It's quite a home, isn't it?
15,000 square feet of overpriced art and big ol' bathtubs.
I know it's ridiculous, but I love it.
After all, I'm from Texas.
We tend to like things big down here.
This is my home.
And you probably can't tell it's broken.
There's a story behind that.
One that begins and ends with a girl I married.
Debbie Hall.
A girl with a heart so big that Texas can't even hold it.
So I'm gonna try to write it all down.
Hopefully make some sense out of how I got here.
Problem is, I've never written anything.
I'm not an author. I'm an art dealer.
Hello?
Julio?
Hello?
You must be Mr. Hall.
No. No, no, no. Just call me Ron.
Okay, Ron. I'm Willow, Julio's assistant.
Your drive up okay?
- Yeah, drive out was fine. - Good.
So, Julio tells me you're an author.
- Oh, he did, did he? - Yeah.
Oh.
So what kind of book are you writing?
That's a good question.
Is it a true story?
Yeah, very.
Uh, I have to get that.
It's revival season.
You see that path over there?
Thank you.
Well, if you change your mind, follow the bells.
Where is he?
That was him on the phone. He's late, as usual.
Ay, ay, ay.
Always forever the perfectionist.
I always thought this was the saddest painting
I'd ever seen in my life.
You gave it to me for free,
and now he's worth a million dollars.
Hmm.
It's not worth a million dollars?
No. No, it is. I just...
Just not sure what a million dollars is worth anymore.
Are you okay?
Well, I made it here.
Yes, you did.
Ah.
Oh, this. What is this?
It ain't a Rembrandt.
Oh, yes, this is, um, just before
you tricked me into eating bull's balls.
They're called calf fries, and I seem to recall you loved them.
Yes, I did.
- Yes, you did. - Mm-hmm.
Okay. You can have any bedroom in the house, okay?
Except the one that I'm sleeping in.
Now get to writing that book of yours, and I'll leave you alone.
Oh, it's done?
Well... Is that off or crooked?
Uh...
Better. No, down. Yeah.
I still don't know why it needed restoring, but...
Is it different?
Oh, it seems like it was better before.
Oh.
Maybe I like the way time treated it,
like you could see its history or something.
Well, everything just needs a little touch up and polish once in a while.
I gotta get out to North Dallas.
I'm supposed to sell a Remington to a crazy old lady, all right?
- I'll see you at the gala tonight? - Yeah.
- Kids are coming, right? - Right.
Don't let them back out, Debbie. It's important.
I know it's important.
Well, it is, Debbie.
I know.
Hey, you all know my definition of modern art.
You take a canvas,
you throw a little paint on it, you wipe it off with a rag,
you throw out the canvas, and you sell the rag.
You know that's true.
- You know that's true. - It is true.
That's why I only deal in the classics
and you all have my telephone number.
I do wanna thank you, though, for coming out here tonight
to support Fort Worth Art in Public Places.
This is an important cause for all of us.
We couldn't do this without your decency, your kindness,
and, of course, your generosity.
That means I'm gonna ask you for more donations later.
Thank you for coming down. Have a good time tonight. Thank you.
- How'd it go? - Good job, Dad.
Thanks.
- Hey. - I always say give till it hurts.
Well, that's what I said.
I was trying to say it like you, give till it hurts.
How are you, dear?
Okay, listen, I want you to tell everybody how good I was.
You guys have fun.
Hey.
Come on.
It can't be that bad being the prettiest girl at the ball.
What's wrong?
Nothing.
What is it?
Dad, this is your life. It's not mine.
Hey, Ron. Can I speak to you for a moment?
- Hey, Susie, how are you? - Hi.
Good to see you.
Martin told me about your friend.
Wh... What are... What are you talking about?
If you don't tell Debbie, I will.
- Nineteen years! - Yes, we've been married 19 years.
- And? - And it doesn't mean what it should!
- What does that mean? - Well, we don't share the same life.
We don't share anything!
- Course we do. - And you know it. We don't. We...
We haven't been intimate in two years.
We haven't been intimate in two years!
No, we haven't slept together in two years!
We haven't been intimate in ten years!
We haven't been intimate in ten...
Yeah, so what was I supposed to do with that?
What were you supposed to do with that?
What are we supposed to do with this?
Ronnie.
- Ronnie? - Mm-hmm?
I'm only gonna ask this once, so please don't lie to me, okay?
Yeah?
Is there anything else that you haven't told me?
Painting's a fake.
I didn't have it restored.
I had it copied.
Sold the original.
You gave that to me for our anniversary.
A dealer offered me a lot of money for it.
So...
I took it.
Not proud of it, but...
Just trying to be honest, so, I'm sorry.
Is that all?
Yeah.
What's her number?
Hi.
This is Debbie. I'm Ron's wife.
Please don't hang up. Are you there?
I just want you to know that I don't blame you and I forgive you.
And I hope that you will find someone who truly loves you
like Ron and I used to love each other.
