Original subtitles

Hey, baby!

Hey, baby.

Hey, guess what?

Baby, I had a dream.

Give me something.

I had a dream, Ella!

Curtis, you're always dreaming.

Yeah, yeah, but this one-- this one-- this was different.

God spoke to me, Ella.

- Oh, Curtis. - I was in there.

I was laying on the couch.

Oh, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!

It was night.

That was not God, baby.

That was me, telling you, "Curtis, come on.

Let's go to bed."

Remember?

Ella, God spoketh to me.

OK, Curtis.

What did he say?

He said, "Curtis, I want you to live the Bible."

What Bible?

I guess he's talking about that one you

always telling me to read.

What's that?

King Edward or something?

It's James.

King James, baby.

OK, Curtis.

And you needed the Lord to tell you that?

Why's it so hard for you to believe that-- that

the good Lord would talk to me?

Do you really, really want me to answer that, Curtis?

Well, I know it was God.

Because it was like fire shut up in my belly.

Oh, Curtis, please.

Baby, that's probably your heartburn again.

You know?

No, it wasn't heartburn again.

Baby, I know the difference, OK?

Don't you think just this is all sort of like of the blue?

I don't know.

Maybe God sees something in me that you and I don't.

Well, god does choose the least of these.

That's right.

You always said that.

And everybody know I'm the leastest of everybody.

Curtis, listen, baby, I don't know about this, OK?

I thought you would be happy about this.

Well, Curtis, I have always prayed that your faith

would be strengthened and that you

would be a student of the Word.

Come on, let's pray.

Hm.

Baby.

No need.

Your prayers have been answered.

'Cause I'm gonna start right now!

Ella, this day forward, I'm gonna be a student of the Word.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah, baby.

Do it.

Oh, Father, I thank you for this I'm about to receive,

for the nourishing and strengthening

for my physical body.

Hey, baby, excuse me real quick.

- For Christ's sake. - Hey, baby.

Father, wait. Excuse me.

Psst, psst, psst.

What?

Where's my Bible?

Maybe it's at the Bible bookstore.

You got jokes. ELLA: No, I don't.

You know I got--

you got jokes, Ella. ELLA: Curtis.

It's OK.

No, you go on, have your little jokes.

OK?

Because I'm gonna do just what God told me to do, OK?

And I'm gonna read the Bible, the whole Bible, Ella.

ELLA: Oh.

From beginning to end!

Do it.

Genesis to Exodus!

OK, Curtis.

Revelations is the last book.

Exodus is the second book.

Why you always ruin it for me later?

No, no. I was trying to help you.

You always ruin the end, though.

No, I'm just trying to help you.

- Can I get there and enjoy it? - Baby, I just want--

I don't want you to be surprised.

I don't want you to be surprised.

I don't want you to just give me the end.

I didn't want you to give up after the second book.

Genesis to Exodus?

That's not a lot.

All right, pretty girl.

You can finish that, and then gotta take this bite.

One last bite.

You've been eating so good.

Can you eat one more?

One more?

Thank you.

OK.

You were supposed to eat it, not paint your face with it.

Here, let me clean it off.

Let me get it off of you.

CJ, please help me get them cleaned up.

Oh, sure.

CJ.

OK, well, did you happen to notice that your daughter

has learned a brand new word?

You got a new word, baby?

What is it?

[mumbling]

You can have it.

You can have it.

What's the word, baby?

Let's just say Miss Ella should never hear her say it.

Oh. JANINE: Oh.

That's my fault.

Yeah.

I probably yell too much during the game.

I'm sorry, baby.

It's amazing.

She's so engaged in everything, but he's

just as quiet as a mouse.

Well, he's the strong, silent type.

You know, he take after his daddy.

No, I'm concerned, CJ.

I mean, do you think maybe he's a slow learner?

No, what are you talking about?

That boy is fine.

You did the same thing with Jazzy and Malik.

I did not.

That's not true.

When Jazzy was two years old, you thought she had the mumps.

Her face was swollen.

She had one mosquito bite.

OK, I was being a little cautious.

And what about when you thought Malik's head

was too big?

What about it?

OK, Malik's head is big.

But he's OK.

You're right, OK. So what?

I'm a mom. It's what we do.

All right?

Just please make sure you have them check

Jayden's hearing when you take them

to the appointment next week.

I'm taking them?

Yes, remember?

I told you, I have a meeting.

Janine, this is the third time.

OK, you know what?

Fine, I'll reschedule.

It's no problem.

Never mind.

Forget it.

I will take them.

Thank you.

I figure this way, I'll get to spend a little

more time with the twins.

Oh, that's sweet.

