What follows is an edited version of the sound track to the film Streetwise. Some material was omitted because it was repetitious or because, without the picture, it was unclear. Brief descriptions of the location and sometimes the circumstances of the dialogue have been added. The dialogue was rendered as spoken with special uses of words, irregularities of grammar and idiosyncratic syntax preserved to convey the individuality of each speaker. --Nancy Baker

Early morning on Rainbow Bridge, Rat leaps eighty feet into the water.

Rat (Voice over)
I love to fly. It's just you're alone, there's 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 part about flying is having to come back down to the fuckin' world.

Afternoon on Pike Street, Dewayne and Rat panhandle the crowd.

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

Woman No, I don't, son.

Dewayne Alright. (To Buddha.) Why not say you're my father?

Budda No. I'm not hungry.

Dewayne Alright. Then get lost. I gotta make some money.

Dewayne (voice over)
Living downtown, a typical day was ... I'd get up at twelve, take a shower, get something to eat. Three o'clock I was on my robbin' streak, start robbin' people 'til six, seven o'clock. Then I'd go get my drugs, get my food, get my ... whoever I was going to sleep with that night. Party until twelve. Then everybody would turn in and stuff.

Dewayne So what's up?

Chrissie Not much.

Dewayne Spare some change?

Chrissie Hell no.

Dewayne How 'bout a kiss?

Chrissie Hell no.

Dewayne Oh well. Life's hard.

Rat Sir, you wouldn't be able to help me out with a little change, would you?

Man NO.

Rat Not at all, huh. Ya know, you're a fuckin' dick.

Rat (voice over)
I wasn't even thinking about running away or nothin'. But my dad told me that 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.'

Dewayne (voice over)
I never miss my mom and dad. They're part of my past now, the way I look at it.

Dewayne Where you be livin' at?

Rat (singing) I be living at the YMCA...

An old abandoned hotel. The windows and doors are boarded up. Inside, Rat roller skates through the empty corridors.

Rat (voice over)
There's this old abandoned hotel and we took all the furniture we could find in all the different rooms and put it into this one room. And we'd 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 fifty cents. And do our laundry in the laundromat and whatever it took. It was pretty easy actually.

Rat and his friend Jack in the railroad yard.

Rat (voice over)
And then me and Jack just started hanging out together. We're real good friends. He'll treat you right. He won't rip you off. When your back is turned, he ain't gonna stab you. I would never even have thought about catching a train if it weren't 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 'cause they got a gravel mound and it sets higher than all the other tracks. And then you just look north and that's the north yard. Then you just count three tracks over to your right. And then we'd just jump on a train and be on our way.

Tiny on Pike Street.

Tiny (voice over)
I wanna 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.

Tiny goes to the Adolescent Free Clinic for a gynecological examination.

Medical Counselor So you don't have any symptoms right now, but you do have some concern that you might have a sexually transmitted disease?

Tiny Nothing serious. It just might be trichomonas again.

Medical Counselor Did you ever have one before?

Tiny Yes.

Medical Counselor What did you have?

Tiny I've had chlamydia, trichomonas and gonorrhea.

Tiny (voice over)
I think it is very strange that older men like little girls. They're perverts is what they is. I like the money, but I don't like them.

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

Tiny What do you mean by that?

Medical Counselor Oh, good question. Have you had sex with anyone since you were treated in Portland?

Tiny No. Just dates. The first date I turned was about two Thursdays ago. Then I turned another one on Friday.

Tiny (voice over)
Some dates are nice. And some of them, the young ones are really cute, but I don't want to be interested in them, 'cept for the money, that's it. I used to least bring in $300 or $400. For a blowjob it would be $30 on up and for a lay it would be $40 on up. Most of these veterinarian 'hos would charge more than us little kids do.

Tiny Isn't it after every two weeks you can get pregnant, after your period, every two weeks?

Medical Counselor You can get pregnant any time during your cycle. A person can even get pregnant when she's having her period. It's not as likely.

Tiny I pulled a date and didn't use a rubber, because he said he didn't use them.

