The Inheritance Page 12

  Jason 2 Hello Mary, you’re gay!

  Henry Being gay can’t be all you care about when you vote, is it, Jason?

  Jason 2 It’s one of the more important things to me.

  Henry Why are you entitled to vote your self-interest and I’m not entitled to vote mine?

  Jason 2 Because my self-interest ultimately benefits the nation.

  Henry Spoken like a true liberal. I also happen to believe that my self-interest benefits the nation. The difference is you define your self-interest based on your sexuality and I don’t.

  Jasper Because you can afford not to.

  Eric So I discovered this bakery on the Lower East Side –

  Jason 1 But surely you do react to the world in part because you’re a gay man.

  Henry Not particularly.

  Jason 1 Well, I mean, you do care about the LGBTQ community, don’t you?

  Henry It hasn’t really done all that much for me, but I don’t wish it harm, if that’s what you mean.

  Jason 1 Okay, but surely you recognize that your party does wish it harm. I mean, what about the Republican’s age-old hostility to our community?

  Henry Compared to the minutes-old embrace by the Democrats?

  Tristan What about the Reagan administration’s willful inaction during the epidemic?

  Henry I bet you can’t guess which US president was the first to make meaningful progress toward attempting to stem the spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa?

  Jason 2 Bill Clinton.

  Henry George W. Bush, your former favorite bogeyman.

  Eric So Tucker, when you burn the paintings, is it like a kind of ritual?

  Tucker I’m naked when I do it. Sometimes I cum afterward.

  Tristan You’re not actually suggesting that Republicans have done more to fight the spread of HIV than Democrats, are you?

  Henry I’ll throw a real curveball at you, Tristan: I believe that the gay community’s reaction to the epidemic was a pristine example of conservative principles in action.

  Tristan Oh please, Henry, do pitch that ball.

  Henry The greatest public health crisis since the Spanish flu was halted by a group of private citizens who banded together and effected true change in the world that ultimately ended up saving hundreds of millions of lives. They created countless private, non-governmental and even faith-based institutions to assist their communities. They single-handedly developed a model for patient advocacy that has been replicated across the world for other diseases, saving millions more lives as a result. And they did all of this as private citizens, not as government employees. They gathered in homes and meeting halls and decided that if the government wouldn’t save them, they would save themselves. Yes, I’d call that a supreme example of conservative principles in action, even if the people enacting them were themselves far to the left of Trotsky.

  Tristan But Henry … the community’s response to the epidemic wasn’t in spite of the government, it was directed at the government. They knew that the challenges of the epidemic were so great that it required an institution as large and as powerful as the US Government to combat it. The people on the front lines of the epidemic understood that the government is nothing more than the collective power of the American people and they fought to harness that power in order to save their own lives in the face of unbelievable oppression.

  Jason 1 Right! And the ones doing the oppressing were Republicans.

  Henry No, Jason. The ones doing the oppressing were straight. And heterosexuality is a bipartisan condition.

  Jason 2 You know, I always used to wonder why gay people paid taxes when we were denied all these rights.

  Eric Yes! Or African Americans, for that matter. Or trans citizens.

  Jason 2 Yes! You think at least there’d be an ‘oppression exemption’.

  Eric We should be able to choose where our money goes when we pay our taxes every year. ‘This goes to education and the arts and to equal protection under the law. You may not spend my tax money on war, discrimination or to build any fucking walls.’

  Henry Spoken like a true conservative! Ultimately what we’re talking about here is a difference in philosophy.

  Jasper No, what we’re talking about here is a difference in morality.

  Eric What we’re discussing is the divide between the responsibility to community and the responsibility to the self, are we not? I mean, I do think it’s possible to effect real change in the world by concentrating on the personal sphere and letting the global sphere take care of itself.

  Jasper ‘Let the global sphere take care of itself?’ Have you been reading Ayn Rand in addition to watching old westerns?

  Eric No, I’m just trying to find a link between what you’re saying, Jasper, and what Henry is saying.

  Jasper There is no link.

  Eric I’m not so sure. Americans love to celebrate the individual but that obscures what those individuals ultimately constitute. As a kid, I used to think America was shaped like an animal, charging in an easterly direction toward the sunrise. It’s always caused me to think of America as a body. And its constituent parts can be broken down all the way to its cellular level, which is its citizenry.

  Henry You have such a clever way of putting things, Eric. If we focus our energies on the constituent cells – namely the individuals – the body will become healthy. That is the conservative viewpoint. It’s also, incidentally, how HIV is treated.

  Tristan As a physician, and as someone who has been HIV positive for fifteen years, I think I might know better than anyone else in this room how the human immunodeficiency virus is treated. If America is a body, then that man you gave money to is HIV: an opportunistic infection that has invaded a compromised nation at its cellular level and that is now destroying its ability to defend itself by replicating its genetic material from person to person, across the entire nation. HIV may be treated at the cellular level, but it affects the entire body. And individuals alone cannot cure what ails this country. It requires a community response. What you’re describing works just fine if you have the means to pursue your own self-interests. But what about the millions of people in this country who are economically and politically powerless?