If we can find that again, you won't be hearing from my husband anymore.
Okay. Goodbye.
You can leave.
You can go.
Or...
You choose.
I... I choose you.
Somebody once said, "All men make mistakes,
but married men find out about them sooner."
Over the next few months, Debbie and I worked hard
to regain what we had lost.
My greatest failure was betraying my wife.
But that didn't stop her big old heart
from granting me a second chance.
Course, she didn't want an apology
that included fur coats or diamond rings.
It wouldn't be that easy.
She was gonna make me pay with my hands.
Then it happened again.
I had another dream last night.
Yeah? Was it a good one, or was it about me?
No.
It was about a poor wise man who changes the city.
And I saw his face.
Turn here.
Here? Well, where you taking me?
I don't think we wanna go down here.
Hon...
In my dream, I saw beautiful flowers and trees everywhere.
Can't you just see that happening here?
Flower boxes. No trash in the gutters.
Just a peaceful place where the people here know they matter
as much as the ones on the other side of that tunnel.
Honey, we're a little turned around here.
Okay?
- Can you pull over right there? - I'm gonna back... Huh?
Pull over right there.
- Here? - Yeah, there.
- Here? - Right here.
What are we doing here?
It'll be fine.
- Maybe I should put the top up? - Come on.
As I live and breathe.
- Debbie. - Oh, hi.
- Good to see you again. - You too, Jim.
And you must be the hubby she's always talking about.
- I'm Chef Jim. - Yeah. Ronald.
Well, time's a-wasting. Follow me. We're about ready to start.
Oh, good.
Hi.
Thank you.
- Oh. I got these. - Thank you.
- You been here before? - Mm-hmm.
Dropped off some clothes and things we don't need over the years.
Okay, well...
Now we know why you're dreaming about the place, right?
Mystery solved.
It looked much different in my dream.
Man, am I glad you guys showed up.
We need every helping hand we can get.
You got help right here.
Debbie.
Honey, we can't help.
Sweetie, I got a... I got a sales call at the office at 6:30.
I gotta drop off contracts north of town.
No, you don't.
My wife wore the pants too, hubby.
Excuse me, sir. Debbie?
Please? Come in here.
Honey.
This is so nice what you're doing here, all right? But I gotta...
I gotta go to the office and sell that Calder Eagle tonight.
And you know what I'm gonna do?
I'm gonna write a check for the place...
- What's this? - Soap. Use soap.
Uh...
- You may need this. - No, I don't need that.
I wanna know why these people who don't have jobs
aren't helping out around here.
They do.
Sweetie, I'll write the check. You can make out the amount.
Thank you.
There's a brush right there.
All right, Jimmy.
I don't like germs.
I'm gonna do this one time.
Is there any infectious diseases floating around this place
I should know about?
Absolutely.
We try to infect them all with love.
Thank you for the tip.
Yeah.
Infectious diseases?
- What? - Nothing.
Hi, Tiny.
Good to see you again.
Good to see you, ma'am.
Wait. Wait. Here.
- Thank you, ma'am. - Yeah.
Hi.
I'm Debbie.
What's your name?
I know y'all think y'all doing us a big favor,
thinking y'all is better than us.
You just remember.
When you miss a couple paychecks
and your wife kick you out the door...
And just like that, you'd be homeless too. Just like us.
That how you say "thank you" down here?
I'm gonna kill whoever done it!
Gonna kill whoever stole my shoes!
Hey!
Suicide, stop it!
Hey! Stop it!
Stop it! There's a little girl right here!
What are you doing?
Ronnie.
We have to talk to him.
Honey, I don't understand what's going on here. I'm trying.
That's the man from my dream.
That's him.
We're going home. Come on.
Come on.
What's wrong with you?
Seriously?
Mr. Mercedes!
Whoo!
You been looking for me, baby? 'Cause I been looking for you.
I'm looking for somebody named Suicide.
I can tell you where he is, baby,
but it's gonna cost you ten presidents.
You know him?
Mm-hmm.
- Yeah? - Mm-hmm.
Okay.
- No drugs. - No drugs.
You're close, real close.
Stupid.
You tried to jack the wrong nigga!
I'll kill you! I'll kill you!
Give me my shoes!
What?
What you looking at, huh?
What?
Guy's violent.
Bet he wasn't carrying a 34-inch baseball bat
when you had him in your dream.
I know, and he chased you down the street.
- That's right. - Hi, I'm Debbie. What's your name?
Killer.
Hi, Killer, nice to meet you.
You talked to Killer. That's saying something.
Let me understand. So that's Killer.
The guy who tried to kill me is Suicide?
Yeah, we got all kinds here.
What about him?
Well, as you know, he can be dangerous.
That qualify you for hazard pay?
- Me? - Yeah.
I don't get paid. I came in the same doors they did.
I'm one of them. I live here.
I used to be the executive chef of a large hotel chain.
I had a wife. Great home.
One day I got a call that my son had been hit by a drunk driver.
