Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition (25 page)

(Joe nods yes.)

LOUIS
: Jesus, Mormons everywhere, it’s like
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
. I don’t like cults.

JOE
: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is not a cult.

LOUIS
: Any religion that’s not at least two thousand years old is a cult. And I know people who would call
that
generous.

JOE
: Are you upset about anything?

LOUIS
: Oh, you, you noticed? Yeah, I’m . . .
(Continue below:)

PRIOR
: WHAT IS HE DOING IN THERE?

(Joe gets down from the wagon and goes to Louis.)

HARPER
: Who? The little creep? He’s in and out every day. I hate him. He’s got absolutely
nothing
to do with the story.

LOUIS
(Continuous from above)
: I am, I’m upset about, about . . .
(He starts to cry, then stops himself)
You . . . unsettle me. You . . . abandoned your wife, and that’s terrible, but you’re not a terrible person, and yet you seem so unbothered by what you did, and that’s terrible, too, but you’re so decent and openly kind and truly sweet in bed, and I don’t see how that’s possible, but with you it seems to be, so, so . . .
(Continue below:)

PRIOR
(Standing, grabbing his things in a panic; to Harper)
: Can you turn it off? The . . . I’m leaving, I can’t . . .

LOUIS
(Continuous from above)
: Is it just that, you know, belonging to a political party that’s one half religious-zealot-control-freak theocrats and one half ego-anarchist-libertarian cowboys, you’ve had a lot of practice straddling cognitive dissonance? Or, or what?

     
I can’t . . .

(Joe kisses Louis
.

     
Prior starts to leave, but the pain in his leg stops him; he’s too weak to run. He turns back to the diorama, and calls:)

PRIOR
: Louis!

LOUIS
(Hearing him)
: Did you . . .

JOE
: What?

LOUIS
: Sssshh! I, I thought I heard . . .

     
(To himself)
Fucking hell.

     
(To Joe)
We have to talk.

JOE
: I can’t leave the office in the middle of the—

LOUIS
: Fuck work! This is a, a crisis. Now.

(Louis exits. Joe follows.)

HARPER
(Alarmed)
: Oh! But the, but he—The dummy never
left
with the little creep, he never
left
before. When they come in and they see he’s gone, they’ll blame me.

(Harper rushes to the diorama stage and pulls its curtains closed. She turns back and sees that Prior is crying.)

HARPER
(Trying hard to sound hard)
: You shouldn’t do that in here, this isn’t a place for real feelings, this is just story-time here.
Stop
.

PRIOR
: I never imagined losing my mind was going to be such hard work.

HARPER
: Oh, it is.

     
(Her tough veneer starts to crack)
Find someplace else to be miserable in. This is
my
place and I don’t want you to do that here!

PRIOR
: I JUST SAW MY LOVER, MY . . . ex-lover, with a . . . with your husband, with that . . . window-display Ken doll, in that . . .
thing
, I saw him, I—

HARPER
: OK OK don’t have a hissy fit, I told you it wasn’t working right, it’s just . . . the magic of the theater or something. Listen, if you see the creep, tell him to bring Joe, to, to bring the mannequin back, they’ll evict me and this is it, it’s nothing but it’s the last place on earth for me. I can’t go sit in Brooklyn.

(Hannah enters with a flashlight.)

HANNAH
: What on earth is going—

     
(She sees Prior crying. She glares at Harper)

     
What did you do to him?

HARPER
: Nothing! He just can’t
adjust
, is all, he just—

(Hannah goes to the diorama.)

HARPER
: NO WAIT, don’t—

(Hannah yanks the curtain open. The father dummy is back
—
a real dummy this time.)

HARPER
: Oh.
(To Prior)
Look, we . . . imagined it.

HANNAH
: This is a favor, they let me work here as a favor, but you keep making scenes, and look at this mess, it’s a garbage scow!
(Continue below:)

HARPER
(To Prior)
: It doesn’t look so much like him, now. He’s changed. Again.
(Continue below:)

HANNAH
(Continuous from above)
: Are you just going to sit here forever, trash piling higher, day after day till—well till what?
(Continue below:)

HARPER
(Continuous from above, to Hannah)
: You sound just like him. You even grind your teeth in your sleep like him.

HANNAH
(Continuous from above)
: If I could get him to come back I would go back to Salt Lake tomorrow.
(Continue below:)

HARPER
(Continuous from above)
: You can’t go back to Salt Lake, you sold your house!
(Continue below:)

HANNAH
(Continuous from above)
: But I know my duty when I see it, and if you and Joe could say the same we—

HARPER
(Continuous from above, to Prior)
: My mother-in-law! She sold her house! Her son calls and tells her he’s a homo and what does she do? She sells her house! And she calls
me
crazy!
(To Hannah)
You have less of a place in this world than
I
do if that’s possible.

PRIOR
(To Harper)
: Am I dreaming this, I don’t understand.

HARPER
: He saw an angel.

HANNAH
: That’s his business.

