The Inheritance Read online

  Eric Gramercy Park?

  Henry The one and only.

  Eric I can’t afford to buy this.

  Henry The thing is that it’s not for sale, it’s just to rent. But you can afford it if you want it.

  Eric How is that possible?

  Henry Because I own it. What’s the rent on your place right now?

  Eric Five hundred and seventy-five dollars.

  Henry Jesus, you’ve been getting away with murder. I’ll charge you eight hundred.

  Eric Henry, are you sure?

  Henry Only if you commit to buying something next year.

  Eric Deal! Thank you! My very own apartment off of Gramercy Park. I feel like a Henry James character.

  Eric explores the apartment.

  Henry I do have one other idea to run past you.

  Eric You’re just full of great ideas today.

  Henry I’m going to be leaving for Paris just after the New Year.

  Eric Oh. How long will you be gone?

  Henry Possibly through the spring.

  Eric Oh. I see. I’m … I’m actually sad to hear that.

  Henry Yes, well … I was wondering … before we settle on this apartment …

  Eric Yes?

  Henry Why don’t you come with me?

  Eric To Paris?

  Henry For the winter.

  Eric Oh. Well … I have my work.

  Henry I wasn’t sure how much time you could afford to take off.

  Eric I mean, I have vacation time, but not four months’ worth.

  Henry No. No, of course not.

  Eric And besides, with the Inauguration coming up, I’m going to be really busy. We’re running campaigns against the cabinet appointments, mobilizing protests.

  Henry The thing is … these past few weeks, I’ve … I’ve grown very … I’ve gotten used to having you around and I don’t see why that can’t continue while I’m away.

  Eric Jasper would kill me if I took time off right now.

  Henry Jasper’s world will spin without you, Eric. Mine perhaps will not. I’m going to miss you. And I don’t want to. So why should I?

  2. Eric and Jasper

  Jasper What do you mean, ‘leave of absence’?

  Eric I haven’t taken a vacation in over a year.

  Jasper And you’re not getting one until we impeach this motherfucker or we vote him out of office. Vacations are canceled until at least the ’18 midterms, don’t you understand that?

  Eric I have given you so much over the years. I’m asking you for two weeks for myself.

  Jasper This isn’t about me, Eric. It’s about our country.

  Eric My taking just a little time off is not going to make any difference. The world will spin without me.

  3. Eric’s Apartment

  Young Man 8 The next day, movers came to take Eric’s things to his new place off Gramercy Park. What didn’t fit went into storage.

  Young Man 6 All that was left were Toby’s possessions, which Eric had carefully boxed up, berating himself for doing Toby’s work for him.

  Young Man 2 And so, on New Year’s Eve, the former partners met for their final goodbye.

  Toby sorts through a stack of books. Other moving boxes surround him.

  Toby Why didn’t I get a Kindle? I should have bought a Kindle. Of course, you can’t take Kindles into the bathtub. But then again, you can’t take Infinite Jest into the bathtub, either.

  Eric You’ve never read Infinite Jest.

  Toby Neither have you.

  Eric Yes, but I don’t tell people that I have.

  Toby That was one time at a party and I was talking to Zadie Smith. She made me nervous. I lie when I’m nervous.

  Eric You drink when you’re nervous. You lie when you drink.

  Toby Are you intentionally trying to pick a fight?

  Eric Yes. Those other boxes have your parents’ things in them.

  Toby looks at the boxes.

  Eric Just take them and go. I have plans I have to get to.

  Toby You hate New Year’s Eve. Where are you going?

  Eric Henry invited me over.

  Toby Henry? Why would anyone want to spend New Year’s Eve with Henry Wilcox?

  Eric I like Henry.

  Toby What is there to like?

  Eric I found enough in you to keep me occupied for seven years.

  Toby continues to go through his books. Then:

  I need you to know how sad this makes me.

  Toby We were going to have to move out eventually.

  Eric Not the apartment, Toby. Us. What happened to us?