He was dead before the ambulance arrived.
And my wife...
Well, she just couldn't take it.
She ended up in a mental hospital.
Meanwhile, I numbed my pain with liquor and a double dose of drugs.
Sorry, Jim.
Ah, don't be. It led me here.
Hi.
I'm Debbie.
And that's my husband, Ron, back there, and this is our son, Carson.
- What's your name? - It's Clara, ma'am.
It's a really pretty name.
Hey, be sure to stop by our beauty shop area after you're done eating.
We're gonna give makeovers to all the ladies.
- Thank you, ma'am. I will. - I hope you will.
It's... one per customer.
Ronnie.
Remember me, right?
Destroyed my car.
I'm Debbie.
What's your name?
You don't need to know my name,
so shut up and put some food on these here plates.
Well, I'd like to know your name.
You best watch out now, lady. Get on out of my business!
You look beautiful.
- Oh. - Like it?
- Thank you, Miss Debbie. - Mm-hmm.
You know, I...
I wasn't always homeless.
I had a husband.
He wasn't very nice, but he gone now.
I had a son.
But they... they took him from me
when I couldn't take care of us no more.
Oh, sweetheart.
I done things I'm not proud of.
A lot of things.
Oh, Clara, we all have.
We all have, Clara.
You're ruining your makeup.
You worked so hard. I'm sorry.
Gosh, where are my tissues?
You're being so nice to me, Miss Debbie.
We had fun, didn't we?
We did. I can't believe it.
Oh.
Thank you.
Well, hey, y'all.
Hi, Tommye. Great to see you.
- It smells good in here. - Mm-hmm.
- Hey, Mom. - Hi, sweetheart.
Dad's in the back, playing.
Dollar waiting on a dime. Where you been?
You ever hear of punctuality?
You ever hear of not drinking and driving?
What you got against drinking?
How come you never drink... have never drink with me? Never...
You too proud to drink with your old man?
It looks like you're doing okay on your own.
Oh, here we go, huh? Here we go again.
You know, I'm sick of you...
Sick of you judging me all the time.
- That right? - That's right.
Come on in, before the chicken and dumplings get cold.
I'm sick of it. Did you ever miss a meal?
Did you ever want for anything?
No, 'cause I put a paycheck on the table every... every week,
from a job I couldn't stand.
- Earl, stop it. Let's eat. - He started it.
And I'm finishing it. So...
So the both of you sit down and... and shut up.
Before you do anything else, I need a refill.
Whiskey and a Coke. Not too much Coke.
And while you're at it, pour one for Ronnie here too.
I'll have an iced tea, please.
Are you gonna put your pants on?
Nah. It's just family.
- Hello, Deborah. - Hi, Earl.
Tommye, the dumplings look perfect.
Gotta save some room for the angel food cake.
I will.
Ron, what is this that Deborah tells me
about, uh, your volunteering at the mission
and befriending some... some homeless man?
- It's Debbie who got us down... - What?
Have you lost your mind?
Those places have more germs than a rest stop toilet seat.
And there's lot of bums there, looking for handouts
instead of... instead of using their hands for work.
Bunch of... lazy Negroes.
Earl!
Well, what do you call them? That's what they're called.
I always call them that.
- Come on, Earl. - I didn't mean that. I meant...
There's criminals down there. Bad people.
It's dirty...
Dirty. Disease, everything.
Look. That's...
That's my final word on the subject.
Too much Coke.
Sorry.
- Hey, Ronnie? - Mmm.
Why don't you go bring him a plate?
- Who? - Him.
Oh, no, no. I'm not gonna do that, honey.
He's the man of your dreams, not mine.
- Come on, please, just take one. - No, no, no.
- He doesn't like me very much. - Don't be scared, Ronnie.
You know his name is Suicide.
Please?
Honey.
No.
No. No.
My wife's concerned you're not eating, so...
Made you a little something here.
Man to man, you'd be doing me a big favor to just,
you know, have a little something.
You don't have to eat the whole thing.
Just a few bites. No?
You don't like Italian?
You're walking away, aren't you? He's walking away.
I tried.
You the CIA?
No.
Can you get control of your woman and tell her to stop bothering me?
No, I can't.
- What do you want from me, then? - Nothing.
We don't want anything from you. We just...
Take it easy on my car over there.
How about that?
When we come around, you could be nicer.
Little more friendly.
You wanna be my friend?
Uh-huh.
Well, I'm gonna have to think about that.
I ain't gonna hurt you or nothing.
You and your wife been trying to be nice to me for some time now.
And I avoided you.
What's your name?
I know it ain't Suicide.
Denver. Name's Denver.
You hungry?
You didn't eat anything in there. Kitchen's closed.
Before I answer your question about us being friends...
something I wanna ask you.
Yeah?
Something about white folks that really bothers me.
I hear when white folks go fishing...
they do this thing they call "catch and release."
Yeah.
Well, you know, it's just a sport.
