MIRCrew
Buona visione
[birds chirping]
[indistinct chattering]
Man, she ugly.
[girl 1] Did you see her face?
[boy 1] Ugly.
[kids] [chanting] Ugly girl! ugly girl! [giggling]
-[baseball bat thudding] -[children yelping]
[boy 2] Stop it! I’m gonna tell!
-You stop! -[boy 1 crying loudly]
[children screaming]
[young woman 1] Twins.
[both gasp]
Them twins burnin’.
They been burnin’.
They had no say in it.
Just burn...
and burn.
[intriguing music playing]
[young woman 2] They got their own ways.
[young woman 1] Eat... sleep...
dream, all alone together.
-And burnin’ all the while. -[cereal pouring]
[car doors opening and closing]
[car engine starting]
[little girl giggles, distorted]
[engine revs]
[young woman 1] Them twins...
them burnin’ twins...
always on the outside, lookin’ in.
[young woman 1] You dropped this.
If one finds trouble...
[young woman 2] ...the other can feel it and come runnin’.
-Thanks. Thank you. -Mm-hm.
[young woman 2] Racine is the rough one
who still got some pretty to her.
Racine.
[gasps]
[Racine] Looking like she looked,
Anaia don’t get to be mean.
Racine does, though.
What you lookin’ at, pretty girl?
Huh?
[Racine and Anaia] She got both their mean.
[grunts aggressively]
Yeah, but he was always gonna fire us.
He a little bitch.
He a big bitch.
He a dick-in-the-negatives ass bitch.
He a breath-smell-like-shit-
took-a-shit- in-his-mouth ass bitch!
Ooh!
-Ooh! -Ooh!
Ooh!
Who’s that from?
I don’t know.
[Anaia] And suddenly, it’s like
everything that’s been missin’...
tryin’ to make its way back.
[woman] Hey there, baby girls.
[Anaia] Mama.
Look at y’all.
Oh, shit.
We got a mama?
Yep. It say right here.
I thought they said she was dead in a fire.
Well, she ain’t.
[Anaia] She live in the South?
Yep.
Way in the South?
Yep.
Twin?
Uh-uh.
-"Uh-uh" what? -I know what you gonna say.
[both] Seems like we gotta go to where she at.
See, I knew you was gonna say something stupid.
How is that stupid?
’Cause she don’t know us, and we don’t know her.
She know our names.
She know how to find us. We gotta go see her.
And we ain’t got no job. Ain’t shit else to do.
Why she ain’t come see us in all these years?
Only one way to find out.
-Let’s go. -Now?
Right now ’cause she finna go.
Where she finna go?
Die.
[scoffing] Die?
-She gonna die? -Yep.
[both spit]
-Don’t. -Do.
[Anaia] Don’t.
Do.
You cried about that kitten
we couldn’t get out the engine that one time.
Mm-hm. The one that died.
You cried, remember?
-All emotional. -Yeah!
I do be getting all emotional sometimes.
-[chuckles] -Like a lil punk.
Yeah, yeah. Ha ha.
Like a lil bitch.
[giggles] Now you takin’ it too far.
-Switch. -[chuckles]
But for real though, twin, we need to go.
I got stuff to do.
-I gotta meet up with Ellis. -Ellis who?
-Oh, him. -[chuckles]
We supposed to meet up.
Here we go again about that man she met online.
What you gotta meet up with him for?
We need to talk about the future.
Ain’t you told me...
he don’t like for you to look at him while y’all doing it.
I let him get it from behind.
If I look at him, I might start catching feelings.
I ain’t trying to catch feelings.
Twin...
I ain’t got men falling all over me like you, ’Cine.
Some of us gotta make do.
If we don’t go now...
we might not get another chance.
[Anaia] Where Racine go, Anaia always gonna follow.
Ain’t no choice but to...
[Racine] Go meet her motherfucking destiny.
[hip-hop music playing]
[Anaia whooping]
[both whooping]
[both laughing]
[hip-hop music continues playing]
[Anaia] Hey! Hey!
[Racine] ’Cine wonderin’ if she look like her mama.
If maybe they got the same smile,
or laugh, or somethin’.
[hip-hop music stops]
[both] You look good. thanks. [chuckle]
[both sigh]
-You think she gonna like it? -She gonna like it?
[Anaia] You ready?
To see God?
God?
She made us, didn’t she?
You gonna get struck down.
[Anaia] Wait, my name ain’t spelled right.
Good mornin’.
[Ruby] They good.
Those are my girls.
Don’t mind the smoke.
It’s for the pain.
Glad y’all could make it.
I had the nurse put that sign on the door.
We really like that sign.
I’m ugly, but I don’t bite.
Come closer so I can feel y’all.
My girls.
How you been, Mama?
Oh, you know...
dyin’.
[Racine, Ruby, and female attendants laugh]
Yeah, yeah. I see that.
We work in an office.
’Naia got a boyfriend.
She got somethin’ else too.
-Ma’am? -Nothin’.
She quiet.
Hi, Mama.
I ain’t wrote you, ’Naia,
’cause you be gettin’ all emotional.
Been that way since you was a little girl.
I ain’t wanna upset you.