  Henry I don’t for a minute believe that anyone in America is powerless. Only those who believe they are powerless.

  Tristan You should come to my hospital sometime and ask any of my patients if they merely believe that they are powerless.

  Eric Okay, I think we’ve had enough politics for one afternoon. Would anyone like some cake?

  Tucker I’d love some, thanks.

  Jasper How much money do you make a year, Henry?

  Eric Jasper! You do not need to answer that, Henry.

  Henry I don’t mind, for the sake of debate. It’s hard to answer too accurately.

  Jasper Ballpark it.

  Henry Let’s say a quarter of a billion dollars a year.

  Tucker Wow. That’s a lot of money.

  Eric There, Jasper: you have your answer. Who wants coffee and cake?

  Jasper Do you think you might see how people in this nation truly are powerless if you weren’t wealthy?

  Henry I wasn’t born wealthy, Jasper. My father was a car mechanic and my mother was an elementary school teacher.

  Jasper There’s a difference between being born to the working class in the 1950s and being born into poverty now. Economic inequality is expanding in this country at an exponential rate.

  Henry What do you propose I should do about that?

  Jasper Your party is presently attempting to ram through Congress a bill that would strip twenty-three million people of their health insurance just so that you can have another tax cut that you don’t need.

  Henry Who says that I don’t need it? Who says that I won’t put it to good use?

  Jasper The Constitution starts with ‘We the People’, not ‘We the People who have good accountants’.

  Henry Okay, let’s pretend for the sake of argument that I were to
give all my surplus money away and give it to the poor. Let’s pretend that every American does – yourself included. Who gets it? Is everyone included in this scheme or only the pure of heart?

  Jasper I wouldn’t place an ideological litmus test on it.

  Henry So you’re willing to make sacrifices even for a rural white Southern bigot who hates every single one of us in this room but who is just as much in need of economic assistance as the United Colors of Benneton ad you most likely see in your head when you think so romantically of the poor? When you say ‘We the people’, Jasper, do you really mean that? Or do you mean ‘We the people who agree with me’?

  Jasper We could start with the people who have lost their homes so you can build your high-rise condos all over the city.

  Eric Jasper / come on.

  Jasper Or the homeless people living in the condemned buildings you routinely grab up for pennies on the dollar.

  Henry Surely you don’t hold me responsible for every person who squats inside a condemned property that I buy.

  Jasper Yes, in fact I do!

  Henry Jasper, that’s just ludicrous. If we stopped building every time a few people got in the way, this town would cease to function. It is not my responsibility as a real estate developer to end homelessness. Nor is it my job as a billionaire to fix income inequality.

  Jasper No, it’s your responsibility as a human being.

  Henry I am responsible to my family, to my employees, my investors. If homelessness, if income inequality is your passion, then it should be your fight. You and I have different philosophies and therefore different priorities. Just because I don’t share yours doesn’t make me a villain. No one opened any doors for me nor did me any favors.

  Jasper What you’re ignoring is that while you may have had humble beginnings, you have been on a glide path to success from the day you were born because you’re a white male in America and because of that, doors were in fact open to you that have been resolutely sealed to so many other people in this country.

  Eric Jasper –

  Jasper For a man like you, being gay is just a speed bump on your journey. You’ve arrived at your station in life without ever once understanding suffering or the meaning of adversity.

  Henry I pray, Jasper, that you never learn the true meaning of adversity. I pray that you never know what it is like to live in fear for your life. I sincerely hope you’re forever shielded from misfortune. But you see, my boy, I wasn’t. No one saved me. I saved myself. Whether you realize it or not, whether you like it or not, it is you who have been on the glide path. You are the man you are today because men my age paid for your rights with their lives.

  Jasper I didn’t mean that gay men your age / didn’t –

  Henry THERE ARE NO GAY MEN MY AGE.

  Not nearly enough.

  A moment, then:

  Gentlemen, it has been an enjoyable if pugnacious afternoon. A pleasure to meet you all.

  Eric Henry, don’t go.

  Henry I’ll be upstairs if you need me. I have some calls to return. Tucker, if you ever want to sell me a painting, I promise I’ll never look at it.

  Henry exits. Seething silence, then:

  Eric Jasper, I don’t even know what to say to you right now.

  Jasper You don’t know what to say to me? Eric … do you see the person you’re mixed up with?

  Eric That ‘person’ has a name. He also has a home and you are inside it. I noticed you didn’t have a problem with him while you were eating his food and drinking his wine.

  Jasper I was trying to be polite!

  Eric You searched his political contributions online and then threw it in his face.

  Jason 2 You were pretty nasty about it, Jasper.

  Jasper Guys, he is part of the problem.

  Eric So then leave his fucking house.

  Jasper Eric …

  Jason 1 He didn’t mean that, Jasper / he’s just –

  Eric I don’t need you to speak for me, Jason.

  Jasper I can’t believe you’re defending him.

  Eric I can’t believe that you’re making me. I invited you here to meet Henry because he’s become very important to me. But if you feel so strongly about it, Jasper, then you shouldn’t have come and you definitely should leave.