You know? Sometimes you just fish for fun.
- Fun? - Mmm.
See...
Where I growed up, on a plantation...
we'd go out in the morning...
dig us up some worms...
cut us a cane pole...
sit on the riverbank all day.
When we finally caught something on the line...
we was real proud of what we caught.
We'd take it back home, show it off...
and share it with all the folk.
See, it bothers me that white folk go through all of that trouble...
and when they finally got something on the line, they throw it back.
So...
It occurred to me that if you is a white man
that is fishing for a friend...
and you're just gonna catch and release...
then I got no desire to be your friend.
You understand me?
- You hear me? - Yeah.
Yeah.
Where you from?
Louisiana.
Got any family?
Never knowed my mama.
I hear she was too young to care for me.
So I was raised by my grandma.
We called her Big Mama.
She was big sideways, north or south,
all the way around.
She was my best friend.
Denver. Denver!
She had a lot of pain.
I used to take care of her. Her and my cousin Chook.
Oh, Denver! I needs to get easy.
I don't quite know what kind of pill they was...
but she called them red devils.
Denver.
I needs to get easy.
She was actually my daddy's mama.
But I hardly ever saw him and never called him Daddy.
I used to like it when Big Mama was sleeping.
'Cause that's when she had no pain.
Had a window by my bed.
I'd look up at the stars winking at me.
Weren't no electric lights blotting out the sky,
except for the moon cutting a hole in the dark.
The nights was just as black as molasses.
And the stars glittered like broken glass in the sun.
Big Mama.
Big Mama!
After Big Mama die,
my Uncle James came by and picked me and Chook up.
I went to live on his man's plantation
to do a little sharecropping.
Now, all that work
didn't stop Uncle James and those working in the fields
from going to church every Sunday.
And of course, putting on their Sunday best.
Uncle James, he was a good man.
He was a praying man
and got worried that all the bad stuff circling me
might be from black magic.
Come on, little brother.
So he took me down the river to get baptized.
It was a dunking I'll never forget.
Kinda felt strange going into that water
in a full set of clothes.
The river mud squished between my toes
while I kept one eye out for the gators.
Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins,
was buried, and rose again on the third day?
Yes, sir, I do.
I now baptize thee...
in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
As quick as lightning, like I was gonna change my mind...
he pinched my nose and slammed me backwards in the water.
Amen!
Problem was, he lost his grip, and I sunk right to the bottom.
I didn't know I was supposed to come right back up.
When I finally ran out of air, I popped up down the river...
a few shades paler,
but full of the Holy Ghost.
You?
You ever seen your daddy?
He still around?
He's not worth seeing.
It's pretty sexy, what you did today.
Oh, yeah?
- Hanging out with a homeless guy? - Exactly. How was it?
Actually, it was, uh, kind of amazing.
Oh. Kind of like you?
Hmm?
Thought I'd lost you.
At 8:30 is the Pissarro
appraisal for the Thompsons.
And I need your shipping list for the art fair no later than noon.
Uh, then you're on for that suit fitting at one o'clock.
Ron. Hey, you still there?
Yeah, let's cancel all that.
Cancel? All of them?
You've already pushed the Thompsons three times.
Well, now it's four. I'll call you later.
You ever been to a museum?
I don't know nothing about no mausoleum.
No, no. Not a mausoleum, a museum.
You're wearing that?
Wh...
Yeah.
What do you like?
- Like that? - Yeah.
Yeah.
- This the stuff you sell? - Pretty much.
You like that one? That's by Pablo Picasso.
Who that?
He's probably the most famous artist of the 20th century.
Yeah.
Looks to me that he done broke that lady apart
then tried to put her back together again, but got her all mess up.
Well, actually, that is exactly what he's doing...
Cause of that, makes you look at her different
than you would if she looked real.
You can see what she's really like
from the inside, not just the outside.
How much that one cost?
Oh, that? That's, uh... That's only about $12 million.
- Whoa! - Yeah.
Well, it don't blow my lid off.
- No? - But I sure am glad they bought it,
so somebody like me could see what a $12 million picture look like.
I feel the same way.
- What's that? - Twelve million dollar.
Yeah, it's a lot.
Shock art.
It's by Andres Serrano. It's...
It's meant to provoke people.
Get 'em riled up.
As a boy...
I made a promise to myself that I'd never again
be speaking to no whites.
Especially white ladies.
You's only the second white friend I ever had.
The first was Bobby, the Man's son.
When I wasn't working, we was in business.
We was partners in crime.
He got something to eat, I did too.
Hey, you wanna see my daddy's barn? Come on.
Lotta white folk back then like the thing the way they was.
'Specially sheriffs and plantation farmers.
People like the Man.
Here. Come on. Put this on.
I didn't know it,
but that would be the last time
me and Bobby would ever play together.
Here, Denver. Come on. You wanna play KKK?
Must've lost track of time down there, playing swords.
Soon the Man's wife was home.
Bobby, where are you?