Medical Counselor How often do you usually have your periods?

Tiny Every three or four weeks.

Medical Counselor And they come pretty regular?

Tiny Well, I just started in August.

Medical Counselor So you'd only had the one in August?

Tiny And the one in September.

Medical Counselor So you've barely begun. Did you ever have periods before then?

Tiny No.

Medical Counselor You're how old?

Tiny Fourteen.

Medical Counselor And how would you feel about being pregnant?

Tiny I want a baby. But not by a new trick though.

Medical Counselor What's your feeling about being pregnant now, if the trick is the father?

Tiny Well, I'm not getting an abortion.

Medical Counselor You might ...

Tiny No, I would not. I don't believe in them.

Medical Counselor Tell me about that. What's your feeling about abortion?

Tiny It's like you're murdering somebody. Murd ... I can't pronounce the word. But, it's like there's a little baby inside you and you're just killing it. It's not fair to the baby. I mean it's not the baby's fault.

Medical Counselor So, that would not be a choice for you?

Tiny No.

Near Pike Street, Tiny gets into the car of an old man.

Tiny (voice over)
I used to turn dates lots and lots of times. Just about every day I'd be turning dates day and night, day and night. Then I got busted five times. So, now I don't pull dates I don't know.

Rat and Jack in the abandoned hotel.

Rat (voice over)
When we'd get real low on money, I'd take Mike's .45, because I'd sold my .38, and I'd go roll a queer.

Rat (smoking a joint) Tastes like Colombian to me.

Jack Ain't that bud that's been going around, is it?

Rat Ah, no way. You've got to buy that stuff in grams. I think it went out.

Jack What did?

Rat 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 onto all this procaine. We was gonna live in his house for a day. And then when he went to bed we was gonna tie him up and take all his money he had in his wall safe--all this procaine and all this marijuana stuff he had. We walked around Mount Vernon for two days looking for this guy. I finally told Alan and his friend, man, I told him 'fuck off, man.' Me and Mike got on the freeway and hitchhiked all the way up to Bellingham.

Jack That's when you had all of them fuckin' keys and the cops were asking you where you got them. Whatever happened to that Burlington Northern key?

Rat My mom's got all my keys.

Tiny and Kim talk on Pike Street.

Kim My mom, before they went on vacation about four o'clock Friday, she wakes me up and she goes 'We're leaving now.' And I go 'yeah, yeah.' It's four o'clock in the morning. And she goes, 'I know that you're a prostitute and I know what you've been doing and I know that you've got money.' And I jumped up and said, 'Did you look in my purse?' And she goes, 'No.' And I go 'Mom, I am not. just leave.' And she goes 'Fine. Thanks alot. All week long I'm going to remember this. All week I'm going to be thinking about how much you love me.' I don't care. She doesn't care about me. She never did. She doesn't. Oh well.

Tiny My mom cares about me a lot.

Kim Where is she? Where does she live?

Tiny She went to Eastern Washington, I think, for the weekend.

Kim That isn't even my real mom. I was adopted. I don't even know who my real parents are. I don't know if they're dead or alive. I'm going to find out though. When I'm eighteen I'm going through the courts to find out. I don't know. Sometimes it seems like a waste of time. If they didn't care enough to keep me, why should I care enough to find out who they are?

Tiny Well, they could be rich right now. You know what I'm saying, really rich. Or they could be bums.

Tiny on the street looking for a date.

Tiny (voice over)
My real dad I've never known. He could be the guy that's really rich, driving a Mercedes. Or he could be one of these bums on the street. I don't know. I really want to meet him. He could be one of these dates rolling around. I could have dated him for all I know.

Dewayne and Rat talk in an alley off Pike Street.

Rat And your mom is where?

Dewayne I don't know, San Diego somewhere. And my dad's in jail.

Rat That sucks.

Dewayne Life's a bitch, ain't it?

Rat Are you originally from Seattle?

Dewayne Nope. Port Orchard. Well, Washington, yeah. Been in New York once. I hitchhiked there--was there for an hour and left.

Rat What jail's your dad in?

