Diego's Brooklyn

Joe Barnes' home is a 9X12 room on a quiet tree-lined street near Downtown Brooklyn. He borrowed $10,000 from the Irish Mob in "Hell's Kitchen", a lot of money in 1961. The first payment is well over due and now they want it all back. That's why he's hiding out across the river with no plans of going back to Manhattan. Joe is biding his time while he waits for a good tip on a fast horse at the Trotters. He still has all of the money he borrowed and believes he has hidden it well. Below, in a two room, first floor flat, 14 year old Diego lives with Ana, his handicapped mother. Money is hard to come by. A welfare check barely puts food on the table, so the boy hustles the streets to buy milk, bread, or anything else they need. He befriends Bill Jackson, an elderly black southerner from the Carolinas who lives one block over on Bergen Street with Beulah, his warm hearted, matronly wife. Though not on welfare, they scrape by on the little they get from Social Security, and lately, they have come up short for the electric bill. "And old Geezer the cat needs to eat, too. Momma been feedin' him scraps, but thems cats got to have their meat." Diego shows the older man how to fish for spare change in the subway gratings of the Lexington Avenue line. To earn more money, they deliver groceries in a modified baby carriage, but the venture fails from the start. "So you think this business went on belly up like a shot up gator?" said Bill. "Now, don't go selling your cow to buy a mule." 'Though streetwise and school-smart, nothing prepares Diego for what lay ahead when the Irish mob finally finds Joe Barnes. The once, quiet building is thrown into turmoil as it becomes witness to intimidation and murder. And the cops are of no help, either. One of their own wants that money, and he's willing to kill for it.