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A DOCTOR UNRAVELLING A BLOOD PRESSURE GAUGE (INT./DAY)
JOE
I'm not worried. What are you doing?
Joe sits in his shirtsleeves on the examining table.
DR. ARMBRUSTER
Checking your blood pressure, relax.
The DOCTOR wraps the blood pressure unit around Joe's arm.
JOE
I didn't have contact. What do you consider "contact?"
We were sitting in the same room, three, four feet... What if you
shake hands? Wait. I know the answer. Only sex, or sharing needles.
I know that. We didn't shake hands, anyway.
Dr. Armbruster squeezes the blood pressure pump,
DR. ARMBRUSTER
The HIV virus can only be transmitted through the exchange of bodily
fluids, namely blood and semen.
JOE
Right.
Joe begins rolling down his sleeve.
DR. ARMBRUSTER
Leave that.
JOE
Yeah, but Doc, isn't it true they keep finding out new things about
this disease? So you tell me, today, there's no danger, and I go
home, and I hold my baby, and six months from now I hear on the
news: "whoops! We were wrong.' You can carry it on
your clothes, your skin, and now I've got to worry about my kid.
What are you doing?
Dr. Armbruster has been preparing a syringe.
DR. ARMBRUSTER
We're going to draw blood.
JOE
Why are we going to do that?
DR. ARMBRUSTER
Joe. I don't care a whit about your private life.
JOE
You want to give me an AIDS test?!
Joe HOPS off the table.
JOE (CONT.)
The guy sat in my office! You can't get AIDS that way, right?
DR. ARMBRUSTER
Right.
JOE
It doesn't travel through the air, by breathing, or touching, right?
DR. ARMBRUSTER
Not by touching, or shaking hands, or hugging, using the same toilet...
Even kissing someone with AIDS is
safe. But it there's something in your past you're worried about...
JOE
Thanks, Doc, but I don't need an AIDS test. Are you crazy? But thanks
for the information. Really.
Joe throws on his jacket, opens the door... then TURNS BACK:
JOE (CONT.)
In my past?
ARMBRUSTER
IV drug use.
Joe shakes his head.
DR. ARMBRUSTER (CONT.)
A homosexual encounter.
JOE
Get real.
DR. ARMBRUSTER
Unprotected sex with a prostitute.
JOE
(thinking it over)
Uh.... No. Not really.
DR. ARMBRUSTER
Or unprotected sex with someone you didn't know very well, any time
during the last twelve years.
A MOMENT.
Joe returns to the examining table, and rolls up his sleeve.
CUT TO:
ESTABLISHING: JOE'S HOUSE IN THE SUBURBS (EXT./NIGHT) ...
LISA (VOICE OVER)
You have a problem with gays,
Joe.
CONTINUOUS CUT TO:
JOB CRADLES HIS BABY AGAINST HIS CHEST (INT./NIGHT) ...
JOE
Not especially.
Lisa eats standing up, at the stove, while Joe walks the BABY in
their modern kitchen.
LISA
How many gays do you know?
JOE
How many do you know?
LISA
Lots.
JOE
Who?
LISA
Karen Berman. Aunt Teresa. My cousin Tommy who lives in Rochester.
Eddie Meyers from the office. Joe Cantwell, he's one of the partners.
His lover, Greg.
Stanley, the guy who's putting in our kitchen cabinets.
For a moment, Joe is struck dumb. Then he says:
JOE
Your Aunt Teresa is gay? That beautiful, sensuous woman is a...
lesbian?
LISA
Duh...
JOE
Since when?
LISA
Probably since she was born.
JOE
Allright. I admit it: I'm prejudiced. I don't want to work with
a homosexual. You got me.
LISA
Okay, Joe...
JOE
I mean, two guys, doing the horizontal thing? I don't get it. Don't
they get confused?
"Is that mine? I thought it was yours." Hey, call me old
fashioned, call me conservative... I think maybe
you have to be a man to get just how nauseating the whole basic
idea really is.
LISA
Fine, Joe.
JOE
And the way they work out, pumping up, so they can be macho and
faggot at the same time... I can't stand that shit. Now I'm being
totally honest with you.
LISA
That's perfectly clear.
CLOSE ON JOE, LOOKING DIRECTLY INTO CAMERA:
JOE
Would you take a client if you were constantly thinking: "I
hope this guy doesn't touch me.
I don't even want him to breathe on me?"
CUT TO:
THE STREETS OF PHILLY ARE DUSTED WITH SNOW, STORE WINDOWS decorated
for Christmas. Joe steps out of the Famous 4th St. Deli, with a
package (EXT./DAY) ...
TITLE: "Two weeks later."
CUT TO:
JOE SITS AT A TABLE IN THE PUBLIC LAW LIBRARY, SURROUNDED BY books
and legal pads, hard at work. He's eating a pastrami sandwich which
he hides behind a reference book when a LIBRARIAN saunters by (INT./DAY)
...
A CHAIR SQUEAKS and Joe LOOKS UP TO SEE:
Andrew taking a seat across the room (the blotches have been reduced
by chemo, but he's struggling with a cold). Andrew removes notepads
and pens from his briefcase. He takes out a package of tissues,
blowing his nose.
JOE
(under his breath)
Shit...
Joe slides to the far end of his table, stacking seven or eight
HUGE REFERENCE BOOKS in front of him.
