Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire Page #7

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and me, l try to stop her

and she no stop, she keep on going.

Relentless-un.

l'll see you tonig ht. Bye.

Come with me.

Precious?

Excuse me?

Nurse say l'm H lV positive.

l ain't got nothing to write today.

ls your baby okay?

He all right.

l just got to stop breastfeeding him.

Remember, you once told me

you never really got to tell your story.

-Write.

-F*** you !

You know nothing

of what l've been through.

l ain't never had no boyfriend.

My daddy said he gonna marry me.

How he gonna do that?

lt wou ld f***ing be illegal !

Write.

l'm tired , Ms. Rain.

lf not for you rself,

then for the people who love you.

Nobody loves me.

people do love you, Precious.

please don't lie to me, Ms. Rain.

Love ain't done nothing for me.

Love beat me, raped me,

called me an animal ,

make me feel worthless.

Make me sick.

That wasn't love, Precious.

Your baby loves you.

l love you.

Write.

What are you thinking?

You never told me about

your relationship with your mother.

l didn't, did l?

Really, l'm here to help you.

You can talk to me.

This is a safe environment.

You're right.

We could talk about your daddy instead.

We could talk about my mother, my father,

my aunts or my sister or my brother,

but none of it's gonna help you .

You don't even l ike me.

Have we not been in this room together

for, like, a year, discussing your life?

Does that mean we like each other,

because we discuss my l ife?

l can't speak for you.

l can only speak for me,

and l do like you . l do.

So, are you ltalian, or. . .

What color are you , anyway?

Are you some type of black or Spanish?

What color do you think l am?

No, l'd like to know.

What color do you think l am?

My throat is dry.

Your throat is dry?

lt's really hot in here.

lt is kind of hot in here.

l'm gonna go get a soda.

What do you want?

Soda sou nds fine.

All right.

Thank you.

No problem.

So, I have to talk to you about your mother,

and l don't know

how you're gonna feel about this,

but she says she wants to see you

and she wants to be reu n ited

with you and her grandchildren.

She wants to come

and have a session here with you.

What did you tell her?

l said l had to speak to you about it.

lt's up to you.

l don't know.

l never thought about it before.

Ms. Weiss said in that file l got HIV.

She said l was supposed to die from it.

l ain't worried about dying.

Sh*t, l gotta worry about

how l'm supposed to raise these kids.

l was just writing , like, about. . .

l wanna open up this clinic

about, l ike, mothers and their children.

You know, just,

if they're sick or something like that.

l always wanted to do that,

give back to the community.

Because I know my mom would be

proud of me if l did that,

and my children, too.

l want my children to be proud

of their mother, you know?

-That's always what l wanted to do, so. . .

-That's good. That's really nice.

l don't really want to read the whole thing,

l kind of just wanna say what it's about.

Okay, the counselors

at Advanoement House,

they were quizzing me

about my mother and my father, right?

But it's not really about them.

They're trying to get me to do workfare.

-They want me to be a home attendant.

-How do you know?

Because I stole my file and l read it.

All they want me to do is work.

Now, l do wanna work,

but not for no welfare check.

What kind of sense that make,

for somebody like Precious to quit school

before she got her G ED

and go work

for some old white people somewhere?

She ain't never gonna be nothing

if she gets stuck in some sh*t like that.

Rhonda used to home attend.

She used to have to go all the way out

to Brighton Beach.

Yeah , okay, Rhonda wou ld be

worki ng there all day and night.

She'd be on call , right?

She made $6 . 3 7 an hour,

but for only eight hours.

That eq ual out to $50. 96.

But that's not a whole lot of money,

especially 'cause,

for real , she there for 2 4 hours.

So, $50.96 divided by 2 4

is $2. 1 2 an hou r. That's not a lot of money.

She said that old b*tch wou ld ring a bell,

like, a real-life, actual bell

when she wanted something from her

in the middle of the n ight.

-You don't want to do that sh*t.

-Rhonda, is that true? Rhonda!

Them home attendants be working for, like,

six days a week.

l'd only see Abdul on Sunday.

plus, l'd have to leave class.

Well, that's not an option.

You're not leaving class.

plus, I'm gonna start goi ng to

insect survivor meeti ngs.

lt's ''incest.''

-That ain't what l said?

-No, you said ''insect.''

What's the difference?

Well, one's where your family molests you,

the other's like a roach or bugs.

-So, you a scientist now?

-l'm just saying.

No, that's cool. Thank you . Thank you.

lt was hard telling them strangers there

what my father did.

Sometimes it felt good.

Last week, Ms. Rain asked us

to write down what we wanna be Iike.

l wrote that I be real skinny,

with IIght skin and long hair.

Loretha Holloway?

Go on back there.

She read it and said l'm beautiful like l am.

But, there's no kids back there

for me to play with .

J ust shut up and sit there, then.

Gonna talk to this lady

before my sh*t gets cut off.

But somehow,

right now. . . And I don 't know why, but. . .

l think she right.

Here.

Claireece Jones?

l think she right.

Okay, Mrs. Johnston ,

let's tal k about the abuse.

There were no drugs in my house.

l didn't play that.

There weren't no drugs in my house.

Precious knew l wou ld whup her ass

if she gonna bri ng some d rugs

up in my house.

You know what l'm talking about.

l'm referring to specific

sexual and physical acts

involving Precious.

Why you ain't say that?

Yes, that.

What do you wanna know?

According to Precious' files,

she has now had two ch ildren

by your boyfriend,

the late Carl Kenwood Jones,

who was also her father.

-Yeah .

-This is accurate?

Yes, Ms. Weiss.

l need to know why you're here.

You've been calling this office

saying you want to be reunited

with Precious and your grandchild.

Now, l really need to know

what's gone on in that home.

Ms. Weiss,

l understand we need to discuss it,

but l'm just telling you.

You said l've been call ing here

and l've been wanting to see

Precious and my grandson.

You're goddamn right I wanna see them.

Because they belong to me. Okay?

Now, there was a time

Precious had everything,

and l done told her that.

And me and Carl, we loved Precious.

And you need to know that.

We loved Precious and we had dreams.

Precious was born around the same time

Ms. West's son got kil led .

The su mmertime.

She was born in the summertime.

Remember? Remember that?

l was born in November.

November.

Yeah, that's right.

My Scorpio child.

You know. . .

Scorpios, they can be tricky.

And, l'm not sayi ng that they lie.

l'm not saying that.

But you just gotta watch them.

Can we talk about the actual acts

of physical and sexual abuse

that occurred in your household?

When it first began,

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