That was the first time I ever had a white woman talk to me.
Son, I told you this barn is off-limits.
You're gonna get your butt whipped when your daddy gets home.
I don't know what you doing back in my barn, boy,
but I'm gonna whup you silly.
One word out of your little black mouth,
and you and your family be looking for another job!
But I wasn't no fool.
I kept my mouth shut and kept on picking the Man's cotton.
Few years later, I ran into Bobby's mama again.
She was on the side of the road, standing next to her car.
All I did was ask her if she needed help fixing her tire.
No, nigger. Move along now.
I hadn't seen Bobby in years.
- Denver? - And there he was.
I said move along.
- Go on. - Mother.
Move!
'Bout that time, trouble came down the road on three horses.
Things got real bad for me.
"This nigger bothering you, ma'am?"
He ain't bothering anybody.
"And what do we have here?"
"Nigger lover, that's what."
"What you looking at, nigger?"
Bobby, I said get in the car, now. Go on.
They said they was gonna teach me a lesson about bothering white ladies.
And they did.
There's a lot of messed up things in this world.
Plenty of stuff I just don't understand.
And no shortage of bad things happening to good people.
Debbie was always selling me on how God works in mysterious ways.
Like that's supposed to make me like him more.
Well, whatever she was selling, I wasn't buying.
Can I help you, son?
You can hear them better from inside.
I'm good, thank you.
- Got room for another tray? - I do.
With time, even an old cynic like me
could see the seeds of what Debbie had quietly planted
beginning to take root.
Her heart in action,
the amber sea of crushed beer bottles
and syringes started to disappear.
And lives were changed.
As the mission grew, so did Denver's impact on our lives.
He taught us that while the journey of the homeless
may often begin in a hopeless place...
it didn't have to end there.
Amazing, isn't it?
How far a little tender loving care can go?
Yeah.
Hey, there. Any food left?
Yeah, hurry up.
Picked you up some food.
I know you like two.
Thank you.
Hey, hurry up.
Who's, uh... Who's that?
Oh. That man is a hard-working bricklayer
till the day he had a stroke.
Now he just sitting on the curb,
and then everybody passing him by, trying not to look at him.
Let me ask you.
When you give a homeless man a plate of food or a dollar,
what do you think you're doing?
Uh... I don't... Helping?
No. A plate of food don't change nothing.
He still be homeless.
All you're doing is saying, "You ain't invisible. I see you."
That's all.
Thank you.
Debbie's putting on a show tonight.
God is in the recycling business of turning trash into treasure.
I believe Miss Debbie must be his best employee.
I gotta go to work, but... You oughta come over.
Is there a picture show?
- Yeah. - Never seen no picture show.
Come on by.
Well, I did, didn't I?
You didn't go through with it, did you?
It's against the law to commit suicide around here.
Yeah, and it's against the law where I come from too.
- Where do you come from? - Heaven.
I had to act quickly. That's why I jumped in.
I knew if I were drowning, you'd try to save me.
I don't know. We'll see.
What is this?
I'm not sure.
Should we get the kids home?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
Why don't you load 'em up, and I'll be right behind you?
- Yeah. - Okay.
Hey, babe! What you doing out here by yourself?
What, you ain't got no man? Your man let you out here?
I got somewhere for you to sleep right here, now.
All right, Miss Lady. Fine.
Denver!
- Denver! - Miss Debbie?
Is that you?
Are you okay?
What you doing here?
I didn't see you at the movie, so I was worried.
Just through here. Um...
There are clean towels in the bathroom.
And anything you can't find that you need
in the drawers, I'll, um...
I'm just down the hall.
- Yes, ma'am. - Okay.
- Thank you, ma'am.
Sleep good, Denver.
And what, without even talking to me about it?
I mean, you have no idea what that man's mental condition is.
- We not even gonna talk about this? - Ronnie, just trust me.
And we have children in the house.
And I don't know what the plan is, Debbie.
What're you gonna do? You gonna just save them all?
I'll try.
But you know Denver's special to me.
Honey, I know you wanna help him. I do. I understand that. I do too.
But promise me you'll talk to me before you do something like this.
I promise.
Yeah.
What room's he in?
Denver?
You get any sleep last night?
Come on in. Have a cup of coffee.
Hi. Good morning.
Y'all hungry?
You want coffee?
There's some juice over here too, if you want any.
I made some toast, so...
Here you go.
Do you like sugar?
Yes, ma'am.
Y'all being really kind to me.
Showed me a lot of trust, bringing me into your home.
Some things you need to know about me.
What things?
Done some bad things, Miss Debbie.
Never told you.
Hope I might not have to.
But I guess some things don't get forgotten.
It's okay.
Why don't you sit?
After my family die...
the Man put me up in a little shack.
And I worked the fields every day for years.
Never got no paycheck.
Just a little credit at the Man's store.
He didn't tell me there were schools I could have gone to.
I didn't know about World War Il or the war in Korea.
I didn't know colored folks been rising up.
