Paper Soldiers

What you say?

Nigga got an eye on me no matter what he doin'.

He's got eyes in that sick-ass hat he got on.

-How the fuck do you deal cards like you retarded, Johnny? -Yeah, man.

You got three fingers or something?

He's dealin' with his knuckles.

-He's dealin' with his knuckles. -Fuck you!

-White people deal differently, man. -Come on.

Man, look, where I come from everybody was a hustler,

especially in my clique.

Funny thing about us, is that we was broke as shit. I'm talkin' about broke.

On an average day, we barely had, like, $10 between us.

Listen to this. For fun, we used to play cards, right?

But we couldn't play for money, because we didn't have any.

We would play for our pride.

First, I had my man Burtie. Burtie was Black as shit.

Yo, I'm so Black, I play hide and go seek when I was young,

and they ain't find me till I was grown!

Then, there's my man, Johnny. He was the white guy.

And I wanna be Black so bad,

I got a picture of Don Cornelius under my pillow.

- See? He white. -And I can't dance for shit!

-All right. Sit down. - Then there was me. I'm Shawn.

I just had issues.

I'm short, and I'm Black as shit and I don't like it!

Plus, I got real big teeth!

Plus, I'm a pussy! P-U-S-S-C! Puss-C!

-That's right! -Man, my first hustle I had to do was with my man Burtie.

-Of course, it was the crack game. -

You have my motherfuckin' money by tomorrow, yo.

Shit, with coke like that, we gonna sell that shit out by tomorrow, man.

We gonna have Rick James smokin' again, man.

- -Who the fuck is that, nigga?

I just heard that the money was fast and steady.

So I tried to get down with the largest crew in my 'hood.

That was Big T. That didn't last very long.

- -Oh, shit!

Oh, shit, yo! What the fuck, yo?

-What the fuck is goin' on? -Where's the shit?

-I don't know! -If you gonna shoot us, shoot us on the…

- -

- -Oh, shit!

-Ow! Ow! Ow! -

-Aw, man! -The gun's jammed, yo! The gun's jammed.

-Yo, we gotta go. The boys are comin'. -

…to the flag of the United States of America…

-Yo, I swear to God, God is so good! -I was scared.

That's when I decided the drug game just wasn't for me.

You do a lot of dumb shit, this law thing can mess you up bad,

especially when you tryin' to live straight.

It's like every little step I took forward,

it seemed like I was takin' two steps backwards.

Life sometimes throws you a curve.

When my mom died, that hit me hard.

Suddenly, I was the oldest person in my family.

My girl and my son, they didn't have nobody to count on but me.

That was just a whole lot of pressure to take at one time.

Shawn. You all right?

Yeah. I'm… I'm all right. I'm gonna be okay.

-I'm gonna miss her though, man. -We all gonna miss her.

-She was a good woman, and she looks good in that picture. -Mm.

-Mommy, I'm hungry. -You're hungry?

I'm gonna take little man to get something to eat, and you're gonna be okay.

-Mm-hmm. I'm sure. -You sure?

-Okay. All right. -You go ahead and feed my little boy.

-Big-head. - Do you know what you want to eat?

- Your mom was a good woman, Shawn. -Thanks.

-She's with God now. -You have our condolences, Shawn baby.

She looks so lovely, so natural.

And what a beautiful spread.

Didn't they put out a beautiful spread to honor Shawn's mama?

-Excuse me, I gotta-- -Jesus Christ, woman!

Can't you see this boy's grievin'? And you talk about some spread!

What's goin' on, y'all? Didn't know y'all was out here.

-What up, Burt? -What's poppin', dawg? Tryin' to hold it down, baby.

-Yo, what up, what up, man? -All right. Who that, KB?

-What's up, nigga? When did you get home? -Like five minutes ago.

-No bullshit? -Yeah, my condolences and all that.

If your family need anything, I'm the same nigga.

-I'm still here. -Oh. Oh, oh, oh!

What you doin'? You're at my mom's house.

Nigga, nobody gonna fuck with you here. There's old people here.

That's why I'm puttin' it on safety. You can never be that careful.

This nigga's crazy. There's like 60-year-old men in there, and you got a gun with you.

What've you been up to, man, since you been back?

I'm cuttin' hair. Mostly legit shit, you know what I mean?

You can fuck with this shit? 'Cause my moms usually does it.

Hold up, hold up, man. He's not fuckin' with that white shit.

Don't even worry about it. I'm gonna give it to you on me. You hold onto your green.

-Meet me on the nigh in the nigh at 9:00. -All right. Cool.

You need to cut all your shit off and look like a cancer patient,

so you can raise money and buy some new clothes, motherfucker.

-Clothes? -New clothes.

KB, listen to this dude talk about new clothes.

-Fams, you got on black fatigues at a funeral. -Where it at?

Yo, black on Black, man. It's a funeral, nigga.

And who the fuck is "Supreme 33", anyway? Fake Pat Ewing, nigga?

Supreme is the African nigga I bought it from. It's boot-leg.

-"Bootleg." -Put a tie on with that jersey.