I wanted y’all to think I was dead.
Who want a mama...
that’s burnt up to where she look like an alligator. Huh?
What happened?
-[female attendants] Child. -[female attendant 1] Mm-mm-mm-
mm-mm-mm-mm-mm.
[female attendants] Girl.
[sighs]
Well...
It was just a...
Regular day.
[whimsical cartoon song playing over tv]
I was just getting y’all food ready in the kitchen when...
[door thuds]
And again.
[breathing anxiously]
Hm...
[door thuds]
[continues breathing anxiously]
-[chuckles softly] -[door thuds]
i’m praying now. [sobs softly]
I’m prayin’, please, please be a branch against the window.
Even though I know
ain’t no trees near our windows.
Hm.
[breathes deeply]
Maybe it’s the neighbor’s dog.
Wasn’t nothin’ in there but a bone-tired woman.
[gasps]
He’s just standing there.
Face as plain as a slice of wheat bread talkin’ about...
"Hey."
Like he ain’t just break into my bathroom.
Like it wasn’t no restrainin’ order.
[woman screams and cries]
Wasn’t much to say.
I could have reminded him...
that he wasn’t supposed
to be within 100 yards of this house...
or I was just fixing dinner.
Or...
I could let him touch me.
He do got a tender side.
You gotta understand.
Men like your daddy always got a tender side.
[gasps]
[choking]
[ominous music playing]
[man whistling whimsical tune]
[Ruby] He tell y’all it’s a game.
Let’s wake mommy up.
-[flames whooshing] -[young Ruby screaming]
[toddlers screaming]
[whimsical cartoon song playing over tv]
[man whistling along to song over tv]
[young Ruby and sisters continue screaming]
[toddler Racine crying and yelling indistinctly]
[toddlers continue screaming]
[man continues whistling whimsical tune]
[young Ruby screaming in pain]
[toddlers continue screaming]
[young Ruby wailing in pain]
[match flicks]
-[screaming and crying stops] -[distant dogs barking]
[man exhales]
Them scars you got...
was when you tried to get the fire off of me.
[Anaia sobs and shudders]
’Naia, you got burnt up worse
’cause you was tryin’ hardest to save me.
I’m sick to my stomach. [whimpers]
She gonna be all right.
She just...
you know...
You always been my big girl, Racine.
You came out first...
screamin’ bloody murder. [chuckles]
Born that way.
Somethin’ I need to ask y’all to do...
but I don’t know if y’all up to it.
We up to it.
We can do anything.
We strong.
Ain’t we strong, ’Naia?
Yeah.
I’mma keep this real simple for you.
Make...
your daddy...
dead.
Dead.
And everything around him...
you can destroy it, too.
I think he took up with some bitch.
Kill his spirit...
then the body...
like he did me.
Make him dead.
Real dead.
Yeah.
[scoffs softly]
-Uh... -[Racine] Uh... Uh.
[hesitates] See...
-Um... -[Anaia] Uh...
[Racine] [hesitating] Mm...
-Now, see, it’s, we... -Um, it’s, we not...
-It’s kinda... It’s... Mama... -That’s not somethin’...
we respect...
that you’re dyin’ and all...
[scoffs]
But...
this seem a lil crazy. [chuckles nervously]
Crazier than settin’ your wife on fire
in front of her kids...
then abandoning them?
Changing your name...
and startin’ another life like nothin’ ever happened?
-Okay, you got a point. -Mm. Yeah.
But, uh...
You sure you don’t wanna just...
forgive and forget?
Pull this blanket off of me.
[ominous music playing]
[Anaia gasps]
No peace...
until I know he’s gone.
[both breathing heavily and sobbing softly]
Can y’all do that for your mother?
Just one last thing before I die.
Just tell us where to find him.
[country music playing over radio]
’Cine’s startin’ to think Anaia...
gonna keep up this lil weak-ass...
silent treatment for the rest of her life!
She startin’ to think ’Naia like being perceived...
as a weak-ass bitch.
Ain’t no other explanation
for this kinda behavior when we got shit to do.
Meanwhile, ’Naia wondering
why Racine ain’t smart enough...
to see she being used.
She startin’ to think
Racine can tend to be a dumb-ass...
reactive-ass bitch who ain’t got no sense!
If I’m dumb, you dumb.
And if I’m weak, you weak!
Since we come from the same cell, bitch!
Oh. Oh, there she go, gettin’ all emotional!
She ain’t come see us, ’Cine!
She ain’t come see us
in all these years and now this!
You know good and well you woulda shit yourself...
if she’d have come see us when we was kids...
looking like that, talkin’ about,
"I’m your long-lost mama."
She stayed away
’cause she knew it was best for us.
I don’t know, ’Cine.
I don’t know!
[loudly] We ain’t got time for this, ’Naia!
We ain’t killers!
[in low voice] I am.
-[gulps] Who you done killed? -Don’t worry about all that.
Think about it this way, ’Naia.
He the one responsible
for everything bad that’s happened to us.
All them foster homes.
Every time someone called us ugly...
the stares, every fight.
Imagine what our lives would look like...
what we would look like, if he hadn’t done it.
