WEBVTT - CZM Book Club: What We Want, What We Believe by Alex Smith, Part One 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:03.240 Cool Zone Media. 0:00:06.760 --> 0:00:13.280 Book Club Club, Club Club Club Club, book Club Clubs Clubs, 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:14.520 Books book Club. 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:17.920 Hello everybody, and welcome to Kool Zone Media book Club, 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:21.360 where I actually didn't have to chance by myself this time, 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:25.200 and the continued on synchronicity of zoom continues to entertain 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:27.800 at least me. Cool Zone Media. 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:30.000 Book Club is the only book club where you don't 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:32.199 have to do the reading, because usually I do it 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:36.720 for you, but this time, my guest, Prince Shakur, is 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:38.199 going to do the reading for you. 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:39.280 Hi, Prince, how are you. 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.640 I'm good, I'm glad to be here. I've never done 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:46.160 a book club like this, so I'm excited. 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:49.960 I like this model because I read a lot, but 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:53.600 I still struggle with actual book clubs because then I'm like, uh, homework, 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:55.120 I can't do homework. 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:59.440 Yeah, and it's good to read with other people. And 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:02.880 I guess I mean like studying literature and university. It 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:06.640 reminds me of being in literature class. And yeah, I 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:10.319 don't know. I always liked the communal nature of reading 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:14.520 or even workshops or reading like fresh writing with people, 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:17.120 so I feel like this just gives me, I don't know, 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:18.640 a bit of nostalgia. 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:20.360 And you even have your own book that people have 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:23.600 probably read. But you're also a podcaster. You have a 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:26.640 podcast called The Dugout and a book. Do you want 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:27.520 to tell us about those things? 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:32.080 Yeah? Yeah, So my book is a memoir. It's titled 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:34.480 When They Tell You to Be Good. I describe it 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:37.399 as my political coming of age, what it was like 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:42.160 growing up queer in a Jamaican family, getting radicalized, being 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:44.760 a part of different movements. A lot of it is 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:50.240 about Jamaic colonial violence, patriarchal violence, but I kind of 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.639 wrote it as like a what is it like being young, 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:59.160 queer and radicalized in today's America? And it is really 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:02.600 inspired by a lot of other like black power literature 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:06.280 and memoirs from like the Civil rights and Black power era. 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:09.200 And yeah, it's just like a project of love and 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:12.240 me trying to process a lot. And yeah, it came 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:14.359 out a few years ago, so folks want to check 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:17.320 it out. It's called When They Tell You to Be Good? 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:21.480 And I also do a podcast it's called The Dugout 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.799 of Black Anarchist Podcasts, and we talk about a lot 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.120 of things on there. We talk about news, we interview 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:33.760 lots of people black Panther Veterans Revolutionaries. Recently just interviewed 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:37.000 a cadre out of Minneapolis who were doing a lot 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:41.160 of like firearms training and community defense, and we interviewed 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:45.000 two of the defendants from like the Minnesota fifteen repression case. 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:49.279 So a lot of conversations, which I think is good 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:54.640 in this particular period of political chaos we're in. 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:59.359 I'm really sad about the Minnesota fifteen, mostly because well 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:03.640 mostly because of the repression, but beyond that, because Damn 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:07.600 fifteen was right there. They're being accused of being part 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:11.000 of a group called Damn and that's really what matters. 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:13.960 Is that now, I obviously that's not what matters, but 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:16.560 people should check out what's going on with the Minnesota 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.040 fifteen or as no one calls them, the Damn fifteen, 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:25.080 because it's bad. Well, this month we are commemorating Black 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:28.320 August with guests, interviews, and special episodes on the show. 