.

HANNAH
(A nod, then)
: I flew into a rage when he told me, mad as August hornets. At first I assumed it was about his . . .
(She shrugs)

PRIOR
: Homosexuality.

HANNAH
: But that wasn't it. Homosexuality. I don't find it an appetizing notion, two men, together, but men in
any
configuration . . . That wasn't it. Stupidity gets me cross, but that wasn't it either. I flew into a rage, filled with rage, then the rage . . . lifted me up; I felt . . . Truly I felt lifted up, into the air, and . . .

     
(She laughs to herself)

     
And I flew.

PRIOR
: I wish you would be more true to your demographic profile.

(Little pause. Hannah smiles. They both laugh, a little. Prior's laugh brings on breathing trouble. Trying to find a comfortable position, he begins to panic.)

HANNAH
: Just lie still. You'll be all right.

PRIOR
: No. I won't be. My lungs are getting tighter. The fever mounts and you get delirious. And then days of delirium and awful pain and drugs; you start slipping and then.

     
I really . . . fucked up.

     
(Losing it, crying)
I'm scared. I can't do it again.

HANNAH
: You shouldn't talk that way. You ought to make a better show of yourself.

PRIOR
: Look at this . . . horror.

     
(He lifts his shirt; his torso is spotted with several lesions)

     
See? See that? That's not human. That's why I run.

(Hannah's shocked but doesn't show it; it's hard to look at, but she manages.)

HANNAH
: It's a cancer. Nothing more. Nothing more human than that.

(She puts a hand on his shoulder. He calms down. They're silent for a moment.)

PRIOR
: Do Mormons read the you know the Bible? Or just the—

HANNAH
(Tight, trying not to take offense)
: The Book of Mormon is a part of the—

PRIOR
: Don't get technical, you know what I mean, the other parts, the Old Testament part.

HANNAH
: I've read the—

PRIOR
: The prophets in the Bible, do they . . . ever refuse their visions?

HANNAH
(Considering, then)
: One did. There might be others, I—

PRIOR
: And what does God do to them? When they do that?

HANNAH
: He . . . feeds them to whales.

(Prior laughs, Hannah joins him, they're both a little hysterical. The laughter subsides.)

PRIOR
: Stay with me.

HANNAH
: Oh no, I—

PRIOR
: Just till I sleep? You comfort me.

HANNAH
: Oh, I—

PRIOR
: You do, you
. . . (A little Katharine Hepburn)
stiffen my spine.

(Little pause.)

HANNAH
: I'm not needed elsewhere, I suppose I . . .

     
(She thinks for a moment, then sits in a chair)

     
When I got up this morning this is not how I envisioned the day would end.

PRIOR
: Me neither.

(He lies back, and she settles into her chair.)

HANNAH
: An angel is a belief. With wings and arms that can carry you. If it lets you down, reject it.

(Prior looks at her.)

PRIOR
: Huh.

HANNAH
: There's scriptural precedent.

PRIOR
: And then what?

HANNAH
(A little shrug, then)
: Seek something new.

Scene 9

That night, the rain's still falling. The Pitt apartment in Brooklyn. Joe and Harper's clothing is strewn about the floor
.

Joe enters from the bedroom in a pair of boxers. He picks up his shirt, puts it on and starts to button it. He stops when Harper enters, wrapped in a bedsheet, naked underneath. He hesitates a beat, then resumes buttoning
.

HARPER
: When we have sex. Why do you keep your eyes closed?

JOE
: I don't.

HARPER
: You always do. You can say why, I already know the answer.

JOE
: Then why do I have to—

HARPER
: You imagine things.

     
Imagine men.

JOE
: Yes.

HARPER
: Imagining, just like me, except the only time I wasn't imagining was when I was with you. You, the one part of the real world I wasn't allergic to.

JOE
: Please. Don't.

HARPER
: But I only
thought
I wasn't dreaming.

(Joe picks up his pants. Harper watches him as he puts them on, then:)

HARPER
: Oh. Oh. Back in Brooklyn, back with Joe.

JOE
(Still dressing, not looking at Harper)
: I'm going out. I have to get some stuff I left behind.

HARPER
: Look at me.

(He doesn't. He puts on his socks and shoes.)

HARPER
: Look at me.

     
Look at me.

     
Here! Look here at
—

JOE
(Looking at her): What?

HARPER
: What do you see?

JOE
: What do I . . .?

HARPER
: What do you see?

JOE
:
Nothing
, I—

     
(Little pause)

     
I see nothing.

HARPER
(A nod, then)
: Finally. The truth.

JOE
(A beat, then)
: I'm going. Out. Just . . . Out.

(He exits.)

HARPER
: It sets you free.

     
Good-bye.

Scene 10

Later that night. Louis is in his apartment, sitting on the floor; all around him are Xeroxed pages stapled together in thick packets. Louis is reading one of these
.

There's a knock at the door
.

JOE
(Outside the apartment)
: Louis.

     
Please let me in.

(Louis looks at the Xeroxed packets, fixes a grim little smile on his face, stands, unlocks the door, then immediately returns to his place on the floor.)

LOUIS
: You're in.

(A little pause, then Joe turns the knob, opens the door and enters. He looks at Louis, who's ignoring him, continuing to read.)

JOE
: You weren't at work. For three days now. You . . . I wish you'd get a phone.

     
I'm staying in a hotel, near Fulton Street. It's kind of—

     
You said you'd call me, or—

LOUIS
(Still reading)
: No I never.