[tender music playing]
[handsome man] [whispering] You’re so gorgeous.
Oh, baby, you are lookin’
-so, so good. -[giggling]
How we gonna live with ourselves if we do this?
Better.
Shit. This is the purpose.
This is destiny type shit.
This is ours, ’Naia. I can feel it.
I ain’t one for no killin’.
You ain’t gotta be.
I’ll do it myself. But I need you to
at least keep me company till I get there.
I mean, yeah.
She made us, so...
she is kinda like God.
Like you said.
Yep.
Yep. And we ain’t finna leave God hanging, right?
You ready?
Yep.
Good.
We gonna do this.
We gonna do it right.
Starting with...
The lady he took up with after he burnt us up.
Lady by the name of Divine.
[adventurous music playing]
She stay on Perry Street.
In a ugly-ass house with purple steps.
Can’t miss it.
This don’t feel right. She ain’t say it was a church.
[Divine] Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
[mirthfully] Oh, God, help me with this.
[exclaiming] Oh-ho-ho-ho.
Oh.
The spirit of wickedness is leaving this boy...
-as I speak these words! Ha! -Yes, Lord.
The devil knows that the holy waters...
-of the Lord are coming... -[women humming]
-and it is afraid! -[woman exclaims]
[Divine] Can you feel the rhythm of that fear...
pulsating in this room, saints?
-Ha! Ha! -[congregation exclaiming]
[Divine] Is the devil, hey, hey...
-in this room? Hey! -Hey!
There he go. He done got me.
I feel him!
Oh, that motherfucker got me! [gasping loudly]
[scoffing]
You ain’t shit, devil!
[congregation exclaims]
-Yes. -Oh, hell, no.
[Divine] [out of breath] Seems we...
have some...
guests.
[chuckles] Hello.
Y’all make ’em feel welcome.
Praise the Lord.
Hallelujah.
You oughta let Mother Divine baptize you.
She’ll take and knock them things right off.
-Mm-hm. -Knock ’em right off...
like she knocked off George’s sleep apnea.
Now he ain’t got to lay on the porch no more.
Mm-hm.
[china clinks]
Well, well...
You’re his girls?
-Yes, ma’am. -Genetically, anyway.
We don’t know him.
[chuckles]
Ezekiel...
these your half-sisters.
[Ezekiel chuckles]
They look like they in the world.
[Divine] Oh, don’t be judgmental, son.
His girls in my place.
[sighs]
Your mama told you
that I was with him during the trial?
-Yes, ma’am. -Mm-hm.
Must find it strange I take up with a man
been accused of such things.
Well, I mean...
That’s your business. [chuckles]
We just wanna know
if you could tell us where he at.
Let me tell you girls.
He was so broken.
It was all he could do to get up in the mornin’.
Came to me a mewling calf.
But he was a bull
after I was through nursing him.
Mm. Nursin’.
-Mm. -[smacks lips and laughs]
And then he said he had to go.
But before he left...
he kissed the palm of my hand...
[kisses]
and promised he’d be back for us...
and we’d be married.
Mm-hm.
So, do you know where he went?
Oh, I don’t know.
Where do all the good men go? [laughs]
We don’t know, miss.
I kept his stuff for him.
Go on.
[Divine chuckles]
[gospel music playing]
If you find him...
tell him...
that Divine kept her promise...
[Ezekiel] That’s right, Mama.
...that she’s still in a white dress,
beating at the devil.
Ever faithful to her man.
Ever faithful! Yes, Lord!
Tell him about the church.
Tell him Divine says it’s his when he return.
[Ezekiel] That’s right. That’s my daddy.
How long ago he leave you?
I was pregnant with Ezekiel.
[Racine] what? [stutters]
Oh, uh...
You been sitting up,
waiting on a man who left you pregnant?
A man who just got through
setting his wife and kids on fire?
A man who ain’t tell you where he was goin’?
That’s the man you waitin’ on?
The Bible says...
I can see...
that you’re septic with anger and a spirit of devilment.
And I can see that he...
[imitating gospel singing] laid... Ha!
...that dick right...
’cause that’s the only reason that I’d be sitting up...
waitin’ on a man.
’Naia wondering why Racine
can’t keep her mouth shut sometimes.
Just sometimes, when there’s a lot at stake!
Look at them. That’s a damn cult.
How we gonna find out where he at now?
mm-mm. mm-mm. [laughs]
Ha!
What’s that?
Looks like an address book to me.
-Twin. -[giggles]
Yep. Grabbed it
while ol’ girl was running her mouth.
[both panting]
[Racine] The fuck?
[Anaia] That’s his lawyer, I guess.
[shrieks] They took my... Those two, those two...
oh, you so wicked! [cries]
Oh, they got... that book... It’s a address...
It’s got my book... They got...
[Divine exclaiming and speaking indistinctly]
-[laughing incredulously] -[Ezekiel] You demons!
Bring back that book! That’s my daddy’s book!
You ain’t shit, devil!
[Racine and Anaia cackling gleefully]
-[liquid trickling] -How we gonna kill him, Twin?
We ain’t doin’ it.
Remember, you doin’ it.