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:32.079 Black August is a month of remembrance, study, and revolution, 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.240 honoring black freedom fighters and the movements they supported for 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:40.520 prison evolution, decolonization, and the end of racial capitalism. Black 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:43.800 August was started by incarcerated black radicals in the San 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:47.160 Quentin prison in nineteen seventy nine to mark the deaths 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:50.560 of George Jackson and his brother Jonathan Jackson at the 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:52.880 hands of the state of California a few years earlier, 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:56.320 and today people honor many dates in August throughout the 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:59.880 whole month. This includes the August ninth killing of Mike 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:04.360 Brown in twenty fourteen. August thirtieth was Fred Hampton's birthday 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.720 in nineteen forty eight, and August twenty first was the 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:11.440 beginning of Nat Turner's rebellion in eighteen thirty one, the 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:14.080 rebellion that has come up so many times on my 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:18.640 history podcast, including last week, I think ended up talking 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:20.680 about Nat Turner because we were talking about black literacy, 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:25.640 and there's no possible way to overstate how much Nat 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:30.600 Turner's rebellion scared white supremacist all throughout the country. And 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:33.599 one of the ways besides just like, oh, they actually 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:37.120 can fight back and kill people, was just literally that 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:41.320 Nat Turner could read, which was illegal, right, and like 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:43.880 had read. He was a preacher too, and he had 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:45.840 like read the words that he was preaching. And that's 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:48.640 good the piss out of people. Anyway, That's what I 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:50.480 got about Black August do you guys think say about it? 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:56.000 Yeah, I mean, I think it's definitely a month of commemoration, 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:59.480 and it's a chance, like a lot of the reading 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:03.760 and kind ofnology around it says to not only reflect, 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:08.640 but do things to honor like these freedom fighters and revolutionaries. 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.039 So I think it's just for me, like a really 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.680 key reminder of like the necessity of abolition and kind 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:19.200 of re educating myself about abolition. A book that I 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:22.200 recommend folks check out if they want to like dig 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:25.880 into things more is Tip of the Spear by Urisan 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:29.279 me Burton. That's like something I've read a lot over 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:31.880 the last year or two, and it kind of follows 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:36.960 a lot of the timeline and movements and prison revolts 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:41.000 and uprisings and organizing around the nineteen seventy one Attica 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:44.039 prison uprising. And I think it just gives a lot 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.599 of context, and I love that there's a lot in 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:50.039 there about like the Black Liberation Army and Kuwasi Ballagoon 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:54.919 and other revolutionaries and just it really digs into a 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:58.920 lot of the details of just like this really explosive 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:03.240 period of of rebellion inside of prisons in jails. So 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:05.400 I feel like I'd really recommend that, but I think 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.719 like auguest is so necessary. There's been countless men in 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:12.720 my family who've been deported or in prison, and I 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:16.840 don't know, carse. Reality is fucking evil, and I think 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:19.880 people should be educated and check in with their education 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.919 around it and find community events and find ways to 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:27.840 organize with people on the inside or letter writing. Especially 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:30.720 with all of the ongoing repression cases happening right now, 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:34.560 it just feels really relevant. 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:37.120 Whenever I try to like really quickly explain prison abolition 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:39.760 to somebody. There's like a comic. I don't remember who 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:41.960 wrote the comic. It's like four panels long or something, 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:44.880 but it's just like someone comes over someone's house and 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:46.400 they're like, oh, don't go out of the basement. I 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:48.520 have a guy in there. And you're like wait what. 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:50.560 You're like, I kind of trying to steal my car 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:52.440 a couple of years ago, so he's just down in 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:58.000 the basement now, and you're like, well, that's that seems completely. 0:06:57.920 --> 0:06:59.360 Fucked up, messed up. 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:01.880 Yes, Like every now and then, it just like really 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:06.040 hits me that if the wrong person hits the wrong 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:08.840 person just like punches them, just gets angry punches somebody, 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:12.040 which all of us have. No, I would never have 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:14.200 done such a terrible thing, but like all of us 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:16.600 have done. And you're like, oh, that could just especially 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:18.400 if like the system is out to get you for 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:21.800 various reasons. You're now spending years of your life in 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:24.240 a cage. You're just like, oh, I'm gonna put this 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:27.480 guy in a cage because he did drugs. You're like, wait, what, Yeah, 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:29.240 Like who's the evil one here? 