He didn't tell me.
I could have joined the army...
worked my way up, earned some money of my own,
maybe even some respect.
It might be hard for you to believe,
but you go down to Red River Parish today,
and you might see how a colored man who couldn't read,
didn't have no radio, no telephone, no electricity,
might fall through a crack in time and get stuck.
Now, I knowed there was other places.
So one day, I just ran toward them tracks and hop on.
When I jumped off that train...
landed me in Shreveport.
I'd never seen nothing like it before.
There was buildings lined up like freight cars on the tracks.
There was even a black man driving his own car.
And it weren't no junker.
Just like the Man's.
I couldn't believe my eyes.
The first night, a man tried to rob me.
He had a gun.
Tried to take my shoes.
I fought back.
In the end, I still had my shoes and his gun.
I ain't proud of this, but...
I decided to rob a bus.
Open that box and give me that money.
Put that gun down, boy.
I was mean and bad.
But not mean and bad enough to shoot a man
just 'cause he showed up for work on the wrong day.
The judge gave me ten years in Angola.
Most vicious prison in America.
I was back in the fields again.
'Cept this time, I really was a slave.
'Cause that's how they ran the prison.
There weren't enough guards, so they gave some of the inmates guns.
A lot of times, the same fella that was working with me one day
didn't show up the day after.
Nobody ever saw him again.
They said they was feed to the gators.
In Angola, a man without a knife
was either gonna end up dead or worse.
That night...
that yellow-eyed man showed up in my cell,
with three of his friend.
And I had that knife.
I use it.
Went into Angola as a boy...
and came out a man.
But I had to kill to do it.
I'm sorry I never told you that.
I figure once you find out I was a felon...
who had been in Angola...
ain't no way you'd want me around.
You're not a bad man.
You have the strongest heart.
And I'm glad we're friends.
I... am going to wake up some teenagers.
Wish me luck.
It's okay.
Something else, Mr. Ron.
The work Miss Debbie's doing...
is very important.
She's becoming precious to God.
When you is precious to God...
you as important to Satan.
Yeah?
- Hey, Dad. - You are hitting that ball.
- It's okay. - No, you played great out there.
I'm so proud of you. She's hitting the ball good, isn't she? Huh?
Yeah, she is, trust me.
Well, I'm gonna go change. Good to see you, Denver.
We'll get a bite.
- Okay. - All right.
This some sort of rich folk game?
Tennis? No, no. Anybody can play.
You just make a reservation.
You wanna give it a shot, we'll do it.
A what?
Reservation. It's, uh... It's an appointment.
You make an appointment to come out here and play.
Mr. Ron.
Any game you has to have a reservation to play...
is a rich folk game.
Well, you may be right. Come on.
- Did you hear me? - Yeah, yeah. Let's go.
- Ron. - Hey, Hank, how are you?
Good. Good.
Listen, Ron, I think it's amazing what you guys have done
over at the mission.
I do wonder, though,
if maybe you aren't taking things a bit too far.
What are you talking about? I don't follow.
Listen, buddy, I'm a philanthropist too, okay?
You wanna have a benefit, raise some funds,
I'll be the first one to cut a check.
But we come here to get away from the world for a while.
And I'm not sure what good it is
to remind us all how fortunate we are over lunch.
Right. Talking about my friend Denver, right?
Look, Ron, straight up, I like you, I like your wife.
But I, along with most of the other members,
have a problem with you bringing your amigo Negro around.
Sure. You can tell him that yourself.
He's standing right there. That's Denver.
My "amigo Negro."
You got my back, Mr. Ron.
We's friend.
You gonna flush that?
Oh, yeah, I always forget that part.
- Y'all do this down there. - "Down there."
I am not that short.
I know you're not.
Your spirit is much bigger than that.
Okay, that's good. Set the plate towards the street.
I think it's better back there.
Can you put it back?
Ron Hall.
Kidneys are up here. Bladder here.
And this is the spot right here that we're worried about.
Okay? We have to do further tests,
but we don't know what it is right now.
- Hi. - Hey.
Hi.
How long have I been out?
Couple hours.
- Yeah. - Where are the kids?
They just went downstairs to get a bite.
They've been here the whole time.
Cancer.
Gonna beat it.
Okay?
I prayed all last night.
I asked God to heal her.
I also ask him why.
Why have you done this to a woman
who has been nothing but a faithful servant to you?
Doing what you say, helping folk.
It really don't make no sense to me.
But every once in a while...
I'd see a shooting star burn across the black sky.
Bright one minute.
And gone the next.
I couldn't understand why I never could see where it went.
I think God was giving me a lesson about Miss Debbie.
And the Word say God put every stars in the heaven.
And he even gave every one of them a name.
If one was gonna fall from the sky,
that was up to him too.
Maybe we can't see where it's gonna wind up.
But God can.
Hey.
Where are you gonna be in the morning?
I'm homeless. Where else would I be?
Pull.
That's all there is to it, boys.
