Streetwise Page #4

Pat Yes. Don't bug me ... I'm drinkin'.

Rat does his laundry in a laundromat.

Rat (voice over)

When I first ran away and came here to Seattle, I was tired of being

the middleman between my mom and my dad's divorce. I told my mom when I

called her about two weeks after I got here that I was in trouble with

the law. She understood it. She said, 'Alright, I'll see you when

you're eighteen.' And I said, 'Alright.' And then about a month later I

called her again and I said, 'Hey mom, how's it goin?' And she said,

'It's awful. I'm broke. He's trying to drain me, trying to make my life

miserable.' And she started crying alot, asking me to come home. And I

just said, 'Mom, I gotta go' and I hung up on her.

Rat goes outside to panhandle.

Rat Excuse me, sir. Could you spare a dime, so I could finish drying my

laundry?

Man Here you go, son.

Rat Thank you, sir. You have a nice day.

Rat (voice over)

And then I never called her again. I never wrote her a letter or

nothin'. F*** it, ya know. Let her think what she wants, that I'm dead,

whatever she wants to think. But I don't want to listen to her cry ...

makin' me feel bad.

Reverend Tom Robinson of the Emerald City Mission solicits money on

Pike Street. His group sings "If You Want Joy You Must Jump For It."

Reverend Tom (shouting) That building at 1420 Second Avenue, by the

grace of God, will be the new shelter that will sleep two hundred men

and fifteen women and two families. And all we asked from you is one

dollar. We don't ask for tens, twenties and hundreds, but you let God

move on you and you give one dollar and God will bless you. For

fourteen years I believed that God was dead. But I do not believe that

anymore. Billy Graham convicted me when he pointed his finger right at

me and said, GOD wants YOU to serve HIM!

A crowd of street kids gather.

Patrice When you leave here whachu gonna do? You gonna go home. Right,

brother?

Reverend Tom Sure I am.

Patrice Yeah, you're gonna go home. And you're gonna go into your big

house, and get into your big bed and sleep with your big wife, and all

that there, brother.

Reverend Tom I'm gonna go home and pack food for tomorrow's food bank.

Patrice OK. What religion are you?

Reverend Tom I'm Pentecostal. Full Gospel.

Patrice That's what I was raised as, a Pentecostal. But I don't believe

that sh*t. (To the crowd.) You want to know how they're working us?

Remember how when you was in school, once a year they'd tell you to

bring your canned goods and give 'em to us? That's what they're doing.

They say bring your canned goods and give 'em to us. Then they turn

around and give them back to you. (Laughter.) And then they say 'We're

doin' something for ya' all.' That's how they're workin' us. I could

stand out here and say, 'Yes, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Gimme a dollar.'

I could do that.

Reverend Tom You could.

Patrice Yeah, I could. And probably get a dollar.

Reverend Tom It's your privilege.

Patrice See, all this is nothin'.

Reverend Tom But I'm not standing here for me. See, you would be

standing here for you.

Patrice Who are you standing there for?

Reverend Tom I'm standing here for you.

Patrice You're standing here for me? Ain't that nothin'!

Reverend Tom 'Cause you might be hungry this winter.

Patrice We're wise out here. We're streetwise. You know that?

Everybody's scammin'. You're scammin'. I'm scammin'.

Reverend Tom Well, you and I'll have to sit down and talk about this.

Maybe you can wise me up.

Patrice Yeah, 'cause you need alot of wisin' if you think you're gonna

get rich standing out here. What gives you the audacity to think that

we're gonna come off our street life and into your program?

Reverend Tom I don't wancha in my program.

Patrice Ah, just a second ago you said ...

Reverend Tom All I want to do is give you a good night's sleep.

Patrice And then I can wake up in the morning, go downstairs and eat

some Cabin Crunch ...

Reverend Tom Cookies and coffee or whatever we got.

Patrice Can I bring my girlfriend there if I want to?

Reverend Tom Nooo. If you do, she'll have to stay in a different place.

Patrice No, brother. It don't work like that.

Reverend Tom Yeah, it works that way. But I like you, brother.

Patrice I like you, too. (They shake hands.) What's your name? Let me

have a card?

Reverend Tom Tom Robinson. Here's a card.

Rat and Jack scam for dinner.

Rat (voice over)

There's many different scams. There's 'Eat and Run.' That's where you

go into a restaurant. You order something. Usually they'll set you

right by the cash register if you look young and like you don't have

any money so they can see you. But right by the cash register is right

by the door, so that works out even better. There's also 'Dumpster

Diving.' You call Shakeys' Pizza. You can do it right out in front of

the restaurant. They got a pay phone right outside. (Rat enters phone

booth.) You call and order these Hawaiian style pizzas with Canadian

bacon and pineapple. They ask your name and your number. You hang up.

They call you right back. You say, 'Yeah, I ordered this and this' and

they say 'Alright' and you hang up. And then in about an hour, nobody

comes to claim the pizza and they set 'em out in the dumpster in the

boxes. You go over there and you got six or seven free pizzas. It's

easy to survive without pulling tricks or dates on the street.

Patrice shows his own scam to the guys on Pike Street.

Patrice There it is. (He opens the bottom of a pack of cigarettes.)

Blotter acid. You get two hits out of every pack, man. Five dollars a

hit. It sells like pancakes. Me and Junior made a hundred bucks selling

nothing but bunk at a concert. Then we went and bought some good

cocaine and psshhook. (Laughing.)

James goes to a blood bank.

Rat (voice over)

You gotta be over eighteen to sell blood, so most of the kids on the

street can't sell it, so they can't make money that way. But, if you

get a fake ID and you look eighteen, then you can go there and sell

blood.

Nurse (to James) The first one you do, the last two we do. But you make

sure that we do them. It's your responsibility to make sure that you

walk out of here alive...OK, make a fist for me.

In the corner of Second and Pike Streets, William takes Lulu on. A

crowd gathers.

William If you're a goddamn woman, Lulu, why don't you act like one?

Lulu F*** you. I don't have to act like all these b*tches down here.

William I'm not talking about acting like a b*tch. I'm talking about

acting like a woman, Lulu. You don't do that.

Lulu You ain't my man. You don't tell me sh*t.

William I wouldn't be your man even if you liked men.

Lulu You can't tell me sh*t.

William B*tch, I'm tellin' you all kinds of things.

Lulu F*** you, punk.

William B*tch.

Lulu Punk.

William 'Ho.

Lulu Punk.

William Tramp.

Lulu What about your K.C.? The one with the burning goddamn gonorrhea.

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