Flesh and Blood

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(cheerful ice cream truck type music)

[Mark] Everything looks the same.

Well, that's deceiving,

'cause everything has gotten worse.

I got to check on a bunch of families

that we have in houses.

The city is not housing anybody,

hasn't been housing anybody

in, like, five years.

We just had about 22 families

at the St. Mark's Church.

I got to figure out the farm.

The city came in the middle of the night

at, like, three in the morning or whatever,

and dug up our farm.

I got ordained online so

that I could bury people.

'Cause we literally had,

like, four deaths back to back.

I've been fighting for,

like, the last couple years

to try and find out what's

wrong with your brother.

He's been diagnosed with Asperger's,

which is on the autism spectrum.

Come on, let's take the tour.

All right.

The kitchen, the living

room, and your brother's room.

You can take this mattress

here, take it downstairs,

put it in Guillermo's room.

And then I also put your blue

box in your brother's room.

And all your things are in there.

All right.

You know, I can help you

clean up later, anything.

[Cheri] That would be great.

All right. I'm gonna go get set up.

It's good to have you home, honey.

It's good to be home.

Hey!

Come here, man, God.

I love you.

Let me look at you.

My God, you turned into

a freaking giant, man!

(sighs) I dig your hair.

I think I need a haircut.

It looks good to me.

You look like a lumberjack.

(laughs) All right, thank you.

I know.

I do, don't I?

So what's up?

Tell me everything.

What do you want to know about?

Everything.

What are you into?

Video games, comic books.

Right.

I really like movies.

In fact, one day I hope to make my own.

That's awesome.

I'm sure you'd be incredible at that.

What's up with school?

Honestly, well, I got into

this pretty high and prestigious school.

'Cause I'm pretty smart.

And I really enjoy that aspect of it.

But I'm bullied a lot.

Really?

Yeah, it's okay.

In 5th grade, my first year there,

I was being verbally tormented

by this one kid and his friends.

The teachers really wouldn't do anything,

'cause they just said he was just talking

and not doing anything really bad.

Until the end of the school year,

we were in the boys' locker room.

And he beat me up.

Okay.

I'm a pacifist, so I didn't fight back.

But when I could get up,

I stood up and I screamed at everybody.

'Cause, like, they were saying stuff

like they're going to kill

me, I shouldn't be alive,

I shouldn't go to school there.

I got insanely mad.

And I started screaming like

no, I deserve to be here as much as you do.

I'm not weird.

And you're not gonna kill

me, I'm gonna kill you.

And then the school forced

me to get mandatory therapy.

Not because they were tormenting me,

but because I said I was

going to kill them out loud.

Ah.

[Guillermo] Yeah.

That sounds really hard.

Mmm hm.

I'm really sorry.

I'm sorry you had to go through that.

Do you tell Mom about what's going on?

We're trying to deal with it.

But Mom's more concerned with my

recent diagnosis of Asperger's.

Okay.

With my anger and everything

that's been going on,

occasionally I feel suicidal

after some of the stuff they say.

Right.

And occasionally homicidal,

of me wanting to get back

at them for the kind of stuff

they do to me with no

repercussions whatsoever.

That's why I really like just coming home

and getting away from it all.

That's why I'm very excited

for spring break next week.

I really want to get, like,

far away from my school.

So where's a good pizza spot?

Over at Joyce, it's down that way.

[Mark] You ever hang out in this park?

[Guillermo] Sometimes, I prefer the inside.

But regardless, I come

out here occasionally.

[Mark] Cool.

[Guillermo] Not big for cutting

through the grass though.

[Mark] Why is that?

[Guillermo] A lot of dogs come this way.

[Mark] Ah.

Oh, man, it's nice being out.

Been used to seeing a

whole lot of concrete.

So you still don't think I need a haircut?

[Mark] Maybe, I'll cut it for you.

I don't like those chances.

Umm.

This is like the first

real meal that I've eaten.

Why, you didn't like the slop in prison?

No, I didn't.

That's exactly what it was.

It was like they blended

up dog and served it to you.

Great conversation to

have while we're eating.

Right, sorry, I'll stop talking about it.

What's it like on the outside?

It feels weird.

Kind of feels weird 'cause

it feels kind of normal,

you know?

Like I haven't skipped a beat.

But, I don't know.

It also kind of feels like

I've been born again, you know?

It's like fresh, everything's fresh.

And then sad.

You know, it's kind of sad.

I got a lot of memories,

a lot of stuff that this

neighborhood reminds me of.

Getting pretty metaphysical, aren't you?

Mmm hmm.

What do you think?

Why are we here?

What does this all mean?

I'm 13, so I haven't really figured out

those kind of questions yet.

I do like Plato.

Okay.

I like his theory of, his

philosophy of the cave.

Imagine you had three people

that were chained in a cave.

And the way they were chained,

they were always looking

at one wall of the cave,

and could never move their heads.

So they could never

see the other two people

that were there, opposed from hearing them.

Now imagine somebody brought

a light into the cave,

and a shadow was cast.

That would blow their mind.

Because at that point, they'd

only have seen the wall,

and now there were images on the wall.

And then if you took that a step further

by letting one of them go, and

then letting them outside...

[Man] What the f***? Yo.

- Holy sh*t.

- Yo, what's up Mark?

- What's up, Galen?

- Man, how you doing, baby?

It's good to see you man.

[Mark] Oh my God.

What's up, G? How's it going, buddy?

[Mark] Damn, man.

Yeah, man, it's been a minute, man.

How you been doing?

[Mark] I've been great, man.

What are you doing around here?

Oh, I work around here.

So I'm going to stop and

get something to eat before I shoot home,

you know what I mean?

- Looking good, man.

- No, you looking good too, man.

Thank you, bro. Thank you man.

I heard you was holding it down, (mutters).

[Mark] Yeah, you know, I was keeping

my head up, man, doing my thing.

Yeah, that's what's up,

that's what's up, yeah.

[Mark] How's the family?

Family's doing good, you know what I mean?

You know, and I got a son

now, you know what I mean?

[Mark] Sh*t, that's right.

(laughs) Yeah, he's about to be five, man,

yeah, yeah.

- So it's good seeing you though, man.

- [Mark] Good seeing you too, man.

I've just been hanging out with G here.

Mr. Brainiac.

[Mark] Yeah.

Yeah.

So, um, you heard from

Antoine, you seen Antoine?

[Mark] No, I ain't seen him yet.

Oh, all right, okay, cool, yeah.

Well, you know, I'm kind of

busy, you know what I mean,

I'm about to shoot home and stuff.

So, you know what I mean?

It's good seeing you, man.

You got to hit me up, man,

so we can get together.

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