  Toby We just … we grew apart.

  Eric But Toby, you haven’t grown.

  Toby Okay, you know what? Keep the books, I don’t need them. Well this was a real nice clambake. See ya around.

  Eric Aren’t you going to take your parents’ things?

  Toby Toss ’em, I don’t want them.

  Eric I don’t think you mean that.

  Toby Trust me, I do. They did fuck-all for me while they were alive. I’m supposed to schlep their shit around for the rest of my life? Fuck ’em. I don’t need what’s in those boxes.

  Eric You are setting the stage for one miserable life, Toby.

  Toby Oh fuck you, Eric. At least I’m living my life. You’d have died of old age in this apartment if they hadn’t taken it from you, eaten by your cats. Your whole life has been one safe move after another. So I don’t want to hear from you / that I –

  Eric Henry asked me to go to Paris with him.

  Toby He did not.

  Did he?

  You’re not seriously thinking of going, are you?

  Eric Why shouldn’t I go to Paris if I can?

  Toby Are you fucking Henry?

  Eric Are you fucking Adam?

  Toby You bet your ass I am. Best sex of my life. You’ve never heard sounds like the kind that kid makes when I fuck him.

  Eric fights the urge to cry, to scream.

  Eric Mazel tov, Toby. I’m so happy for you both. Maybe his parents can adopt you, too.

  Toby Fuck you, Eric.

  He turns to leave.

  Eric Wait – please.

  I love you, Toby. And the fact that you don’t seem to understand how badly I’m hurting right now hurts me even more. Did you ever love me?

  Toby Yeah, of course I did.

  Eric seems to have an epiphany.

  What?

  Eric No one ever taught you what that means, did they?

  Toby What the fuck are you talking about?

  Eric Take these things your parents left behind.

  Toby considers them a moment and then:

  Toby No thanks.

  He heads to the door. He turns and looks at Eric. After a beat:

  See you around, then.

  4. Morgan and the Lads

  Morgan Why didn’t Toby take his things?

  Toby It’s just old books.

  Morgan Not the books. His parents’ things. What is in there that scares Toby so much?

  Toby Don’t care. What happens next?

  Morgan Nothing can happen next until you explore this question.

  Toby Says who?

  Morgan I say. If we are to learn what we mean to each other, we must first examine what we mean to ourselves. And we must be fearless and honest in that attempt –

  Toby Sorry, but I gotta call bullshit on that. Why should we listen to you lecture us about fearlessness and honesty? You were never honest about yourself in your lifetime.

  The Lads jeer him.

  Toby Why is it unfair? He never once told the world who he was.

  Young Man 1 We are telling this story today because the world knows who Morgan was.

  Toby No, he left it for the world to discover after he died. But while he was alive, he was anything but fearless and honest.

  (To Morgan.) Isn’t that right, Morgan? The great E. M. Forster, beloved by all the world. And secretly the gayest daisy in the field.

&nb
sp; (To the Lads.) E. M. Forster, whose two most famous words were ‘only connect’, could not do so himself. He didn’t have sex until he was thirty-eight. He lived with his mother until she died. He locked himself in the closet all his life.

  (To Morgan.) You never told the truth about yourself so why the fuck should we listen to you now?

  Morgan Because you now have the chance to be honest, which is something I was never given.

  Toby You had countless opportunities to be honest. You lived until 1970. You watched the moon landing, for God’s sake. You were alive during Stonewall. The world changed because people were brave. You weren’t.

  Young Man 1 Morgan wrote Maurice in 1913. That wasn’t brave?

  Toby No, because he hid it from the world for fifty-six years.

  (To Morgan.) Just imagine what would have happened if you had published a gay novel in your lifetime! You might have toppled mountains. You might have even saved lives. But you didn’t do that.

  (To the Lads.) Morgan had his chance to be honest and he fucking squandered it. He left others to do the heavy lifting and then he slipped it in at the end.