Fuck y'all, you Three Heartbeat-lookin' motherfuckers.

Yo, Shawn, let me holler at you for a minute.

What's up, my nigga? I'm sorry about your ma.

I know it's a fucked-up time be talkin' about this shit,

but I hope you ain't lose your thirst for no serious paper.

What you talkin' about losin' my thirst, man? I didn't lose shit, man.

Had that shit with Big T, though, man. That fucked me up a little bit.

-That scared the shit outta me. -That shit was bad scary.

But, yo, we could do this shit, yo. I'm tellin' you, man.

-Do what? -Yo, the B&E game, son.

What? No! You stupid? I ain't breakin' nobody's shit.

All right, son. Yo, your ma's willed you this house right here, right?

Rent-To-Own gonna want their money on the first of the month, nigga.

-It's gonna get serious, B. -I hear you. I'm cool.

I'm gettin' ready to go in the house, man.

-I'm gonna holler, man. -Gimme a ring. Peace.

I want clean urine.

I don't want any problems at your job.

Nothing. Two weeks, no problems from you.

Hey, you got some pretty eyes, right?

Sista's sexy, chinky and shit.

-Great. Thank you. -I been pissin' in this cup three or four times now.

And you're gonna keep pissin' in the cup.

It's about time you let me fix that up right there.

-What the fuck you talkin' about? -That, down there.

I'm usin' your crib for my address. Get the fuck out of my office.

-One time. -Out!

Treat her good, nigga. That's my piece there.

Is he serious? That's your boy?

That's your man.

-He looks like a husky Ninja Turtle. -

-What's up, Shawn? -Nothin', ma'am. Nothin'.

-I'm sorry about your mother. -Mm. Yeah.

You know, sometimes added responsibility can be beneficial

-to somebody that's in your situation. -

So I'll need you to get it together. I'm gonna give you a number to call…

In case you have any questions about the mortgage.

-Oh, all right. So, is that… We done? Or you, uh… -No, I need one more thing.

- -You know.

Ho-oh. What? What? You want this today?

-Are you smoking weed? -Ho.

Stop. Where am I? I'm in a parole office, right?

You want me to go to the weed? 'Cause, fuck, I'm done with that.

-That's not for me no more. -You gonna fill up the cup?

You… I'll tell you what, though.

'Cause I didn't prepare for this test at all.

Let me study, at least. And I'll come back.

-When do you want me to come back? -I'll give you two weeks.

-Two weeks, you come back. I need your pee clean. -Two weeks?

-Yes. Clean, Shawn. -That's right. That's more than enough.

-I'm good? Out? -Out.

-Thank you. -Two weeks.

- Two weeks. Clean piss. -Yes.

-Two weeks. Clean piss. -Crystal-clear piss.

Now, my PO was real, but I wasn't listenin' to nothin' she said.

As far as I could see, shit wasn't as simple as she made it sound.

Plus all she did was ask me about weed.

You ask me, I think she was the one with the drug habit.

So what I did, I just told her what she wanted to hear.

-My boss at the beeper shop, on the other hand… -Where the hell have you been?

-He was a dickhead. -What do you think I'm runnin' over here?

My bad.

He didn't give a fuck about nobody but himself.

-Yo, I think I'm gonna have one of these. -Come on, man.

Dude, you got the boss checkin'. Yo, yo, yo, yo.

-That's Tamika, man! -Oh, shit!

I haven't seen her around. So she is back. Oh, shit.

She comin' in. She comin' in. Yo, look. Can I be the boss?

-Let me be the boss. -No, nigga, it's my turn to be the fuckin' boss.

-No, I let you be the pager king last time. -Pager king was whack, B.

-I didn't get no ass or no number, man. -You was the king.

-I had to stalk the bitch. -Come on, please?

- -Don't be fuckin' playin' me.

Nobody gonna fuckin' play you. That's corny ass sh…

Man, why don't you get the fuckin' boxes, man?

Go ahead! I dare you. Say somethin'.

Say somethin'. Get fired. Fast.

-Bad time? -No. No.

That's what I go through, 'cause I just brought this.

In other words, I own all this. This me.

He want to be a little smart… Go!

-I'm sorry. Uh, what can I do for you? -All right.

Can you show me how to program my phone numbers in here?

-'Cause I can't figure it out. -Let me see this. Mm-hmm.

-Yeah. This a ESN2020. Did you know that? -No.

I'm gonna have to shoot a ten in your 20. Yeah. Hold this. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Look. This is what you gotta do, right? Right here?

Write your number down right there, and what I gotta do is…

I gotta call you as soon as you get outside,

because I have to do it for you over the phone.

-Excuse me. Excuse me. Maybe I can help you out. -God!

- -Why the fuck you come back in?

-You fucked it up. You fucked it up. -How I fucked it up?

She's gone 'cause of your ass.

She was writin' her fuckin' number down, Kay!

That was fuckin' whack.

Another of this same shit.

Hold up. No, no, no.

Oh, hell, no. Somethin' wrong.

-What's wrong? -What's wrong? My fuckin' check is wrong.