All God's Children by Rene Denfeld

Author:Rene Denfeld [Denfeld, Rene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Family Life, History, Homelessness, Life Stages, Non-Fiction, Poverty, Relationships, Social Science
ISBN: 9780786734191
Google: 1PRSfhQrh-sC
Amazon: B009K47VYK
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2007-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

She was Cassandra Hale, better known on the streets as Juliet. Cassandra was a big girl with long blonde hair. She had a reputation for not being afraid to use her fists. Her obedient kids called her “Mom.” At her feet, Cassandra kept her Rottweiler, Chronic, his thick neck braced with a choke collar.

Across the Square, the Thantos Family watched Cassandra’s family from their own benches. In the dynamics of the Square, some of the kids from different families became friends, but everyone knew the protocol. “You stick to your own,” explains Joshua. Everyone respected this rule except Jessica, who bounced from bench to bench, stirring up trouble.

Cassandra was a strict disciplinarian. If her kids disobeyed, she made them bend over and hold their hands behind their backs. Then, she slapped them on the back of the head, right in the Square with everyone watching. If they cried, the beating was worse.

Like Nelson, Cassandra used the word “ nigger” a lot and talked about the Ku Klux Klan and the Mafia, according to one of her followers. At the same time, she claimed a large black drug dealer called Glow Worm as her boyfriend. Her sexuality was just as unpredictable as her temper. One day she had a boyfriend. The next day she had a street wife. One day she was bisexual. The next she was lesbian.

Cassandra had the right combination of absolute entitlement and complete faith in the rules to make herself a powerful street mom. If she didn’t have money, she took it from her kids. In return, she acted as if she would protect her followers. She seemed as natural to the Square as bricks, as hewn from the culture as if she had been created there. Carl Alsup called Cassandra “the boss of Pioneer Square, or at least most of the Square, anyway.”

If there was one thing Cassandra didn’t like, it was the oogles. She ridiculed the youths who came downtown for the day and returned home at night. “The newbies, they’re like, my mom and dad made them wash the dishes.” Cassandra scoffs. “They have a home. Well, I don’t have a home.”

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