  (To Morgan.) And because of that, you’re fucking irrelevant. You’re just books on a shelf gathering dust. You’re a Merchant Ivory film!

  Young Man 3 I like Merchant Ivory films!

  Toby You have nothing to teach us because you can’t possibly understand what it’s like to live in freedom, to demand choices for yourself. Toby doesn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t have to listen to you, he doesn’t have to look in any boxes. Toby’s gonna fuck who he wants and live how he likes because that is his right as a gay man in the world you did nothing to help build.

  Toby exits.

  Young Man 1 Morgan.

  Silence.

  Morgan You know, the thing is, lads: he isn’t wrong.

  The Lads protest.

  He didn’t say it as kindly as he could have. But he said it nonetheless: there’s nothing I can teach you that you don’t already know. You understand your story better than I could ever hope to.

  I think it’s time for me to leave you.

  The Lads protest.

  Young Man 4 Morgan, no. You are essential to our story.

  Morgan No, lads. You are essential to your story. I like to believe I was helpful to you as you started it. But I cannot help you finish it. It isn’t my right to. The past must be faced. It must be learned from. But it cannot be revised. I had my time. Now it is yours.

  The Lads protest.

  Young Man 1 There’s still so much you haven’t told us. There’s still so much we don’t know.

  Morgan You have everything you need. Trust in that. Trust in yourselves.

  A pained silence, then:

  Oh, my lads, how I do love you. You have allowed me to see … what I could not live. What a gift! I think your lives are beautiful. And I know at what cost they have come. Tell your story bravely. It is a story worth telling. Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other.

  (Re: Toby.) Take care of him most especially.

  I am certain we shall find each other again, by and by.

  Morgan exits.

  End of Scene Four.

  SCENE FIVE

  We find ourselves back where we started: with the Young Men gathered together, trying to write.

  Young Man 1 He has a story to tell.

  Young Man 8 It is banging around inside him, aching to come out.

  Young Man 3 But how does he continue?

  Young Man 4 He opens his favorite novel –

  Young Man 5 – hoping to find inspiration –

  Young Man 6 – hoping to find guidance from its author.

  Young Man 2 But they are just words on a page –

  Young Man 7 – written down a hundred years ago.

  Young Man 9 And their author now refuses his summons.

  Young Man 1 sets down his copy of Howards End.

  Young Man 1 He must tell his story himself.

  Paris … in the wintertime … is … what?

  Young Man 3 Cold.

  Young Man 2 Grey?

  Young Man 1 No. What else?

  Young Man 4 Paris in the wintertime is …

  Young Man 6 Paris in the wintertime is …

  Young Man 8 Quiet.

  Young Man 7 Simple?

  Young Man 1 Not quite it.

  Young Man 5 Paris in the wintertime is …

  Young Man 1 Paris in the wintertime is … underrated.

  Eric Paris in the wintertime is vastly underrated. Songs will never be written extolling its virtues. But Eric Glass found it enchanting.

  Young Man 1 He ended up visiting Henry every weekend that winter.

  Young Man 7 He skipped the Women’s March. He missed the protests against the travel ban.

  Young Man 4 But he did read Proust in the Tuileries and Hemingway in cafés.

  Young Man 1 Eric and Henry grew closer, fonder.

  Young Man 8 They traveled to St-Tropez together when the weather warmed.

  Eric America seethed and boiled but Eric’s heart slowly healed.

  Young Man 3 Henry Wilcox returned to New York in May, where his new West Village town house was finally ready to move into. Eric spent many evenings there.

  1. Henry’s Town House

  Spring 2017.

  Young Man 5 One night in late May, Henry invited his sons over for dinner.

  Young Man 2 They were chagrined when they arrived to discover that Eric was in the kitchen preparing the meal.

  Young Man 3 But their resistance faded once they tasted his cooking.

  Paul Not bad.

  Charles Not bad.

  Young Man 3 Deep into the meal’s third bottle of wine, Paul unadvisedly opened his mouth.