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:32.120 Yeah, Like it makes me think of like the Khalif 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:34.600 Browder case, like how he was accused of stealing a 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:40.120 backpack and spent years in like jail And. 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:42.520 Is that the like rikers and he was like it 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:44.720 was pre trial, but they just didn't get around to him. 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:49.200 Yes, exactly. Yeah, And and like the point that you mentioned, 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:50.680 like it reminds me of I think it's like our 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.680 persons obsolete by Angela Davis, Like she talks about how 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:57.560 prisons one of their functions is to invisibilize people and 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.640 social issues, and so it makes me think about exactly 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:03.760 what you're saying, Like just hide the problem, throw in 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:07.200 a bunch of violence and misery and call it the 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:08.080 justice system. 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:11.760 Yeah, it's just yeah, yeah, real ironic name that they 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:17.000 picked for themselves. Well, we're not going to do nonfiction. 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:19.920 We're going to do fiction, which of course never has 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:23.520 any social value. That part sarcastic. I hear you have 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:24.760 a story for me this week? 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:30.480 Yes, I do. Today, we have a story and it's 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:34.000 titled What We Want, What We Believe, by Alex Smith. 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:37.800 And if people are like Alex Smith, that name is familiar. 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:41.480 Besides the fact that it is almost a brilliantly generic name, Alex. 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:43.880 If you're listening, no offense to you here. We did 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:47.640 another story by Alex Smith in March. A story was 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:50.679 called Girls Who Look Through Class and maybe I'll remember it. 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:52.680 It was about a grocery co op worker who gets 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.240 swept up into a cosmic struggle for justice, and it 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:57.760 was really fun and psychedelic. So I'm excited to hear 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:00.640 this one. I got that chance to meet Alex earlier 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:04.679 this year at a panel in Philadelphia of radical fiction 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:08.280 writers and it ruled. So I'm excited to hear more stories. 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:12.640 Oh cool. Yeah, this story, I would say, is framed 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.800 through the Black Panther's ten Point program, which is also 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.280 called Like, as I mentioned before, what We want what 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:22.280 we believe, And it follows basically the aftermath of the 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:27.600 police execution of a fictionalized black panther. And it's about 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:33.160 revolutionary legacy and transcendental joy. And it's also, i would say, 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:38.120 about the painful after image of repression, incarceration, and state violence. 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:42.880 And just as a kind of disclaimer for listeners, this 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:48.880 story does discuss gun violence, intravenous drug use, hearing voices, 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:54.800 childhood psychosis, and kids in traumatic situations. Just wanted to 0:09:54.800 --> 0:10:01.160 give that disclaim. Okay, okay, So let's begin. What we 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:06.480 want what we believed by Alex Smith one. We want freedom, 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:09.920 We want power to determine the destiny of our black community. 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:13.800 Regina Adams let her hair lick her face in the 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:18.000 pulsing rain. She ducked under a canopy near Lee's and waited, 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:22.240 her body drenched. Working down at the community college during 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:24.839 the day, taking classes at night, she was going to 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:28.080 be somebody, even if the long hours meant she couldn't 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:31.680 be somebody somebody. A car pulled up to the corner 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:34.040 and a man rolled down the window, one of them 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:37.360 long cars she thinks used to be white painted black. 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:41.000 Who are you out here for the man asked, excuse me, 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:46.320 Regina said, taken aback. She straightened her knockoff Pierre Cardon skirt, 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.440 tucked her satchel closer to her body, and shot the 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:52.240 man a look, bitch, don't let me get out the car. 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:55.120 The man said in a low tone. His one gold 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:58.520 tooth was noticeably dead and dull, but still somehow shown 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:01.680 in his rear view mirror as he suddenly adjusted himself. 