-You know what I mean. -[both urinating]
How should it go down?
A gun?
[scoffs] A gun?
Where you gonna get a gun?
Steal one or somethin’.
That ain’t no good plan.
You should just do it quiet.
With poison or somethin’.
Poison is a punk-ass,
bitch-ass way to kill somebody.
At least he’d be dead.
And it won’t be a lot of blood.
I don’t like blood.
I know.
We’ll push him off a buildin’.
What if he grab one of us on the way down?
What if we knock him out,
then push him off the building?
How hard you have to hit someone to knock ’em out?
I don’t like it.
-You don’t like none of it. -’Cine...
we ain’t killers.
We come from a man who tried to kill our mama...
and a mama who wants to kill that man.
It’s in the blood.
Now let’s go find that lawyer.
[announcer] Chuck Hall does it all, y’all.
-[chuck imitating gun shots] -Slip and fall. Bloody brawl.
You in trouble?
[announcer] Chuck Hall’s got your back.
Moldy wall. Dog maul.
He’ll do it all, I’m tellin’ y’all.
-[chuck imitates dog growling] -[announcer chuckles]
Chuck Hall.
-[punch lands] -[chuck groaning]
[objects crashing]
You think he in there getting beat up?
What you gonna do with that?
Take your sock off.
[Anaia] Twin...
is that...
You not finna...
We don’t know what we walkin’ into.
-[blows landing] -[chuck groaning]
[groans]
One...
[both grunt]
-Two... -[chuck groaning]
-Three! -[chuck coughs]
That gonna be all for you today, love?
You want me to, like, elbow you or nothin’?
Hm.
All right.
See you Thursday.
[Chuck] Chuck Wendell Hall...
is a man with no tongue in his head.
In the years since the terrible incident,
which has taken his tongue...
he has developed a strict regimen...
including enlisting the services of a woman
-skilled at inflicting pain. -[grunts]
For he knows that someday...
someone will come...
[groans]
...and when that someone comes...
he intends to be ready.
[breathing heavily]
-We’ll see. -No.
We just wanna know
if you could tell us where he at.
Do you know where he went?
That ain’t for you to decide.
Right now, he the only one...
standing between us...
and our mission...
and God is finna die.
"Go home.
"Get yourselves into a trade school
"or a community college.
"Maybe take up with a sporting young man...
"ambitious if not handsome...
"and live out your lives...
"with as little misery as can be managed
"given your plight."
-That’s it? -[Chuck] Mm.
[grunting softly]
[softly] Twin.
This fool gonna tell us somethin’
if I gotta beat it outta him.
[Chuck] The moment has arrived.
Oh, you ain’t afraid, huh?
He offers himself to the stranger.
I don’t like this, Twin.
As if a lamb to the slaughter.
We could just go.
’Cine wish ’Naia would shut up.
-[groaning] -[gasping]
Oh, shit.
What’d you do that for?
[Racine] I don’t know.
[Chuck] It would seem the only way to get rid of them...
is to tell of the unfortunate incident...
that has taken his tongue...
and his will to practice criminal law.
He had to tell of havin’ taken him home
after celebrating the verdict.
[laughing]
How he’d smiled quite a lot.
Such bright white teeth.
How he’d offered to get him permission
to see his twin girls one last time.
How the man had thought it over.
"No," he’d said.
-[inaudible] -"Probably not a good idea.
"I might have the impulse to finish the job."
Such bright white teeth.
[man continues laughing]
How he’d tried smiling back...
but a man like that...
a man like that can tell.
[chuck screams]
-[flesh squelches] -[chuck sputtering]
[sinister music playing]
[sisters] "For fear that it would wag,
"he took my tongue."
[Anaia] Dang.
Just ripped it out your mouth?
-[marker scribbling] -[sighs]
"He will be back for the rest of me."
"I’ve been preparin’ to die well."
You ain’t got to.
’Cine gonna kill him.
If you tell us where he at.
[Chuck] Hall cannot tell
whether this is his most noble or cowardly act.
[chuck panting]
[chuck grunts]
[rap music playing over speakers]
It goes, it goes, it goes, it goes
Guillotine
-Yeah -[rapping along] Yeah
Sit in the dark and ponder How I’m fit to make the bottom
Fall through the floor, and they all
Fall down, yeah
It goes, it goes, it goes, it goes
It goes, it goes, yeah
Out of the shadows Barrage of witch tongue...
[rap music playing softly]
Fuck is you doin’?
[rap music playing loudly]
What’s wrong with you?
I don’t like how you been acting.
Oh, uh-uh, pull over.
What?
-I said pull this shit over! -Stop!
You been looking at me funny, like I’m the monster...
and I’m sick of it.
You got something you wanna say?
You enjoyin’ this shit too much!
You finna go kill somebody, Twin.
Ain’t we been killed, ’Naia?
-[exhales sharply] -[car door opens]
[car door closes]
We been stepped on again and again and he did that.
And I ain’t finna feel sad...
about giving him what’s coming to him!
[rear car door opens]
[rear car door closes]
’Cine always want to go right up to the edge.
Feel like it’s ’Naia’s job
to catch her ’fore she fall in.