And here I thought white folk fishing was odd.
You call this hunting?
No, Denver. You'd actually like this.
Get up here. Come on.
Guns ain't not toys, Mr. Ron.
When I shoot one, it's business.
I'll go see if Miss Debbie needs some help in the kitchen.
All right.
You weren't really gonna let... let him have that gun, were you?
You gonna do this now, Earl?
Hmm?
I'm gonna make myself a drink.
Hey, what is it about Denver that bothers you anyway?
Why should anything about him bother me?
I think giving a loaded shotgun
to a man who lives in a Dumpster on purpose
is a perfectly sane thing to do.
Try not to do it when I'm around.
And one other thing.
Does he have to be invited to every family gathering?
Know what I mean?
Pull.
What about this guy down here? The tall one.
Still waters run deep.
- Okay. - Look at this.
- That's it. There we go. - Oh, my God.
Great job.
Everything looks beautiful.
- Oh, no. It was nothing. - Amazing job.
Yes.
- Thank you. - So good.
Good.
I'm just grateful that we can all be here together.
Hey, Mama, you wanna say grace?
Of course.
Why don't you let Denver do it?
Yeah, okay.
Oh, boy. Really?
Yeah.
Lord, we here to celebrate your birthday.
And we thank you for the good folk around this table.
I know most folk think they's the only customer God got.
So we ain't gonna ask too much today.
We just asking you to clean up the mess
and praise you for giving Miss Debbie
the strength to prepare this celebration.
In your precious name. Amen.
Amen.
Thanks. Let's eat.
- Yes. - You start that quick.
I'm starving. Hope you've been lifting.
I do.
Let me get some dressing...
Yes, can you pass some ham to Denver, please?
- You want a roll? - Absolutely.
I don't know...
You know she does. Of course she does.
...why everyone's making such a big deal over cancer.
I've had prostate cancer four years now. Doesn't bother me a bit.
Don't worry about it, Deborah.
Ask me, they're making a big deal about nothing.
Nobody asked you. What is your problem?
Oh, great. Perfect.
I'm the bad guy, right?
Now you're turning my own grandkids against me.
- Can't you ever shut up? - I didn't do anything.
Let's go home, Tommye.
Drive careful, all right?
I will.
Okay. Okay, okay.
- I love you. - Love you too.
I don't want your gift.
Take it.
And I don't want you to ever come back here.
Bless him.
Bless who?
Your mean old daddy's got a good man inside of him.
The way I figure,
if it hadn't been for him, there wouldn't be no you.
And I'd still be in the bushes
instead of here with you and your family, Mr. Ron.
Hey, you're a good man, Denver.
My father's not.
He just lost his last chance to prove me wrong.
- What are you doing? - Hey.
I'm looking through this... insurance.
Well, you look great.
- Thanks. - Where are you going?
Well, if I have faith that I'll be healed,
I need to start acting normal.
So, I'm going shopping.
Okay. All right. Well, I'm driving.
Oh, uh-uh. No, no.
No, of course I am.
- No, no, no. No, that wouldn't be normal.
You sure?
Yeah.
Okay. I'll see you later.
Hey, um, Debbie?
I'm sorry. You don't know me,
but I've heard so much about you
and the work you've done at the mission.
I'm Dr. Howard's wife.
Oh. Hi. Nice to meet you. Hi.
I am so sorry.
About?
When I heard that you were terminal, I just couldn't believe it.
Nobody's told me that.
I'm so sorry.
Can you... excuse me?
It's gonna be cold tonight.
I love Ronnie Ray!
It's beautiful.
This is the place.
Right here, okay?
I love you, Ronnie Ray.
I always have.
I love you, too.
I know.
- That was a while ago. - Yeah.
And your first show.
Who's that?
Sheryl Crow.
That's right.
Look at you. Oh!
Carson.
You were so tiny. Look.
And look at you now.
Look at you now.
Hmm.
- I love you, Mom. - I love you, baby.
Listen, um...
Your daddy is a wonderful father and husband.
And I want you to know that I am freeing him up...
to date or marry...
whoever he chooses.
And I want you to honor his decisions...
and let him be happy.
Mom.
Let him be happy.
And for the record...
you and your brother...
are free to marry anybody you want to.
I'll be watching.
Would you guys go find something to do?
I wanna talk to your daddy.
Go on. Go find something to do.
Even her.
- Don't say that. - Mm-hmm.
No.
It was a good thing.
It turned out to be such a good thing.
If she hadn't happened,
our lives together would never be this beautiful.
I want you to be happy.
But it's been you.
It's always been you.
Oh. One more thing, baby.
Yeah, anything.
Just don't give up on Denver, okay?
Yeah.
- You promise? - Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Thank you.
Bartender, I need a beer.
We have only one kind, my lady.
Oh. And a straw.
One root beer coming up.
Oh. And will you put on my song, Jim?
Done and done.
Come here.
Oh.
Baby.
You okay?
