Streetwise

I love to fly.

It's just you're alone.

You have peace and quiet.

Nothing around you but clear blue sky.

No one to hassle you.

No one to tell you where to go or what to do.

The only bad pad about flying

is having to come back down to the fucking world.

Spare some change, ma'am, so me and my father can get something to eat?

-No, I don't, son. -All right.

Why not say you're my father, man?

- No. -All right, then get lost.

I gotta make some money.

Living downtown, a typical day was

I'd get up at 12:00,

um, take a shower, get something to eat.

Then 3:00, I was on my robbing streak.

Start robbing people until 6:00, 7:00.

Spare some change, sir?

Then I'd go get my drugs, get my food.

Get my — Whoever l was gonna sleep with for that night.

What's up, what's up?

- Not much. -Spare some change?

- Hell no. -Let me get a kiss.

- Hell no. -Oh, well. Life's hard.

Party until 12:00.

Then everybody would turn in and stuff

[blues guitar: "Teddy Bears' Picnic" playing]

- -

Oh, that I have. But I don't want to give it up.

-Give it up! -No!

Look at that bleached blonde.

Look, dogs.

What? Dogs?

Does she live on a farm, or what? Fifteen dogs?

- -

- -

Sir, you wouldn't be able to spare a little bit of change?

-No. -Not at all, huh?

You know you're a fucking dick?

I wasn't even thinking about running away or nothing,

you know, but, uh, my dad once told me, if I ever got caught selling pot,

never come home 'cause he'd kill me.

So when it all came down,

I just said, "Oh, well."

I never miss my mom and dad.

They're just part of my past now, the way I look at it.

-Rat, you going with her? -What? Where?

-You going with her? -Who, her? This is my old lady here.

-Why? -Where you be living at?

There's this old abandoned hotel,

and we took all the furniture we could find in all the different rooms

and put it all in this one room.

And we'd just carry water up in these gallon jugs

'cause it didn't have no water or electricity

And we'd just shower down at this place called the Compass on Washington Avenue

for 50 cents

and do our laundry in the laundromat and whatever it took.

You know, it was pretty easy, actually.

Smash, bang, crash 'em up.

And then me and Jack just started hanging out together.

I would never have even thought about catching the train, except for Jack.

He showed me the ways of the trains —

how they run, where they go.

And Jack taught us you can tell the main track because it sits highest.

They got, like, a gravel mound,

and it will sit higher than all the rest of the track.

And then you just look north, and that's toward the north yard.

Then you just count three tracks over to your right.

And, you know, we'd just jump on a train and be on our way.

I want to be really rich and live on a farm

with a bunch of horses,

which is my main best animal,

and have three yachts or more

and diamonds and jewels and all that stuff

So you don't have any symptoms fight now?

I don't think so.

But you do have some concern

that you might have a sexually transmitted disease?

Mm-hmm. Nothing serious.

It might just be trichomoniasis again. I don't know.

Uh-huh. You ever have one before?

-Mm-hmm. - What did you have?

I've had chlamydia, trichomoniasis and gonorrhea.

That's quite a bit.

I think it is very strange that older men like little girls,

'cause they're perverts is what they is.

I mean, I like the money, but I don't like them.

You've been sexually active since the time that you were treated?

-What do you mean by that? - Oh, good question.

Have you had sex with anyone since you were treated in Portland?

-No, just dates. -And —

The first date I turned was about two Thursdays ago.

Then I turned another one on a Friday.

Some dates are — are nice,

and some of them, the young ones, are really cute,

but I don't want to be interested in them.

Except for the money, that's it.

Man, killer "doob-wah."

When we'd get, uh, real low on money,

I'd take Mike's .45, because I'd sold my .38,

and I'd go roll a queer.

Tastes like Colombian to me.

Ain't that bud that's going around, that's for sure.

Oh, no way. You gotta buy that stuff in grams.

I think it went out.

- What did? -Oh, I guess not.

You know Alan and that guy he was running around with?

He had us walking around Mount Vernon for two days

looking for this queer that turned him on to all this procaine.

You know, we was gonna go and live in his house for a day,

and when he went to bed we was gonna tie him up,

you know, take all his money he had in his wall safe,

all his procaine and all his marijuana and stuff he had.

We walked around Mount Vernon for two days looking for this guy.

-Yeah, he was telling me about that. -I finally told Alan and his friend,

I told him, "Fuck off, man."

Me and Mike got on the freeway and hitchhiked up there to Bellingham.

That's when you had all them fucking keys and the cops was asking you —

Yeah!

What happened to that Burlington Northern key?

My mom's got all my keys.

Just a little bit?

Spare some change?

-You know I can't spare no change. -Come on, man. I'm poor.

Excuse me, sir. Can you spare a little bit of change?

I used to at least bring in $300, $400.

For a blowjob, it would be 30 on up.

And for a lay, it would be, like, 40 on up.

Most of these veterinarian has would charge more than,

you know, us little kids do.

Isn't it after every two weeks you can get pregnant?

After your period, every two weeks?

You can get pregnant anytime during your cycle.

A person can even get pregnant when she's having her period.

It's not as likely.

Okay, because I pulled a date and didn't use a rubber,

'cause he said he didn't use them, so...

How often do you usually have your periods?

Every four weeks.

Mm-hmm. They come pretty regular?

Well, I just started in August.

- Just in August? - August 17th.

So you'd only had the one in August?

And the one in September.

Uh-huh. Okay, so you've barely begun.

-Did you ever have periods before then? - Uh-uh.

- You're how old? - Fourteen.

And how would you feel about being pregnant?

-I want a baby. - You do?

But not by no trick, though.

But if you're pregnant right now,

then it would be a pregnancy by a trick.

And what's your feeling about being pregnant, if you are,

if a trick is the father?

Well, I'm not getting an abortion.

- You might? -No, I won't.

Oh, you would not get an abortion?

I don't believe in it.

And tell me about that. Why don't —

What's your feeling about abortion?

Because it's like you're murdering somebody.

Murd — I can't pronounce the word.

But it's, like, it's a little baby inside you, and you're just killing it.

And that's not fair to the baby.

I mean, it's not the baby's fault. You know what I mean?

So that would not be a choice for you?

Mm-mmm.

So, you want to put your feet up?

Let's slide these things out a little bit.

Oh, man.

This one's stuck.

-Okay. Slide your bottom all the way down. - My blanket's falling.

A little bit farther until you can feel me.

Okay, that's good. Just like that.

I mean, I used to turn dates lots and lots of times.

Just about every day I'd be pulling dates,

day and night, day and night.