Red Hook Summer Page #6

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You should know better,

letting him out here without instructions!

He got me on tape!

lt's over for him, it's mine now.

lt's just for his video.

-His what?

-His video!

Look, l don't want you

out here no more, all right?

Just step off, get out of here.

Next time y'all come out here violating,

-there's gonna be problems.

-Mad problems!

Herbert, you known me all your life.

l've never done you no wrong.

This boy, my grandson here,

he don't know nothing about...

l'll tell you what, l'll buy it back, all right?

l just got paid...

Whoa, whoa.

Let me help you with that, old man.

Oh! Pay day, nigga!

Let me see this.

-God is great.

-Amen.

You better delete it.

Get this lil' nigga out of here.

Wasted my whole childhood in Lil' Heaven.

l'm telling you, old man, next time you

or anybody else from your Jesus sect

come on this court,

l'm gonna cut your eyelids off,

so you can see me clearly

before l blast you straight

to Big Heaven, understand?

And when you get there,

you can tell God you were

sent there by Satan himself!

Now step!

God's loving you every minute, Herbert.

-Whatever!

-Some preacher bullshit.

l love this joint, man. God is love, baby.

The almighty dollar, baby.

(LAUGHS) Know what l mean?

l told you, be careful with that thing!

l thought you said

Box should come to Lil' Heaven.

Well, he ain't coming.

The Lord says,

"Throw out your treasures in heaven,

"even if others don't follow you!"

You heard the man say

he's from Satan himself.

lf you're a man of God, aren't you

supposed to take the devil out of him?

Not if it means getting you killed!

l want to go home.

We gonna start all over here, boy.

Bible study, Sunday school!

Right here, right now. Oh, hell no!

Start it right now!

-That's why l don't believe in God.

-You what?

The hell with you, you old, broke-down man!

-Look at you.

-lt's all in the book.

lt's all in the book, if you'd just look!

You ain't got nothing in this dead-rat hole.

-Lord Jesus...

-My mother hates your guts.

And she hates me, too!

That's why she sent me to you

in the first place!

She's my...

(PANTlNG)

Chazz.

Chazz!

Shh!

Be quiet, before you wake up my mom!

(WALKING PLAYlNG)

SlLAS:
You like the city?

l only been there twice.

Sometimes l see the people

going there on the water taxi.

And l'm like, "Where they going?"

They seem so busy.

Got stuff to do. Got money.

What we got?

l have plenty.

lf it wasn't for people like Box

trying to jump me and kill my grandfather.

Box ain't gonna kill nobody.

He used to go to Lil' Heaven.

Box?

Half them Bloods did, before they got old.

You get to our age

and you get to wondering.

l want to get out of here.

Live in Atlanta like you maybe.

Or go to Africa. Or Cali.

l heard that's nice.

My mom says, "Chazz, trust in Jesus."

And l'm trying.

l just don't see no light.

You see any light?

Who killed Biggie and Tupac?

You're talking crazy! Get away from there!

And you're bugging.

Sometimes l just wanna jump in

and swim to the edge of the world,

just go to blackness.

l wanna stop feeling numb.

l wanna feel pretty.

With nice clothes. And a nice house.

With nice people that love me.

Your mother doesn't love you?

Chazz!

You better back up!

lf you ain't got nothing

and don't feel part of nothing,

you feel nobody wants you.

Nobody says, "We don't want you."

They just ignore you.

You're invisible. You don't belong.

You ever get that feeling?

Yeah, since l got here to Red Hook.

Flik, God feels you! He feels your pain!

Jesus Christ!

You sound just like my grandfather now.

All this corny yakking about God

drives me nuts.

My grandfather's a bully and he's got God.

The Bloods run everything

and jack people's stuff

and they had God.

And these white people

in these nice houses,

they don't want us around.

And they have their God.

And you loopy as Froot Loops

and you got God, too.

Let me ask you.

Why does everybody want to go to heaven,

but nobody wants to die?

Very good question.

Didn't mean that!

lf you jump, Chazz,

God isn't going to catch you,

is what l meant!

And you better not try it, you crazy girl.

l feel bad for you, Flik.

You got nothing to believe in.

You're headed straight to hell!

No, l'm not. l haven't done anything wrong!

l'll hate you, if you jump!

l swear, l will hate you forever!

That's why l don't believe in God!

He lets too much bad stuff happen!

lt doesn't matter. God believes in you.

Chazz!

Psych yo' mind, Frankenstein,

saw yo' face on Channel 9,

make your black booty shine!

Heh! Heh! Heh!

Stupid!

(LAUGHlNG)

Mmm, mmm, mmm.

Heard through the Red Hook grapevine

about Flik and Box.

Mmm.

Talk about a Judas.

Well, that is not gonna happen again.

l'm reining Flik in.

He's on a short, short leash.

l'll have him so busy running back and forth

between Sunday school

and working at over at Lil' Heaven,

he's gonna be dizzy.

Flik is fine.

He's the best boy

Chazz has ever met around here.

The boy needs God in his life.

He's a 1 3-year-old boy, Enoch.

They'll be trading spit before you know it.

Now, you can call it courting if you want,

but who you fooling?

You ain't got to tell me about the dangers

of these young people courting.

l raised two.

When you first come here from down South,

after your wife died,

how come your daughter never

come up with you?

She's not saved.

l pray for her every day and night.

My big girl, Angel, she was my first.

Raised her in the Lord's light

from the word go.

Before l could turn my head around,

she got out here on Centre Mall,

got turned out

and came home with that AlDS.

That's not your fault, Shirley.

Oh, yes, it is.

Oh, we talk a good game, you know?

Our generation,

about the good old days

when we was young.

(ENOCH CHUCKLlNG)

About the days when you could

spank a young'un

and tell them something once

and they did it.

And how we grew up

walking the straight and narrow,

picking cotton, shining shoes

and selling newspapers.

And nobody wore their pants low

and their dresses high.

And there weren't no sissies around

or whatever you call them.

Like our world was so perfect.

lt's a lie.

lf you and l grew up today

watching the TV 24/7,

we'd be foolish as these young people, too.

More so.

Their morals and their values are low.

You're a good man, Enoch Rouse.

l been watching you a long time.

You're suffering and lonely,

'cause the world has changed

and passed you by.

But God hasn't.

We prayed for a black president

to deliver us,

and we got our wish.

l see our young people

same as they was before,

only now they can say,

"l, too, can be president."

No.

l'm done with that dream.

Not much has changed,

that's the God's truth.

The rich keep getting super-rich,

poor get super-poor.

Don't matter what color they are.

Poor is on the bottom rung the world over.

But God,

God is on the highest rung.

Wake up. Your grandson needs you.

l'm giving him God. That's enough.

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