Dewayne King County, going up to Walla Walla State Penitentiary for burglary and attempted arson. So where you been living, before you lived in that ... wherever you live at?

Rat In that hotel?

Dewayne Yeah. Is it seriously deserted? How long you been living there?

Rat Shit, since a month after I got to Seattle.

Dewayne Where're you from originally?

Rat California.

Dewayne What part?

Rat Sacramento.

Dewayne I went through there one time. It was bunk.

Rat I don't like Sacramento. I lived right on the outside of
Sacramento.

Dewayne I went through there and some faggot was tryin' to pick me up, but I robbed him of $150.

Rat Take his car too?

Dewayne Hell no. I hitchhike. I love hitchhikin'. Not in Seattle though, 'cause the only ones that'll pick you up are hippies, stoners or fine girls. I like the fine girls to pick me up. (They laugh.)

On Pike Street, Kim and Tiny talk.

Kim I just started doing this stuff. I never even thought of 'hoing 'til I got down here. You know Tracy? She used to live with me when she was a home girl, because her parents kicked her out. And she disappeared. She went downtown with Lorna. You know Lorna? And then Lorna came back and said that Tracy's a 'ho now. And then I got really worried about her. I said, 'I can't let her do that stuff.' 'Cause I always heard bad things like white slavery, that she's gonna get beat up and everything. That's what scared me. So I thought, I gotta come down and get her out of there, whether I gotta kidnap her or what. Then I come down here and I see her and she says, 'It's great, man.' So I'm just sittin' there going 'What? I heard that you don't like it down here, that you're getting beat up and raped and everything.' She said, 'I'm making so much money and it's so easy, the money comes so easy. It's great. You gotta do it.' And I sat there and I go, 'How much money do you make?' and she started naming off and I go, 'Wow! I think I'd better.'

Kim at a pay telephone on Pike Street.

Kim Hi, Sam. This is Kimberly again. So have you decided? Do you want a date tonight?

Pimps on Pike Street; fragments of a conversation.

Patrice Juan always be lettin' those broads wear his coats and shit. That bitch ain't gonna listen to him for long. She only break $30 wops.

A Pimp Floyd hit me so goddamn hard, when I woke up, man, it was dark. I had to ask people around me what had happened.

Patrice What're you talking about? I don't do nothin' for free. I'm a pimp. I'm goin' out to those high schools and get me some fresh ones.

In a parking lot near Pike Street, Kim talks to Tiny, Erica, and Kevin about choosing a pimp.

Kim He said, 'If anybody comes to beat you up and I come and save you, that means you gotta work for me.' I hope he doesn't get somebody to come beat me up.

Kevin No, he isn't. I'll tell you the truth and this is the honest truth. With me, you'll be safer, happier and richer.

Erica He'll kill you, OK? He'll ass-fuck you, fuck you in the ear or anything. I'm serious, don't mess with Patrice.

Kevin I don't know about all that, but I know you're making a serious mistake.

Tiny Did Patrice try to do anything with you last night?

Kim No.

Erica He shoots up. He's a drug fiend.

Tiny Well, what do you want to do? Who do you want to be with?

Kim I don't know. I'm confused. I don't know who's the right person. I just don't know.

Tiny He raped me last year, when I first came downtown ...

Erica He raped me too. And he took my money. Up in that hotel, he came and said he was gonna rob this dude ...

Tiny He took a fucking coat-hanger and heated it up on the gas heater and said he was gonna beat me if I didn't take off my clothes. I said, 'I ain't takin' off my clothes.'

Erica We're scaring her.

Tiny We don't mean to scare you. We're just telling you the truth. You get beat up and some of these girls end up gettin' killed.

Tiny and Erica leave. Kim and Kevin continue to talk.

Kevin People get killed down here, they go to jail down here. Everything happens down here and none of it's good.

Kim I haven't seen nobody get killed.

Kevin I saw a guy get the shit kicked out of him by three niggers over in front of T.J.'s just this morning and get hauled off in the ambulance. He got the shit kicked out of him because he pulled a big ole steak knife out on 'em. You missed that one, dear, but that was just this morning.