You so mad, Twin.
Ain’t you?
[sobbing softly]
I wanna tell somebody they ugly.
I wanna step on somethin’ for once...
see what it feel like.
Must feel good
if everybody else keep doin’ it.
[chuckles]
Remember how second foster daddy
used to snap the belt at us?
[Anaia] Wasn’t no us. That was you.
’Cause you laughed
every time he came down the stairs...
so you’d always get a whoopin’.
He the first person I killed.
You ain’t kill him. He had a heart attack.
He had it ’cause he kept whoopin’ me.
He kept whoopin’ me
’cause I kept doing stuff to make him whoop me...
’cause I knew it would kill his pork-chop-sandwich-
every-motherfuckin’-morning ass.
[both laughing]
-I gotta pee. -Mm.
-[motorcycle engine rumbling] -[urinating]
[exclaims]
[Anaia gasping]
[Racine] Oh, shit. Let’s go. Come on, come on, come on.
[both panting]
You got that sock?
It’s in the car. Shit.
[biker grunting]
[biker panting]
[whimpering]
[hammer rumbling pipe grooves]
-[hammer thuds] -[breath trembles]
[Anaia grunting loudly]
[biker grunting]
-[shrieks] -[Racine yells]
[Racine grunts]
[door thuds]
[biker speaking indistinctly, muffled]
[helmet thudding]
[Racine] What the hell? [exhales]
Boy, what’s wrong with you?
[out of breath] So y’all think y’all just gonna kill him?
-What? -Just chop him down!
That’s what y’all think?
My daddy. Mine!
The man who made me.
He who made Ezekiel?
That’s who y’all think y’all gonna kill?
Him? Him?
Him?
him? [echoes]
[Racine] You ever wanna scrape your scars off...
and see what’s underneath?
[scoffs] What’s the point of that?
I don’t know.
I be wondering what I look like.
It don’t do me no good to wonder.
What we gonna do about them other twins, Twin?
God said destroy everything around him.
No, she said we could.
She said we could destroy everything around him.
Well, if they anything like that fool...
they ain’t gonna give us no choice.
They innocent, Twin.
They can’t help being his kids.
Ain’t nobody innocent.
They probably sit up at dinner and laugh about us and God.
Stop that.
They ain’t done nothin’ to us.
Fine.
Look.
[gasping]
-[Racine exclaims in relief] -[Anaia laughing]
[both laughing]
Wait. Twin?
Yep.
This kinda feel too good to be true, don’t it?
[pipe gurgles]
Shit.
-[bus clunking] -[baby crying]
We here.
[dramatic music playing]
[Young men] Twins.
[young man 1] Those twin boys in that beautiful house
have lived lives of comfort and strife.
Each deals with the confusions of life in his own way.
[hip-hop music playing]
[young man 2] Scotch masks his vulnerabilities
with wildness.
[young man 1] Whereas Riley has learned
to keep still and quiet.
[woman] Their mother, Angie...
is doing exactly what she’s always done.
Wiping and dusting and polishing...
and scrubbing every inch of their very nice house...
exactly the way he likes it.
His hats arranged by style, casual to dressy.
His boots by material...
his leather to the left, gators to the right.
His neckties arranged by color.
His slacks by brand and his shirts by fabric.
He has made it very clear...
the importance of honoring
everything in its rightful place.
A man in his place.
A woman in hers.
-[door thudding] -[distorted screaming]
-[Angie] Stop! -[distorted sobbing]
No, please, don’t!
No, no, no.
Not today, Angie.
Not today.
-[urinating] -[whispering] Today Angie’s
choosin’ a new path.
[chuckles softly]
[Angie chuckling]
I mean, that’s straight bars, man.
-You don’t hear that? -I’m trying to read.
-Do you wanna hit this? -I’m good.
-Boy, you trippin’, man. -Get that outta my face.
Breathe this.
[muffled indistinct chattering]
Pretty.
I’m just sayin’.
That for what I think it’s for?
God gonna get her blood, I guess.
[panting]
[Angie] Any other day,
Angie would hoist her own suitcases into the trunk.
[whispering] No.
Not today, Angie. Not today.
[yelling] Get out here...
now!
Mom, what happened?
What... Is Dad back? Are you good?
No, I just need you
to help me get my bags to the car...
-please. -Okay.
Why you being all hysterical?
Wait, why do you need all these bags?
It’s a wine trip, baby. I told you.
It’s for the weekend.
What’re we supposed to do for dinner?
[Angie] Angie’s plan is to get herself
to Yucca Valley by nightfall.
From there a train to Vegas...
where she’ll gamble no less than 300...
of the $11,000 she’s managed
to scrimp and save without his notice.
After hiding out a bit,
she’ll make her way to Connecticut...
-where a new name and job... -Mom, Mom.
...are waiting for her.
I love you.
I love you, too.
Now go inside. Go on inside.
[intriguing music playing]
[singing along to radio] Like rain
Falling on a windowpane
Tears came to my eyes when I asked her name
Made me holler
-[whoops] -When it finally came
[continues singing along] Said, "Only the children
"Born of me will remain"
’Twas like thunder all through the night
[continues singing along] And a promise to see Jesus
In the morning light, morning light
-[Angie grunting rhythmically] -[horn honks]
[over radio] Take my hand, it’ll be all right
[Angie] What in the world?