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:05.320 Who in the car, Babe Randall from seemingly out of 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:09.600 nowhere called out. As he approached, he called himself rand X, 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:15.520 always reading, hanging with fives. What's happening? We have him 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:19.240 shrimp tonight. Oh that's your nigga. Huh, the man in 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:22.040 the car said to them. Ran shot him a look 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:25.840 that was all tight jawed and narrow eyed. Pulling Regina 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:32.080 in close. The ladies with me, he paused. Then, yeah, 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:35.120 I know who you are. I know you, with your 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:40.600 various entrepreneurial endeavors, don't have time to mess with decent 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:43.920 folks like us. So if you'll excuse the missus in me, 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:49.800 Rollo leaned back in his seat, tapping on the gas, 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:53.520 fixing his buffont hair in the mirror. You act to 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:57.000 as boys. He shook his head. Y'all ain't good for business. 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:02.640 Consider that a fair warning. You have a good Rollo's 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:06.840 fake slip car crept back up the street. Regina, lost 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:11.320 in the moment, suddenly tugged wildly away from Rand's grasp. Boy, 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.080 if you don't get your hands off of me, she demanded. 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:17.160 Rand had been trying to talk to her since freshman year. 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:20.800 She saw him change from a delinquent kid, a bag boy, 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:23.920 a stick up kid, and petty crimes to a man 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:28.080 walking through campus. He was not taking class one, just 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:32.520 using the school typewriters to make his little pamphlets. Sista, 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:37.480 no disrespect. I was just you were just tell you 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:40.320 what if you won't let me walk you home? Huh, 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:44.240 then he said, handing her a pamphlet. There was a 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.199 crude drawing of a black panther on it. Come down 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:50.480 to the YMCA on fifty second. There's something going down 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:53.160 and we need all the intelligent sisters like you in 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:57.280 the front row. You dig. Regina pursed her lips together 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:01.160 and gently rolled her eyes, crumbling the paper into her satchel. 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:05.400 She watched him walk away, dapping and shaking hands with 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:09.320 other black men. Tipping an imaginary hat to rain soap 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:13.120 black woman as he ambled up the street, disappearing into 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:18.559 the night. This Maya, what kind of name is that? 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:19.040 You? 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:24.080 African? Kill them? Maya sits down on the mattress. She 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:28.120 grabs the belt, tying it around her arm tight. The 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:31.880 loop feels like an extension of herself. She holds her 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:35.880 hand out impatiently toward one of the boys. There they 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:39.000 put the syringe in her hand. The two boys sit 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:44.360 beside her, on either side, barely men. A husky ambient 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:49.280 debris waffs off the bed. The entire thing is encrusted, peeling, 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:53.680 just like the room. Walls thick with dried blood, burnt 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:57.800 yellow with cigarette stains. Roaches scamper at the weight of 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:02.320 the young men. Kill them both. Maya ignores the young men, 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:06.520 swivels to one side and back to the other, avoiding 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:09.880 their grabby hands. Why she liked that, yo? Why she 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:15.040 acting like that? They don't deserve what you possess? Would 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:19.480 you just shut the fuck up? Maya rises, stabs one 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:21.720 of the boys in the face with the needle. She 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:26.480 kicks trash about the room. The other boy searches the mattress, 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:31.400 slapping newspapers and condom wrappers into the air. He finds 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:35.200 another needle and slowly plunges it into his arm. This 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:38.520 bitch stab me in the eye. Yeah, I seen that. 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:43.320 Something seems to wrap itself around her body, something wispy 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:47.040 and shaky, a filament of a thing. It feels cool. 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:51.440 It's the drug, she thinks, the come down. She wants 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.560 the long, warm drink of an opiate in her veins. 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:58.880 She sees blood leak from the boy's eye, the other 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:02.760 swollen with red tears and anger. He's foaming at the mouth. 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:05.800 Maya stares at the door and realizes she has never 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:09.480 noticed its dimensions before, that its frame was once a 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:14.240 sturdy oak, its splintered and ripped and vacant. Now just 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.920 a doorway. The hall, just a pitch black, never ending 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:21.080 hole that seems to retract from her vision the longer 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:25.760 she stares. Why had she never noticed it before? Something 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:31.800 about time, the piles of newspaper, the rotting clothes, the 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.400 rusting nails sticking out of the floorboards, and no windows. 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:39.080 She has not thought about leaving that place for weeks, 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:44.360 weeks like years, folded into her sallow skin, the feeling 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:48.920 over her morphs into something darker. Can she see it? 