JOE'S POV, PEERING THROUGH THE REFERENCE BOOKS:
Andrew opens a book, taking notes. Rubs his eyes. Writes something.
Sneezes.
A LIBRARIAN delivers a book to Andrew.
LIBRARIAN
This is the supplement. You're right, there is a section on... (lowers
her voice)
... HIV related discrimination.
ANDREW
Thank you.
Andrew takes the book from her -- but she remains.
LIBRARIAN
We have a private research room available.
ANDREW
I'm fine, thanks.
Andrew BLOWS HIS NOSE. Now other PATRONS are watching.
LIBRARIAN
Wouldn't you be more comfortable in a research room?
ANDREW
(pleasantly)
No. But would it make you more comfortable?
LIBRARIAN
Whatever, sir.
The LIBRARIAN turns away, shrugging to a PATRON, indicating she's
done all she can do.
As Joe continues to watch: one of Andrew's NEIGHBORS picks up his
books and moves away.
Joe rises, gliding down an aisle of books, keeping one eye on Andrew,
who concentrates on his work.
Joe approaches, nonchalantly, as if he just happens to be sauntering
by. Suddenly he "notices" Andrew.
JOE
Oh, Beckett. How's it goin'?
ANDREW
Fine.
Andrew goes back to his work.
JOE
Who'd you get?
ANDREW
What?
JOE
Find a lawyer?
ANDREW
I'm a lawyer. How's your baby?
JOE
Huh? Oh. Great. She's great.
ANDREW
What's her name?
JOE
Rayisha.
ANDREW
Rayisha. Very nice.
Andrew focuses on his work. Joe steps away.
Joe comes back.
JOE
How did they find out?
ANDREW
(a second, then:)
One of the partners spotted a lesion on my forehead.
Nearby, a CHINESE PROFESSOR looks up, startled, when she hears
the word "lesion."
JOE
Uh huh...
Andrew concentrates on his work once more.
JOE (CONT.)
How do you get from one lawyer spotting a lesion, which could have
been a bruise, to the partners deducing you had AIDS and basing
a decision to
terminate you on that conclusion?
The CHINESE PROFESSOR moves away.
ANDREW
Good point.
Andrew removes a legal pad with "KENTON" written in big
letters across the top, and lots of notes underneath.
ANDREW (CONT.)
The partner who spotted the lesion, Walter Kenton, used to work
for Benton, Myers, in D.C.
There's a paralegal there, Maria Torres. She's had lesions on and
off for three years. She says it was common knowledge around the
office that her
lesions were caused by AIDS.
JOE
They didn't fire her?
ANDREW
No. They didn't fire her.
Andrew goes back to his work. Joe stands there.
JOE
So Kenton connected the... lesion, and whatever suspicions he had
about your personal life... to this woman, Maria... and blew the
whistle on you. Suddenly you're losing files, and it's time to
let you go. But, up to this point, you've been their Golden Boy,
their rising star... Their behavior is... inconsistent.
ANDREW
Thank you.
Andrew goes back to work.
JOE
There is no relevant precedent.
ANDREW
(not looking up)
Arline decision. Supreme Court.
JOE
Arline?
Andrew SHOVES the legal book toward Joe.
CLOSE ON ANDREW'S HANDS (with one blotch) on the book's white pages.
The book is still facing Andrew. If Joe wants to read it, he'll
have to turn it around.
Joe looks at Andrew's hands. A MOMENT.
Joe turns the book around, begins to read:
JOE
"The Federal Vocational
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits
discrimination..."
CAMERA CRANES UP, TOWARD THE CEILING... JOE CONTINUES
READING IN VOICE-OVER:
JOE (VO) (CONT.)
"... against otherwise qualified handicapped persons who are
able to perform the duties required by
their employment..."
CAMERA GOES HIGHER, LOOKING DOWN ON THE ROWS OF BOOKS AND THE LONG
TABLES DOTTED WITH PEOPLE...
JOE (VO) (CONT.)
"Although the ruling did not address the specific issue of
HIV and AIDS discrimination..."
DISSOLVE TO SAME ANGLE AN HOUR LATER: Andrew and Joe face each
other at their table, but NO ONE ELSE remains at that table, or
at the table next to it...
ANDREW (VO)
"Subsequent decisions have held that AIDS is protected as a
handicap under law, not only
because of the physical limitations it imposes..."
DISSOLVE TO A SAME ANGLE AN HOUR LATER (DAY IS TURNING INTO NIGHT):
Joe pacing, Andrew reading. Their section of the library is COMPLETELY
EMPTY but for Andrew and Joe.
ANDREW (VO) (CONT.)
"But because the prejudice surrounding AIDS exacts a social
death which precedes the actual,
physical one..."
DISSOLVE TO SAME ANGLE, LATER: Andrew and Joe sit on the same side
of the table, reading the same book.
JOE (VO)
"This is the essence of discrimination: formulating
opinions about others not based on their individual merits but,
rather, on their membership in a
group with assumed characteristics...
The library is QUIET. Andrew SNEEZES.
Joe scoots his chair away from Andrew by eight inches.
DISCO MUSIC RISES ACCOMPANIED BY THE SOUNDS OF GRUNTING, HEAVY
BREATHING AND SLAPPING FLESH AS WE...
CUT TO:
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