Hello?
[horn honks]
Excuse me?
Who this bitch think she’s shooing?
[whispering] Ain’t you gonna say somethin’?
She gotta come to us.
Do you mind moving, please?
Excuse me. I’m running a bit late.
Is everything okay?
We fine.
You know us?
Know you? Am I supposed to?
We’re his first ones.
Who?
His first kids.
You’re alive?
We look dead or somethin’?
No.
He said you got burnt up in some accident...
and he didn’t have to pay child support.
Oh, God. Are you here for child support?
It’s real Japanese Akoya.
Don’t nobody want your pearls.
Well, it’s what I have to offer.
You know what our mama’s been doin’...
while you been layin’ up
in that big ol’ house that look like a castle?
Our mama been in a bed wastin’ away.
He burnt up most of her body!
I am so sorry.
That is unfortunate.
But I hope you understand me when I say that he lied to me.
You knew he was lyin’.
Oh, no, no, no. I didn’t.
’Naia, who this heffa think she foolin’?
Can’t even lie straight.
I don’t know, ’Cine.
She could be telling the truth.
You were sittin’ up in that nice house...
with a pool while third foster daddy
was lickin’ his lips...
anytime I came into the room with my shoulders showin’.
I have to get away.
This a nice car, ain’t it, Twin?
Not my car! No!
-I need the car. -Give me them keys!
-No! -Give me them keys, bitch!
Give ’em to me!
Got ’em!
You’re gonna come and steal from me
because of somethin’ he did?
You pack of animals!
We ain’t animals.
We on a mission...
from God.
God?
God...
is our mama.
That’s right. Your "mama."
Look, I’m not gonna let you mess this up for me.
I planned this! I deserve this! Okay?
Listen, listen, listen.
If he comes home
and I tell him that somebody took the car...
do you know what he’ll do to me?
Our mama
ain’t never had a shot like the one you got.
It is not my fault
that your weak-ass ghetto trash mama got burnt!
She shoulda left!
-She shoulda left! -What you say?
[scoffing mirthfully] Oh, my God.
Girl...
[exclaiming mirthfully] Excuse me.
bitch. [laughing]
[Racine] Yeah, I just...
-[Anaia] You spittin’? -[Racine] I just...
-Wait a minute. -[Anaia] Are you spittin’?
-You spittin’, bitch? -[Anaia] You spittin’?
-You spittin’? -She spittin’, Twin?
-[Racine] Yeah. Yo, she just... -She spittin’.
On me? This bitch.
[scoffing] This bitch spittin’!
You know what?
A woman that knows her worth will leave!
And if you were smart enough...
-[gasps] -[Angie gasping loudly]
-[whimpering] -We smart, bitch.
Say we smart.
-Twin, don’t! -Stay back!
-[Angie] Animal! -[grunts]
[sinister music playing]
-[blows landing] -[Angie groaning]
-[gasping] -[Angie yells in pain]
[Angie crying]
-[grunting] -[Angie yelping]
[Angie whimpering]
[blows continue landing]
Twin, stop!
[out of breath] You better be lucky my sister here...
bougie bitch!
[panting]
You gonna be sick?
I don’t think so.
You ain’t do anything, so you cool.
It’s all on me.
You want them pearls?
God might.
God don’t want nothin’ but blood.
[knocking]
[muffled hip-hop music playing]
I know you?
-No. -Kinda.
-Who’s this? -I’m Racine.
Anaia.
-Twins. -Twins.
Oh, shit.
Oh, shit. Oh, shit. I think Dad did this.
He definitely did.
Come on in, girls.
-Oh, my God. -[whispers indistinctly]
Scotch, what are you doing? What are you doing?
You can’t just let random people in the house.
Did you see them?
Twins! Stripper twins.
Dad promised us strippers, didn’t he?
This our birthday.
He always surprise us for our birthday.
Our birthday isn’t for another two weeks.
So, it’s a little early.
This has Dad written all over it.
Something feels off. [hesitates]
They don’t even look like...
-I mean... -Man, shut up!
Go on, girls. Third door to the left.
Yeah, I’m callin’ Michael and DeShawn.
Make this shit a party.
No. This doesn’t feel like something Dad would do.
-Let me just call him. -"Let me just call him"?
Oh, my God. Do you just wake up in the morning...
and brainstorm ways
to be the corniest motherfucker ever?
-Damn. -What’re you doin’?
Let me have this.
Shit. Let yourself have it.
What if they’re trafficking...
When was the last time we had fun in this house, Riley?
[softly] Stank in here.
Not our business.
[in normal voice] Oh, you mad ’cause of that lady?
That lady who spit on me?
We ain’t gotta go through with this just ’cause...
If we don’t do this, who gonna do it, ’Naia?
Who gonna stand up for her?
We ain’t nothin’ but the hand of God...
doin’ her biddin’.
You know how Dad is with the fishing trips.
He probably won’t even be back until the morning.
Come on.
-[Scotch] mm-hm? [chuckles] -Hm.
