The Brave
Raphael I promise.
Marta He’s hiding.
Raphael Thanks, honey.
Child Mom, Mom, look, come here quick.
Raphael Frankie? Frankie?
Frankie I can’t hear you unless you use the phone.
Raphael Can you hear me now?
Frankie Yeah.
Raphael Can I come in?
Frankie No.
Raphael Just for a second?
Frankie Okay.
Raphael Hay. Come on, I want you to go somewhere with me.
Frankie Where?
Raphael Just into town to buy some things.
Frankie Can I stay here?
Raphael I kinda wanted you to go.
Frankie Well, I kinda wanted to stay here.
Raphael Come on. Come on. It’s a pretty nice day, don’t you think?
Frankie I guess so.
Raphael You know, I used to go for walks like this with Papa, when I was a kid. But not here, though. We didn’t always live here. Used to live up in the hills. It was better there, you’d’ve liked it. This isn’t such a good place for you, I mean for you and your mom and your sister. I know that.
Frankie It’s okay.
Raphael Well, there’s a lot better places. Maybe you don’t know about ’em yet, but you’re gonna. You know, like… some of them places you see on the TV. Yeah. I just want you to know that I’m trying to do something about it. I don’t want you to have to grow up here. I want you and Marta to have a real house, and a real yard, you know? I want you to have some nice things.
Frankie That new TV’s pretty nice.
Raphael Yeah. But there’s other things, you know, like… like an education, and like school, and shit.
Frankie I don’t like school.
Raphael Well, you gotta like school, you know, ‘cos some day… you’re gonna get outta here. And you’re gonna have a chance to be somebody. You hear me? ‘Cos if anything happens to me… you’re the man of the house. Think you can do that?
Frankie I think so.
Raphael What’s the matter?
Frankie I heard Mom say you might go back to jail again.
Raphael No. I ain’t going back to jail.
Frankie Promise?
Raphael Yeah, I promise. Come on, lets’ go get the stuff. You ready?
Frankie Oh, yeah.
Shop Clerk May I help you with something?
Marta Where does this go Poppa?
Raphael I don’t know, I think it’s extra.
Frankie You mean he’s gonna need an extra heart?
Raphael Is that what this is? Let’s see. Oh, yeah.
Frankie Oh, he doesn’t have a ding-dong.
Marta Ding-dong, ding-dong.
Raphael Maybe it’s in here, buddy. Let’s see.
Marta Maybe it’s a girl.
Frankie Then where’s the boobies, stupid?
Rita I think we should put his game away for now. Let’s go inside, I’m gonna make some coffee. Go inside, do as I told you.
Fr. Stratton Hi, Bobby. Here you go. Here you go. Some for you, too.
Child Thanks, Father.
Fr. Stratton Saturday, confession, huh? Huh? How are you, Raphael?
Raphael I’m fine, Father. You?
Fr. Stratton Good. Good, thanks. Oh, you got a lot of new stuff.
Raphael Yeah, you know. I got some stuff.
Fr. Stratton Pretty expensive stuff.
Raphael I guess.
Fr. Stratton Well, you know me, I like to reserve judgement. That’s what the good Lord says. And after all, he is my employer. But something smells funny.
Raphael Check your shoes, maybe you stepped in something.
Fr. Stratton Let’s not muck about. Your Rita is a little concerned about your new-found wealth. Quite frankly, so am I. I don’t have to tell you what this looks like to her, and to everybody.
Raphael I guess you didn’t hear, I got a job.
Fr. Stratton Oh yeah?
Raphael Uh-uh.
Fr. Stratton Where? I know most of the business people in town, be good to know who’s being so generous.
Raphael Look, Rita asked you to come here with the big speech, okay? Fine. I appreciate the thought, I appreciate your time. And I know what all this looks like… of course I do. But it ain’t what you think, I promise.
Fr. Stratton Okay. But she feels she should ask me to come out here and talk to you. I have to talk to everybody anyway. This dump has been bought by a big salvage company, and they’re looking to move everybody off the land, and they don’t care what it costs. Now, I’ve spoken to them. They’re not playing, just to let you know. If you get your ass carted off to jail, your Rita and your kids won’t have a roof over their heads.
Raphael When are they moving in?
Fr. Stratton They’ve already started. So if you’ve done something wrong… it’s time to make arrangements.
Raphael You know, on Sunday we’re going to have a big fiesta, Father, and er… I just know that Rita would love for you to be there.
Fr. Stratton I’ll be at the church, if you need me.
Raphael You’ll be there if I don’t, too, won’t you?
Lou Snr …rattlesnakes… oh, play golf… (Talks native language) …you guys. Look at this hat. Huh? Ain’t that something of a (talk’s native language). All these presents he gave us. Oh those fingernails are beautiful, baby. Look at this hat, huh? Now that… how in the world could he know that I was Willie Nelson’s bus driver? And Wayland Jennings? Tony Joe Wright, huh? That is one big boner of a hat, and he gave it to me. Fuck him.
Maria You should talk to him. Maybe they need some help over there.
Lou Snr You got STP, baby, ‘cos you read my mind, you’re a psycho. Oh shit, (talks native language)
Lou Jnr (Talks native language)
Luis (Talks native language). Let me get a fucking beet. Oh man, what a hot fucking day, huh?
Lou Snr Yeah.
Luis (Talks native language).
Lou Snr Oh, two, three.
Luis No shit.
Lou Snr And I’m playing, me and Chi-Chi.
Luis You play with… Oh yeah man, what you want me to do, bit this shit off? Or you think maybe you can open it, eh?
Lou Snr You can’t tell Maria ain’t never seen you bite that thing off.
Luis Not today, okay. Fucking thing. Oh, really nice service here. Mucho gracias. Yo, Maria, what’s that flaky brother-in-law of yours up to these days? We got some business to discuss.
Maria Why don’t you leave him alone, Luis, huh? He’s trying to go straight. He got a job. For the first time he’s got a little bit of money in his pocket.
Luis See, that’s what I’m saying, you know. You can’t fucking trust nobody. Me, we were partners, man, you know, bro’s, you know, like… what’s that como se yamas saying? Fucking, “Tea for one, and all for two”.
Lou Snr Yeah.
Luis Shit. That ain’t no real fucking job he got, that’s a fucking score. Come on, after all we’ve been through together. You don’t hold out. I’m broke. N-O-T G-O-D.
Lou Snr Not God?
Luis Not what? Not good. Man, what are you, fucking stupid? Fucking man, you go to sleep man.
Lou Snr You’re just jealous of him, ‘cos he’s got a job and you don’t.
Luis Job? Job my fucking arse. Let me tell you something, okay. They’re fucking laying people off all over the county, and this bug gets a job?
Lou Snr That’s right.
Luis Oh, yeah, right. He probably got hired by a bunch of what… good Christians?