Would you like to cut in?
As we all gather here today,
every one of us has sweet memories of this incredible lady.
When Debbie asked me to do this service,
she had only one request,
and that was that Denver say a few words.
So, without further ado, for those who may not know him...
this is the man of Debbie's dream, Denver Moore.
I never met Miss Debbie.
Miss Debbie met me.
I didn't want to know Miss Debbie,
or any other white woman for that matter.
But ever since I knowed her...
Miss Debbie want to be my friend.
I sure she was friend to every soul in here.
I still ain't figured out why she want to know a fellow like me.
I sure am been nothing to be proud of.
I was captive in devil's prison most of my life.
Many folks see me there in lockup and pass me by.
I don't blame them.
I was not nice.
Dangerous.
And probably just as happy to stay in prison.
But she was different.
She seen me behind them bars
and reached way down in her pocket.
And pulled out a key God gave her to set me free.
She's the only person to love me enough not to give up.
Now I stand here a changed man.
A free man.
I used to spend a lot of time worrying
I was different from other people.
Even other homeless folk.
But then after I met Miss Debbie and Mr. Ron...
I worried I was so different from them
that we were never gonna have no kind of future.
But what I found out was...
everybody's different.
Same kind of different as me.
We all regular folks
walking down the street God done set in front of us.
And Miss Debbie...
she's a whole 'nother kind of different.
Miss Debbie, she dream of a better place for the homeless.
And I ain't talking about heaven, no.
I'm talking about right here in y'alls town.
Now, I'm gonna pick up Miss Debbie's torch
and I'm going to carry it round.
It would make Miss Debbie real happy
if you would make her dream come true...
and pick up her torch and carry it round too.
Now, I'm fixing to do something
the devil, he ain't never done for you.
I'm gonna cut you loose.
But before I do, you can take this with you.
Whether we's rich or whether we's poor
or some in-between...
we's all homeless.
Every last one of us.
Just working our way back home.
Welcome home, Miss Debbie.
Welcome home.
So of course,
I did exactly what Debbie asked me not to do.
I fumbled the torch and released Denver.
Anger, mixed with some fear, can turn a man inside out.
But here's the thing,
just like Denver would say:
"God's in the recycling business of turning trash into treasure."
And that's exactly what he did.
I'm going home, Julio.
I'm proud of you, my friend.
I'm going to miss you.
I can't wait to read your book.
Come see me at Rocky Top.
Adiós, mi amigo.
Where you been?
When Miss Debbie went on up in heaven,
I was pretty sure you gonna cut me loose.
Yeah. Catch and release.
Hmm?
So, you're just gonna come back and what?
There's something you need to do.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
What... What is it, Tommye?
Look who's here.
Hi, Earl.
Oh.
You need something?
No, no. I'm fine.
Isn't that nice?
Here.
Nice of you to visit. Here.
Hey, Earl. How you doing?
Yeah. Stopped drinking.
See?
Never even touched it.
Big relief for your mother.
I give her a lot of hell over the years.
What about me?
Yeah, you give her a lot of hell too.
Yeah.
What you reading?
It's a book of stories, poetry.
I used to read to you when you were little.
- You never liked it much. - That is not true.
Good English poet.
William, uh...
- Uh... - Blake.
William Blake, yeah.
A bird.
The nest.
A spider. The web.
Man.
Friendship.
So how's your friend?
Denver?
Denver, he's good. He's good.
We're gonna go out to Rocky Top later, visit Debbie.
Oh.
Yeah.
I always liked Debbie.
Deborah.
Always liked her.
Good for you.
For working things out, staying... staying together.
Well, she was a good woman.
So is your mother.
What's that?
Oh, nothing.
We got lucky.
We both got lucky.
We might actually agree on something there.
Oh, don't worry about it.
Dad, you wanna get a little fresh air?
- There she goes. - My old horse.
- Can you get up? - Yeah.
- Cowboying up. - All right.
Be careful, all right?
Let's see if she remembers me.
She does.
Careful.
Crazy old man.
How you doing?
I'm good.
- Good. - It's a good day.
You were right about my dad, Denver.
There's a good man in there.
Had to dig pretty far down to find him.
Sometimes you just got to bless the hell out of people.
And your daddy had a lot of hell in there.
Yeah, he did.
Ain't none of my business, but what do it say?
It says, "Arms of God."
Nice.
Think any of those are named Debbie?
Well, somebody once told me
that God names all the stars in the sky.
What crazy old man told you that?
Okay.
- Hey. There you go. - Oh, yeah.
- Huh? - There she goes.
Yeah.
That's her right there.
Beautiful.
We must understand
that the only thing that we keep forever...
is the things that we give away.
And the more you give, the more you get.
Because there is many people out there that is confused
or throwed off orjumped track.
Broken promises, shattered dream.
Shattered dream destroys lives.
So a lot of times we can't judge the book by its cover.
We'll never know whose eyes God is watching you out of.
And it's not going to be who you think it is.