Fine.
Besides, everybody know talking shit
about God will get you killed.
Hey, but you gotta promise me,
it ain’t no more blood but his.
You gotta swear to God.
Fine. I promise.
I swear to God...
I swear for God...
and I put that on everything.
If you go back on this, I’m gonna walk away, Twin.
You on your own.
Let’s just get ready.
[sensual hip-hop music playing]
Hey. Where the strippers at?
Why your titties looking so big, Twin?
Bitch.
Ol’ dude?
Yeah. It’s Ellis.
Dang!
I don’t know what I’mma do. [chuckles nervously]
-A baby. -Mm-hm.
-Twin? -Uh?
You remember that time we got kicked out
of fourth foster mama and daddy place?
Mm-hm.
’Cause I bust that boy nose at school.
-[both giggling] -Yep.
I don’t think I ever thanked you for that.
You know I got you.
[dramatic hip-hop music playing]
[imperceptible]
[scotch chuckling]
Hey, hold up, hold up, hold up.
Let’s try this a little different.
You, pretty girl.
You face us, you keep doing what you’re doing.
And you...
[scoffs] ...you gotta turn around.
[scoffs, then laughs]
Oh, don’t be mad.
Hey, come back, girl.
We gotta get our money’s worth.
[exhales]
All right, then, gorgeous.
Guess you dancing for two.
My sister ain’t ugly.
Yeah, yeah. All God’s children are beautiful or whatever.
[bass-heavy hip-hop music playing]
[bass-heavy hip-hop music continues playing]
Why you ain’t out there with them?
It’s not my thing.
Can I ask what happened to your face?
Sorry.
I didn’t mean to insult you. I’m sorry.
[stutters] I’ll leave you alone.
Your brother seem...
He seem like he fit in.
Yeah...
he’s always been that way.
You know, he’s out there...
and I’m, well...
I’m the type to be hiding out in the kitchen.
You ever get to feelin’ like...
Like...
Like he’s happy you strange?
’Cause that mean he get to be the normal one.
It give him permission...
to be who he wants to be.
-And you go along with it... -[girls giggling]
...’cause you’d rather help him
do stuff you don’t believe in...
than be alone.
Uh, I never thought about it.
I mean, I guess so.
Someone set a fire...
and it crawled up my face and left me like this.
Damn.
I keep asking myself how he could’ve done it.
-You know who did it? -[chuckles]
[laughs softly]
[flesh squelches]
[gasping]
-[continues gasping] -[indistinct chattering]
[speaking indistinctly]
-[coughing] -[all exclaim]
Yo!
-[boy 1] What the hell is this? -[all exclaiming]
-Dog! -[scotch sputtering]
[Anaia] [softly] Shit.
What was that?
-Nah, bro, we out. -Oh, shit!
[boy 1] Hell nah! Nah, come on, cuz!
[boy 2] Yo, hand me the keys, nigga, let’s go!
We gotta get outta here!
Scotch.
Scotch?
Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
-Oh, my God. -[coughs]
[wretches] No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no...
[sobbing] No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no...
No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no...
My twin.
[Riley continues sobbing, then laughing hysterically]
He’s dead! He’s fuckin’...
[continues sobbing]
[Racine] He called you ugly.
Scotch.
I didn’t plan to, but he called you ugly.
Scotch.
If we don’t do the other one, he’s gonna tell.
What? No!
You ain’t gotta watch, just go in the kitchen.
-Twin. -He’ll talk.
He might even blame you for it
even though you didn’t do anything.
No. You promised.
You promised!
You in my way.
You keep doin’ it!
You said we was gonna do him and not them,
-but you keep doin’ it! -I’m doin’ what’s best for us.
You a liar.
Get the fuck out of my way, Twin!
[Racine laughs]
Girl.
[Racine grunts]
[exclaiming and stuttering]
That’s what you want?
Let’s go, then.
Come on!
Square up, bitch!
Say, "I’m a punk-ass, weak-ass bitch!"
Go. Go!
[sobs]
[Racine] ’Cine wonderin’ how the hell ’Naia gonna choose...
that lil boy
-over her own sister! -’Naia feeling lost.
And found.
She wanna tell him everything.
Things she couldn’t even tell Racine.
Thank you.
[gasping]
[grunting]
-[Racine grunts] -[Riley groans]
What’d I tell you, huh?
You wanna save this motherfucker?
-[Riley grunting loudly] -I told you!
-[exclaims] -[Anaia coughing and gasping]
[all grunting]
Crazy fuckin’ bitch!
You wanna come to my house and kill my brother?
-[Racine choking] -I don’t care what he did!
-[coughing] -Fuckin’ die! Fucking die!
Die!
[flesh squelches]
[Anaia sobbing softly]
’Cine.
Twin!
’Cine. Twin!
[gasping]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Anaia grunting softly]
[Anaia continues grunting softly]
[footsteps approaching]
[fridge door closes]
[man] Seem like we got a lot to talk about.
Why don’t you sit with me?
Or you could just stay under there and wonder.
[Anaia breathing heavily]
[man] Well, you ain’t a complete monster.
That’s something.