HARPER
: He’s an angelologist.

PRIOR
: Well don’t go blabbing about it.

HANNAH
(Losing the little cool she came in with; to Prior)
: If you aren’t serious you shouldn’t come in here.

HARPER
: Either that or he’s nuts.

PRIOR
(To Hannah, also losing it)
: It’s a
visitors
’ center; I’m
visiting
.

HARPER
: He has a point.

HANNAH
(To Harper)
: Quiet!

     
(To Prior)
It’s for serious visitors, it’s a serious religion.

PRIOR
: Do they like,
pay
you to do this?

HARPER
: She volunteers.

PRIOR
: Because you’re not very hospitable. I did see an angel.

HANNAH
(Blowing up!)
:
And what do you want me to do about it? I have problems of my own
.

     
The diorama’s closed for repairs. You have to leave.

     
(To Harper)
Clean up this mess.
(She exits)

(Harper and Prior look at each other.)

PRIOR
: Oh God, I’m exhausted.

HARPER
: You don’t look well. You really should be home in bed.

PRIOR
: I’ll die there.

HARPER
: Better in bed than on the street. Just ask anyone.

(Prior gathers his things. He looks around the Diorama Room, and then at the trash around Harper’s seat, and then at Harper.)

PRIOR
: Maybe you should leave, too.

HARPER
: I’m waiting.

PRIOR
: For what?

(Harper points to the Mormon Mother in the diorama.)

HARPER
: His wife. His mute wife. I’m waiting for her to speak. Bet her story’s not so jolly.

(Prior looks at Harper, afraid. He remembers where they’ve met.)

PRIOR
: Dreaming used to be so . . . safe.

HARPER
: It isn’t, though, it’s dangerous, imagining to excess. It can blow up in your face. Threshold of revelation.

(Prior startles; then, as he searches for something to say:)

HARPER
: Till we meet again.

(Prior leaves
.

     
Harper sits alone for a bit, then, addressing the Mormon Mother:)

HARPER
: Bitter lady of the Plains, talk to me. Tell me what to do.

(The Mormon Mother turns to Harper, then stands and leaves the diorama stage. She gestures with her head for Harper to follow her
.

     
Harper goes to the diorama, gets in the Mormon Mother’s seat.)

HARPER
(To the dummy father)
: Look at us. So perfect in place. The desert the mountains the previous century. Maybe I could have believed in you then. Maybe we should never have moved east.

     
(To the Mormon Mother)
I’m stuck. My heart’s an anchor.

MORMON MOTHER
: Leave it, then. Can’t carry no extra weight.

HARPER
: Was it a hard thing, crossing the prairies?

MORMON MOTHER
: You ain’t stupid. So don’t ask stupid. Ask something for real.

HARPER
(A beat, then)
: In your experience of the world. How do people change?

MORMON MOTHER
: Well it has something to do with God so it’s not very nice.

     
God splits the skin with a jagged thumbnail from throat to belly and then plunges a huge filthy hand in, he grabs hold of your bloody tubes and they slip to evade his grasp but he squeezes hard, he
insists
, he pulls and pulls till all your innards are yanked out and the pain! We can’t even talk about that. And then he stuffs them back, dirty, tangled and torn. It’s up to you to do the stitching.

HARPER
: And then get up. And walk around.

MORMON MOTHER
: Just mangled guts pretending.

HARPER
: That’s how people change.

(They exit.)

Scene 4

Late that afternoon. Split scene: Joe and Louis at Jones Beach, and later, Prior in his apartment, and Louis at a Brooklyn payphone
.

Joe and Louis are sitting shoulder to shoulder in the dunes, facing the ocean. It’s cold. The sound of waves and gulls and distant Belt Parkway traffic. New York Romantic. Joe is very cold, Louis as always is oblivious to the weather
.

LOUIS
: The winter Atlantic. Wow, huh?

     
There used to be guys in the dunes even when it snowed. Nothing deterred us from the task at hand.

JOE
: Which was?

LOUIS
: Exploration. Across an unmapped terrain. The body of the homosexual human male. Here, or the Ramble, or the scrub pines on Fire Island, or the St. Mark’s Baths. Hardy pioneers. Like your ancestors.

JOE
: Not exactly.

LOUIS
: And many have perished on the trail.

     
I fucked around a lot more than he did. No justice.

(Little pause.)

JOE
: I love it when you can get to places and see what it used to be. The whole country was like this once. A paradise.

LOUIS
: Ruined now.

JOE
: It’s still a great country. Best place on earth. Best place to be.

LOUIS
(Staring at him a beat, then)
:
OY
. A
Mormon
.

JOE
: You never asked.

LOUIS
: So what else haven’t you told me?

     
Joe?

     
So the fruity underwear you wear, that’s . . .?

JOE
: A temple garment.

LOUIS
:
Oh my God
. What’s it for?

JOE
: Protection. A second skin. I can stop wearing it if you—

LOUIS
: How can you stop wearing it if it’s a skin? Your past, your beliefs, your—