  Paul And on top of all the other bullshit I have to deal with, I’ve got this fucking tenant at Walter’s house busting my balls about when he can get his deposit back.

  Charles Paul, maybe tonight’s not the –

  Paul I’m like, I’ve got a three-hundred-million-dollar condo in Queens in the middle of construction. I say sell the fucking house and be done with it, you know?

  Henry What’s happening at Walter’s house?

  Charles Nothing for you to be concerned with, Pop.

  Paul They fucking scorched the ceiling in the kitchen with a grease fire. They let their dog piss and shit all over the place. They almost killed the cherry tree by hitting it with a pickup truck.

  Henry They damaged the tree?

  Charles They apparently took a chunk out of the side of it.

  Henry Have they sent anyone to look at it?

  Charles We’ll get someone to go clean the house.

  Henry No, I mean the tree. What condition is the tree in?

  Paul I don’t know, Pop. It’s just a fucking tree.

  Henry I want one of you to go up there this weekend and investigate.

  Charles I can hire someone to go up and take a look.

  Henry This is not something I want delegated, am I clear?

  Eric Henry, why don’t you and I go?

  Charles I can go up this weekend.

  Eric Walter told me so much about the house, I’d love to finally see it. I mean, as long as someone is going up there, why not you and me, Henry?

  Charles Pop’s very busy. He doesn’t have time / to go up –

  Henry Would that make you happy?

  Charles Pop …

  Eric It would make me very happy.

  Henry I want to make you happy.

  Young Man 1 As you drive out of the city on certain roads, a miraculous thing happens. At a certain point where the Bronx meets Westchester, the city suddenly stops –

  Eric like a switch has been flipped

  Young Man 1 – and the country begins.

  Young Man 3 The closer they got to the house, the less inclined Henry was toward conversation. Eric watched him tense with every mile, Henry’s fingers tightly gripping the wheel.

  Yo
ung Man 4 They drove up the last few miles in silence, eventually turning on to a state road, then a county road and then a meandering country lane. Eric’s chest heaved with eager anticipation.

  Young Man 3 It was late May and the trees were already lush with leaves, the countryside was young and fresh and expectant. Finally, when Eric felt he could stand the wait no longer, Henry slowed the car.

  2. Upstate New York

  Eric Are we here?

  Henry The property is just through those trees.

  Eric Aren’t we pulling in?

  Henry The keys are at the caretaker’s. It’s just up the road.

  Eric Oh, Henry, stop the car! I want to get out.

  Henry Why?

  Eric I want to explore.

  Is that okay?

  Henry It’ll just be half an hour.

  Eric But I’m here now.

  A moment, then Henry smiles.

  Henry Go on. I won’t be long.

  Eric stands alone for a moment. He breathes the air. The sound of birdsong can be faintly heard. It grows and increases its presence over time. Then the sound of a breeze rustling through the leaves of countless trees.

  Eric The car turned away, and Eric stood by the hedgerow that protected the property from the road and he stepped for the first time on to the grounds. It was as if a curtain had risen. It was exactly as Walter had described. The meadow rolling down to the grove of trees. The air, filled with breezes and birdsong. The cherry tree with the pig’s teeth stuck into the trunk, its branches covering the porch with shade. The pink blossoms from earlier in the spring still dancing around in the grass. He was struck by the fertility of the soil; he had seldom been in a garden where the flowers looked so healthy. Even the weeds were intensely green. Why had the tenants fled from all this beauty? For Eric had already decided that this place was beautiful. And then, there before him was the house itself, standing as it had for centuries.

  And then, ever so slowly, the house begins to appear, like a great ship emerging through the mist, silently imposing its mystical presence upon us. Eventually it fills the stage, dwarfing Eric, clearly and insistently revealing itself to us. The house as Walter described it, as it has haunted Eric’s imagination. We also see the grounds surrounding it. The cherry tree in front and the rolling meadow beyond. The color green is omnipresent: in the grass, in the trees, in the brilliant morning sunlight diffused through all the many leaves.