How about we take turns asking each other questions?
Just one at a time.
[breath trembling]
[softly] I don’t know.
Yeah, you do.
[Anaia] Why did you set her on fire?
Because she wouldn’t let me hold her.
[scoffing] Wait, that don’t make sense.
Who’d you kill first?
-I didn’t kill nobody. -Mm.
[breath trembling] No really, except in self-defense...
’cause ’Cine was the one...
Who first?
Your wife.
Angie?
[sighs deeply]
Wow.
Yeah, my turn.
What does that mean?
You were mad
’cause she wouldn’t let you touch her...
so you set her on fire?
It’s more nuanced than that.
[crying] That don’t strike you as a bit of a overreaction?
It’s my turn.
What’d you use?
On Angie and the rest?
You don’t think you overreacted a little bit?
It was a perfectly appropriate response
for a young man out of control.
You are really sick.
[Anaia breathing heavily]
So, you ever have a blemish that you wanna get rid of?
You squeeze it ’til it fall off,
but there’s still the pus underneath.
So, you go after the pus with peroxide
or whatever you can find.
Something that’ll sting a little,
so you know it’s working.
You ever just need to put something out...
because it has been so catastrophic
to your very being?
We was just pus to you?
Just somethin’ to get rid of?
I was young and I’m sorry.
Next thing I did was go to the bridge near our house...
ready to jump so I could join y’all in death.
But you didn’t.
No.
And thankfully, you all survived.
But you went to court...
and got off.
And God is burnt to a crisp
and I’m so ugly nobody will look me in my eye.
Well, I’m sorry about that.
But you gotta factor in every piece of the puzzle.
’Cause she coulda let me hold her.
[Anaia sobbing softly]
She coulda let me fully stand up in my house.
I needed that as a young man.
Well, I got a baby comin’.
And you’re the granddad.
A baby.
You’re not a killer.
Go home.
[Anaia panting]
Whoa.
What am I gonna tell the baby about all this?
Tell it you made a few mistakes when you were young,
like I did.
And how am I gonna tell about how you tried to kill us all?
Kill us all?
I didn’t try to kill you two.
Just her.
I never tried to kill you all.
It was just her.
You think I set my own babies on fire?
She did that.
She screamed and grabbed ahold of you two.
I couldn’t get her to let go...
that’s when I ran out.
You think I tried to kill my own babies?
Is that what she told you?
[Anaia] No, no, no!
-She said... -I’m telling you, she lied.
You gotta give this up.
Otherwise what?
You’ll try to kill me,
and I’ll have no choice but to kill you.
And in doing so, I’ll be killing my first...
and perhaps only grandchild.
And I don’t wanna do that.
I promised her I’d bring back a piece of you.
-Anaia... -[Anaia breathing heavily]
You don’t have to do this.
You can put that down and go on your way.
And when the dust settles...
you bring that baby back
and I’ll bounce it on my knee...
and we’ll never talk about all the blood...
on the ground.
[sobbing and breathing heavily]
[suspenseful music playing]
[rock thuds]
How far along are you?
Eleven weeks...
I think.
[man grunts]
[groaning]
That older one,
-the smart one. -[Anaia groans]
He was gonna be somebody...
dog bitch.
[whimpering]
If you weren’t pregnant...
I’d cut your eyes out and make you eat ’em.
hm... [yells]
[yells]
You go back to that heavin’ corpse...
and tell it I’d do it all again if I could.
Hm.
[Anaia sobbing]
[tense music playing]
[Anaia sobbing softly]
[exhales]
[man humming whimsical tune]
[exhales]
While you was in here...
whistlin’...
and making new babies...
and trying to forget all the bad things you did...
fourth foster mama was laughin’
at my scars with her friends.
I warned you.
Somebody gotta go today.
World can’t hold us both.
Suit yourself.
[grunting] Kill him ’Naia.
[all grunting and yelling]
[sisters yelling]
[sisters grunting and screaming loudly]
-[feet thudding] -[flesh squelching]
-You nothin’! -[taunting loudly]
-[screaming] -You ain’t nothin’ now!
[man grunting]
[Anaia] Bitch.
[man grunts]
[man grunting]
[breathing raggedly]
[groans and laughs]
[whimpers]
He ugly, ain’t he, Twin?
Yep.
[man whimpering]
[man screaming and whimpering]
[flames whooshing]
Twin?
Yeah?
My bad for what I said before.
you good. [inhales]
’Naia!
[Anaia breathing heavily]
[sobbing and panting]
[Anaia] Them twins burnin’.
’Cine!
[wailing] Them twins burnin’. ’Cine!
On three, ’Naia gonna go.
One.
Two.
Three.
Anaia. Just Anaia.
All by herself for the first time.
It’s quiet.
Too quiet.
[bus approaching]
But out of the quiet...
things get clear.
She sees all the good stuff that runs alongside the bad.
Rock, paper, scissors, shoot.
She can see another self in the distance...
a brave self who hold her head high...
and got things to do.
[girls laugh]
That other self gonna rock the baby when she comes.
Tell her all about Auntie Racine...
and the road and the good things in it.
Even for girls like us.
[gospel hymn playing]