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:53.280 All squiggly lines and rotten, jagged teeth and encasing her. 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:58.240 It swirls around her, seizes her. The boy lunges at her. 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:02.280 Then the thing evaporates, twisting in the air and materializing 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:05.360 in the hallway about ten steps beyond the door, as 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:08.040 a little white girl in an orange dress floats in 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:12.440 the darkness. The dress hovers and curls around the child's body. 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:17.160 She steals her face, raises a finger and motions for 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:21.720 Maya to come. The boy grabs her shoulder. Maya steps 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:24.720 out of the door and feel her feet beating a 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:28.880 path toward the girl. The child's lips draw back like 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:33.480 dry sacks. Her eyes sink in. The child's face is 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:38.320 all jagged, monstrous teeth. They don't deserve your skin. They 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:43.400 don't deserve your drug. Maya freezes. Then suddenly she is 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:47.080 ripped back into the room by a pair of black hands, 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:50.960 back into the sad void of the young man's face, 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:57.760 screaming hot breath on her cheek. Number two, We want 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:03.480 full employment for our people, Regina, Regina, get up a 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:08.000 beach in California, maybe a warm sun, A seagull chimed 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:13.960 in the afternoon air, aloft but losing feathers. Regina's dressed 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:18.399 danced on the breeze alive. Who is this smallish, dark 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:23.040 black man running panting his way up the short mounds 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:27.440 of sand on this beautiful beach? Regina Regina was under 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.320 a desk. She looked up through the bullet holes and 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:34.560 the angled turned over tabletop. She held a double barreled 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:38.399 shotgun in her tiny brown hand. Draped over the desk 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:42.960 was Harold Martin, and over him was Jerome Pratt. Beside 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:45.480 her was a skinny Chinese man with soft o eyes 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:48.600 named Tet Tet, bunching his chest where blood soaked his 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:51.920 fingers through the brown fishing vest he seemed to wear 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:56.200 every day. Regina, Regina get up. She could hear him 0:17:56.200 --> 0:18:00.199 in her head, somewhere rattling down its labyrinthine caverns, but 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:04.240 she couldn't see his face. Regina searched the room. Her 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:08.760 senses felt nothing but her own breath. There, behind a 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.720 foul cabinet, he was carrying an ingram mac tent. The 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:16.119 poor man's busy, she thought to herself, analyzing the gun. 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:20.240 Proud she got it right, rand X. When he fired 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:23.360 his gun. She knew she got it right. A thundering 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:26.440 round ripped through the air. Regina, go to the back 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:30.880 room now before bullet's tour back at rand Was he hit? 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:35.480 Wasn't she just lying there cradled in a strangely terse 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:39.879 yet weirdly doey arms. Was he not holding her the 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:43.240 same way he had done every time? Weren't they snug 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:46.480 on the couch watching Lieutenant and her kiss that white 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:50.080 man on star trek at a reception after a rally 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:54.520 on Temple's campus. He was there right when she did 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:57.320 her best impression of Brother Huey while carrying the new 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:01.040 bullhorn she bought on South Street with her financial aid money. 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:05.720 And she was putting sandwiches and bananas and grocery bags 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:07.960 to get to the neighborhood kids for the Sunday meal 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:11.919 programs they started that summer at the gun range. He 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:15.520 was always gripping her up from behind, whispering some mess 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:19.639 in her ear, playing all the time, Yeah she been 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:23.360 read that ridiculous red book. Randall, if you don't get 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:26.000 your ass in this bed, I'm going to show you 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:29.760 a red book. Show you right, the moon hung low 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:33.639 and the sky that night looked like a searchlight in clouds. 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:37.040 When the smoke from the incense hit it. Don't worry 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:39.560 about me. You have to get out of here, go 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:44.080 to the safe house. Another bang and another bang. Ran 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:47.800 spun around with a sharp, contorted jerk. Regina saw his 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:51.919 body gracelessly drift towards the floor through the sludge of 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:58.160 gravity and time. Regina, please, She turned toward the side door. 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.320 It was not the one Ran wanted her to go through. 