  Jasper Fine. Come on, Tucker.

  Tucker But there’s cake still.

  Jasper Look, Eric, I know you’ve been through a lot / this past year or so –

  Eric Don’t pretend to be concerned for me. This has nothing to do with me / Jasper.

  Jasper It has everything to do with you. You’ve become a billionaire Republican’s kept boy.

  Eric Henry asked me to marry him.

  Stunned silence from the Lads.

  Jasper You’re not actually thinking about it, are you?

  Eric I don’t have to explain myself to you.

  Tristan Actually, Eric, I think you do.

  Eric Oh come on, Tristan, you too?

  Tristan Eric, this is enormous. And we are all your closest friends. We have a right to know your mind. So tell me: are you asking for our opinion or for our blessing?

  Eric I don’t know. Both, I guess.

  (To Jasper.) Except from you.

  Jasper Eric, please …

  Tristan Do you love Henry?

  Eric In a way, yes.

  Tristan ‘In a way’?

  Jason 1 Is that enough, Eric?

  Jason 2 Are you two fucking?

  Eric We haven’t yet.

  Tristan So what is Henry offering you that you believe you need?

  Jasper Besides a billion dollars.

  Eric He’s offering me happiness and comfort and peace. Why shouldn’t I want that?

  Jasper Because you’d be throwing away your life, Eric.

  Tristan Ignore Jasper.

  Jasper No, don’t ignore Jasper!

  Tristan I’m not saying this because I don’t want you to be happy. I’m saying it because I don’t want you to be hurt. I’m talking right now about your gorgeous, compassionate heart. Will Henry care for that?

  Eric He already does!

  Tristan You and Henry are very different people. He’s prose and you’re poetry.

  Jason 1 He’s logic and you’re passion.

  Jasper He’s evil and you’re not.

  Eric STOP ATTACKING HIM, JASPER! So he doesn’t agree with you on politics. That doesn’t mean he isn’t a good person.

  Jasper Google Henry’s company sometime. Read about the things he’s done.

  Eric Henry listens to me and makes me feel valued. Toby used me and discarded me. Where were your doomsday predictions when I first met Toby?

  Jasper Toby’s a vain, self-destructive narcissist. But at least his heart’s in the right place.

  Eric I cannot ask you to like Henry. But goddamnit, Jasper, you will respect him. Because he deserves your respect.

  Jasper What makes him so deserving of my respect?

  Eric The fact that he’s won mine.

  Jasper Eric, if you marry this man, don’t expect me to come to the wedding. And don’t expect your job to be waiting for you when you come back from your honeymoon.

  Jason 1 Jasper, come on.

  Eric You would end our friendship over this?

  Jasper We are fighting for our nation’s soul. For its very survival. I do not have room in my life for anyone who doesn’t agree with that basic truth.

  Eric Jasper, this is my life.

  Jasper And this is my country.

  2. Henry’s Study

  Henry at his desk. Eric enters.

  Eric Henry, I’m so sorry about all that.

  Henry Don’t be. I like your friends. And they seem to care very much about you.

  Eric I’ve been thinking about your proposal, Henry.

  Henry Come to any decisions?

  Eric I would like to marry you. I would love to marry you. If you’ll still have me.

  Henry Good. Good!

  Eric smiles. They b
oth smile.

  Eric Should we set a date, or –?

  Henry I need to talk to my sons first.

  Eric Yes, of course.

  Henry Once that’s done, I’ll call a friend of mine who’s a Federal judge and we can get married right away.

  Eric Actually, I was hoping we could have the teeny tiniest of parties. We don’t even have to call it a wedding. We can call it, um, a ‘celebration of marriage’. We can do it at your farm in Dutchess County. In the fall when the leaves are changing. I promise no more than thirty people.

  Henry Yes. Let’s have a small, intimate, very expensive ‘celebration of marriage’.

  Eric Can we have, like, three different cakes?

  Henry Let’s have a dozen.

  Eric Could I have a new suit made?

  Henry Of course. One thing: you don’t have to ask permission to spend my money.

  Eric That’s going to take me a little while to get used to.

  Henry Once you do get used to it, that’s when you should definitely start asking permission.

  Eric Deal. Holy shit, we’re engaged.

  Henry Holy shit, we are.

  Eric Should I spend the night?

  Henry Tonight’s not the best for me. And you’re far too distracting.

  Eric Well … before I go … I was thinking … maybe you should fuck me.

  Because I really want you to. I am at six thousand on the horniness scale.

  Henry Sex isn’t really what I’m after.

  Eric I understand. It’s been a long day. And we’ve got plenty of time.

  Henry Sex has never been that important to me.

  Eric Are you attracted to me, Henry?

  Henry Yes. Yes, of course.

  Eric So … will we eventually have sex?

  Henry That’s not … why I want you.

  I don’t care what you do outside of the marriage. All I ask from you is tact and discretion.

  Eric How can a man as vital as you not be interested in sex?

  Henry I’ve learned to concentrate on other things. I hope that isn’t a deal-breaker for you.

  Eric Well, it’s … certainly a bombshell. Will we share a bed?

  Henry If you like.