Kim So who cares. I don't really care. Whatever happens, happens.

Late afternoon on Pike Street, Chrissie taunts Lillie.

Chrissie I should pass the word around. You're a snitch.

Lillie Chris, just leave me alone.

Chrissie Whacha gonna do about it? Huh? Tramp!

Lillie I'm gonna quit. Sorry, but I ain't a tramp and I ain't a fucking snitch either.

Chrissie Come here and say it to my face, you little tramp.

In a parking lot near Pike Street at night.

Lulu I want to call your man and tell your man I want to beat you up, but I want to talk to him first, to let him know what's goin' on. 'Cause he's streetwise like a mother-fucker. If you wanna be downtown, you gotta be cool. You better learn the ways of the streets before you start hangin' down here and doin' shit like you're doin'.

Blond I didn't know I was doin' anything.

Pike Street, at night. Patrice gets arrested. A group of born-again Christians sing hymns. Three boys and a girl have a fist fight in the street, stopping traffic.

Morning comes to an alley lined with garbage dumpsters.

Rat Shit, what is all this shit?

Jack I dunno, come on.

Rat Wanna jacket, a leather jacket?

Jack It's full of grape jelly, man.

Rat and Jack come upon a familiar dumpster and start digging in.

Rat and Jack (in unison) It's the Chinese Dumpster!

Rat (Voice over)
When you get regular dumpsters, we call 'em regs, you go there every night. You check all these dumpsters all these different places. And you can tell because they're regs what's been there since last week and what was put in there that night. 'Cause alot of people say, 'Shit, that shit could be a week old and you can't even tell,' but you can because it's your reg, your regular dumpster.

Rat samples some fried chicken.

Rat I think I hit the jackpot.

On Pike Street. Lulu tries to persuade Lillie and her boyfriend to leave.

Lulu I told her I'd even get her bus fare, really. I don't want to see her get beat up, she's too young.

Lillie I'm fifteen.

Lulu You ain't even fifteen. Don't give me that.

Lillie By next year I'll be ...

Lulu Bullshit. You're talking shit. How come you can't say it to my face. You ain't fifteen. (To Lillie's boyfriend.) She's gonna get you in trouble. Thirteen'll get you twenty.

Lulu (voice over)
I help a lot of people out. I've talked kids into going home. I ain't got to prove myself to show that I'm a girl. I've thought about not being a lesbian, but then every guy I've ever been with has screwed me over anyway. I get along with straight people too. Just, most of them think that because I'm gay that I'm trying to pick up on their girlfriends. To tell you the truth, I got to like somebody alot to even kiss 'em. See, I'm my own type of person, I am. I protect alot of people. This bum was trying to feel on this friend of mine's chest. I literally walked up and made him come back and apologize to the girl. (Lulu forces the bum to his knees and slaps him across his face.) Because she's not public property. I could understand if it was a telephone pole or something, he could touch it then. It's just the way I am. I've been like that since I've been down here. 'Cause nobody did nothin' for me. So, I made him come back and apologize and sent him on his way. I just told him, 'Go on, man, get out of here.' He left. (Lulu pushes him into the traffic.)

Tiny visits her mother Pat who works as a waitress at the Coffee Hut.

Pat (Voice over)
She has grown up quite a bit since she's been on these streets. She's fourteen going on twenty-one.

Tiny Extra pickles too, mom, please.

Pat (to the cook) Put extra pickles on that.

Pat (voice over)
Oh, when I was drinkin', Erin and I used to get in some bad arguments. I could see it in her mind, she's thinkin', 'Oh no, not again.'

Tiny (getting the hamburger) Mmmmmm. Thank you, mom.

Pat (voice over)
I don't know why I started drinkin'. Just cause of boredom half the time. I don't know.

Tiny (shouting to the cook) Too much juice.

Pat Come on, two more bites.

Tiny One more. I don't like the bread.

Pat (voice over)
See, I've had Erin all my life. I've had to bring her up myself.
And then one day I suddenly get married. I think she likes Tom.
She just doesn't want to admit it.