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:05.520 She cocked her shotgun that she put her mind back 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:09.520 on the gun range. That was where he proposed. The 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:13.199 bullets ripped through paper when they reeled it in. He 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:16.879 made a quip about changing all the target outlines for 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:21.240 pictures of Commissioner Rizzo. She fingered one of the bullet 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:24.840 holes and licked her lips. Not bad, he said to her. 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:29.119 Not bad, She smirked. I'll show you not bad. She 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:33.440 kicked the door in a supply closet, a stool, up 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:36.159 on top of the stool and out of the small 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:39.960 top window. Could she make it, she rubbed the slight 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:43.320 bump of her belly. She would have to. She looked 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:46.200 out of the window and into the street. The crowd 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:49.359 had gathered a few blocks up. Their nervous anger was 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:52.480 trained on the front door of the building. Regina was 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:55.639 trapped in. Just to the far opposite side of the 0:20:55.680 --> 0:21:00.240 horde was an alley. A black cat walked spryly. They're 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:03.919 a very small pool of rotting juice from the garbage bins. 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:08.160 It arched its back and stretched. It looked free. 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:12.760 But do you know what, dear listeners makes you free? 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:16.960 Like that cat? Your ability to hit the forward fifteen 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:20.280 seconds button as many times as it takes before you. 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:42.800 Hear Prince's voice again. Because here's ads. 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:35.240 And we're back. 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:46.760 The bed, though, that's where it wants to lie, lies 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:49.560 on the bed, not supposed to be on the bed, 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:51.560 but it's the best place to look up at the 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:55.199 ceiling because the entire room opens up from there, a 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:59.680 portal maybe where all manner of things can come pouring out, 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:04.160 things like bouncy. Why do I wear a suit because 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:06.640 I am dignified? You see, I wear a suit because 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:08.680 I want to walk into town with a gorgeous woman 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:11.600 on my arm, perhaps spinner around in the aisle at 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:15.640 Bergdorfhin the Goodman's by her, the finest furs at Macy's 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:19.280 serenade her in the hoisery section at Kmart. Only the 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:22.920 best for her. You understand the finest silver, the finest goal, 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:27.959 and lots and lots of diamonds. But you're a bunny. 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:33.240 Tut tut. That's neither hair Snack's nick nor there I'm 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:37.240 a creature of class, a man of grace. After all 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:41.639 we've been through together. Surely you can see that sits 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:46.760 on the bed and sighs, weary of bouncys ridiculous proclamations. 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:51.400 And Bouncy pushed that third grader into the creek, almost drowning. 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:55.960 The boy let the rabbit stick around, despite the fact 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:59.560 that it was that got a beating for it, ran 0:22:59.680 --> 0:23:03.520 my wa or out, couldn't sit down for a week, 0:23:04.320 --> 0:23:08.280 couldn't watch Fat Albert all that year. When Bouncy stole 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:13.280 some candy from mister Griffin's store, he left holding it 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:17.000 a long hot ride in a policeman's car. Another beating 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:20.600 and the hushed whispered tones in the living room. Later 0:23:21.440 --> 0:23:24.480 the boys got problems for the show Knafelise, but I 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:27.160 don't know what to do with them. My daughter dropped 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:31.440 him off and I ain't seen her since. I've been 0:23:31.440 --> 0:23:35.080 reading about all these disorders. They've been discovering something about 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:40.639 the attention deficit. Maybe he needs some counseling. Counseling not 0:23:40.760 --> 0:23:44.520 my blood. Haha, you can forget that. Wouldn't hear the 0:23:44.600 --> 0:23:47.800 end of it from Hattie down at the church? Mm hmm, 0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:52.080 I know that's right with their sorry ass potato salad. Well, 0:23:52.280 --> 0:23:55.200 it was just a thought. Nothing a belt can't fix. 0:23:56.440 --> 0:24:00.199 You want to open this, don't you? Bouncey stand in 0:24:00.240 --> 0:24:03.639 front of Grandma's dresser like a game show hostess. His 0:24:03.800 --> 0:24:08.199 fur is matted and I dangles sloppily from underneath a patch. 0:24:08.960 --> 0:24:12.919 His suit rags. A dirty white foot pokes through the 0:24:12.960 --> 0:24:17.840 gaping mouth of his floppy shoe. Still there's a manic 0:24:18.080 --> 0:24:24.080 composure about him. Stands and pushes Bouncy aside. They aren't 0:24:24.119 --> 0:24:26.800 even supposed to be in there, not on the bed, 0:24:27.480 --> 0:24:31.440 not playing around in the dresser. Again, just leave me alone. 0:24:31.680 --> 0:24:36.520 You're bad news, Bouncy. Why bad news? Here's the thought? 0:24:37.000 --> 0:24:41.960 Why I would Bouncy Stumbling on his messed up shoe, 0:24:42.400 --> 0:24:48.760 falls forward into the dresser. It pops open cranes neck 0:24:49.080 --> 0:24:53.080 to peek a piece of crimson, a snatch of soft 0:24:53.160 --> 0:24:58.560 pearly white, go on, go on. Yes, The room darkens. 0:24:59.080 --> 0:25:03.160 The rabbit stands in a dim light, then by itself. 0:25:03.600 --> 0:25:11.560 The dresser rumbles open soft cotton, wonderful velvet grandmothers panties 0:25:11.640 --> 0:25:18.120 are as exquisite as imagine them. Gently runs fingers over 0:25:18.160 --> 0:25:23.800 the fabrics. The clothes seemed to grip small hands. Soon 0:25:24.920 --> 0:25:29.400