Tiny (holding her full stomach) I feel like I'm pregnant.

Pat (yawning) Oh, goodness. (She serves Tiny some pie.)

Tiny (sniffing the pie suspiciously) Don't you have no whipping cream?

Pat No.

Pat (voice over)
My fear is that some day I'm going to get a phone call or a knock at my door ... and she's not going to be there any more.

Tiny and Pat walk to their bungalow.

Tiny (voice over)
We started living at Larry's a couple of months ago, because my mom and my dad got kicked out of their apartment. And Larry offered them a place to stay. Naturally you call somebody who marries your mother a 'dad.' Sometimes he's an asshole. But he's in the (alcoholic) treatment center. He's going to stay there for two months.

Tiny climbs in the window to open the door from the inside.

Pat Oh, for cryin' out loud. Damn dog. (Dog yelps.)

Tiny Quit pissin' on the floor now. Look at this mess.

Pat Damn that dog.

Tiny You should have left her out...What happened to this house? I cleaned it. I'm going to spray some deodorant around here, some Right Guard.

Pat Right Guard? Well, you wanted a dog, Erin, I didn't want her.

They sit down at the kitchen table. Pat does a crossword puzzle and drinks a beer. Tiny goes through the Avon cosmetic book:

Tiny I need more make-up, Mom. I want "Cloudy Blue" and "Meadow Violets" and ...

Pat (voice over)
She's always wantin' this and wantin' that. When you're a waitress you just don't make that much. One day she came home and told me she'd made $200. I 'bout fell off my chair.

Tiny ... then I want these three frosts, the blue, the lavender, and "The Best of Bronze."

Pat That costs too much. Look at the price on that!

Tiny Two for $4.99.

Pat Oh, two.

Tiny moves to the bedroom and their conversation continues from separate rooms.

Pat (voice over)
When Erin first told me about this, she thought I would be really angry with her and hate her, but I don't. It's just a phase she's going through right now. I can't stop her from doing this. She's just going to do it anyway.

Tiny Do you think I'd be gettin' that make-up by the end of this month?

Pat Probably about the seventeenth.

Tiny Isn't that the day you got married?

Pat Oh, yeah. How 'bout that?

Tiny I betcha Dad's goin' start bitchin' at ya.

Pat No. 'Bout what?

Tiny Probably wondering if you was sleeping with Larry or not.

Pat Oh, Erin. For heaven's sake.

Tiny I'm not saying you did. But that's what he's gonna start bitchin' at you about.

Tiny (voice over)
He beats up on my mom. He broke her leg once. He doesn't work. He depends on my mom alot, which is not right. I think the man should support the woman. He says, 'She doesn't have any money.' And I say, 'It's because of you. You spend her money on beer. So she doesn't have time for me.' Now my mom's in a mess she can't get out of. I feel really sorry for her.

Tiny It'll be a year since you were married. A year has gone by fast, hasn't it? Huh? Mom?

Pat Yes. Don't bug me ... I'm drinkin'.

Rat does his laundry in a laundromat.

Rat (voice over)
When I first ran away and came here to Seattle, I was tired of being the middleman between my mom and my dad's divorce. I told my mom when I called her about two weeks after I got here that I was in trouble with the law. She understood it. She said, 'Alright, I'll see you when you're eighteen.' And I said, 'Alright.' And then about a month later I called her again and I said, 'Hey mom, how's it goin?' And she said, 'It's awful. I'm broke. He's trying to drain me, trying to make my life miserable.' And she started crying alot, asking me to come home. And I just said, 'Mom, I gotta go' and I hung up on her.

Rat goes outside to panhandle.

Rat Excuse me, sir. Could you spare a dime, so I could finish drying my laundry?

Man Here you go, son.

Rat Thank you, sir. You have a nice day.

Rat (voice over)
And then I never called her again. I never wrote her a letter or nothin'. Fuck it, ya know. Let her think what she wants, that I'm dead, whatever she wants to think. But I don't want to listen to her cry ... makin' me feel bad.

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