Daddy's gonna spend time with you.

I ain't talking about the babies.

I'm talking about the twins.

The twinny, twin, twins!

Stop.

How be it, he will not stretch out his hand.

Curtis, OK, baby, listen.

If you quote me one more scripture,

I promise, I'm just gonna scream and choke your neck.

Ella, why are you so angry?

What do you mean, why am I so angry?

I mean, you're upset because I felt the need

to cast out all the devils?

Curtis, that was my devil's food cake for the bake sale!

You're taking this too far, Curtis.

Now what am I supposed to do?

Huh?

Let's break bread together.

Curtis, you better go on somewhere.

One more word, Curtis.

One more word, I promise.

Baby, the Bible says to study to show thyself approval.

That's what it say here.

Don't be mad at me.

Curtis, that scripture says, "study to show thyself approved

unto God, a workman who needeth not to be ashamed

but rightly divideth the word of truth."

That is too wordy.

God.

Praise Him, baby, praise Him.

Excuse me.

How y'all doing? - Hey.

I came over here because I need

to borrow a cheese grater, a sandal,

and a half a stick of gum.

For what?

I got a date.

Ha ha!

And since my boo is off her meds now, she can get her drink on.

I will be praying for you, Brother Floyd.

Uh, when did he get to be so holy?

Last night, Curtis had a dream that he should

follow every word of the Bible.

[laughter]

OK, Ella.

Y'all are serious, ain't you?

Really?

Curtis ain't sick, is he?

Well, I think the jury's still out on that one.

- Hm. - I'm out.

All right, now.

Goodbye.

Bye, bishop.

Be blessed.

Curtis, for real, bro.

What?

What's going on, man?

Floyd, tell me something.

What?

Is it really that hard to picture me in church?

No, unless it's in a casket.

I mean, are you real serious about this?

I mean, seriously, bro, you're not trying to check out on me,

are we?

I want to bust you in your head right now.

Please, don't.

Well, I can't, 'cause I'm righteous right now.

Oh, really?

Man, God spoke to me.

Floyd!

This is serious, man.

OK?

He spoke to me in an audible voice!

And now I realize that there comes

a time in every man's life--

Mhm.

When-- when he realizes that he doesn't have any direction,

no purpose.

You're sure you ain't channeling Lionel Richie?

Bro, maybe you should just be the minister

of music at a church or something, right?

I tell you what, let me hear you bust out your best

version of "Brickhouse."

How about I bust you in your head right now.

Stay safe, Curtis. come on.

It's your lucky day.

OK?

Because today I choose to turn the other cheek.

Uh.

Gross.

Whatever.

OK, here we go.

I knew I was on the right track.

Look what it seems right here.

What's that?

Blessed is the peacemaker.

FLOYD: OK.

Because he shall be called the children of God.

How about that?

How about that?

Speaking of which, talking about the children of God.

Hey, these two children of God inherited

$100 in the football pool!

Yes!

Yes, sir!

What?

What?

[grunting]

I know you don't play!

No, boy!

We gonna pla-zay!

It's so sad. It's so sad.

It's OK. It's all right.

can't can do it.

What?

We can't do it.

Gambling.

We can't gamble. - What?

We can.

The price to pay is too high, Floyd.

Now, I know it don't say that.

Nothing about that in the Bible.

You need to be closer to God.

Well, that's true.

That's true.

Ah!

Heavenly Father, what are you doing, man?

That was quick.

Come on, dude.

Don't do that.

Floyd, don't worry about that.

Look, your reward in heaven will be greater.

Just think, it will.

Your cup shall runneth over.

Are you kidding me?

Look here.

You better hope I tape this back together, or else

my car gonna runneth you over.

You got a tattoo?

Where?

No, mom, not the tattoo parlor. Where?

Where on your body?

OK, I gotta go.

CJ just got here with the twins, and I can't talk about that

in front of my babies.

So I love you.

Bye.

Hi, mama's babies.

Has How you doing?

How's the visit?

Hey.

Well, the doctor thinks--

What?

That I'm a crazed mom?

I know.

I was doing a bit much.

There is nothing wrong with my baby.

Can I talk to you for a second?

Yeah.

Over there.

What's going on?

Have a seat, baby.

What is it?

Well, uh, the doctors think you may be right.

You know, that Jayden isn't responding to sounds the way

that he should.

I knew it.

I knew it.

A mother knows.

You know?

OK.

OK, so what? What happens next?

Does he need some kind of a hearing aid or a--

Well, the doctors, they-- they did some tests on the kids,

and Jayden is a little bit behind developmentally.

"A little behind?"

What does that mean, exactly?

I mean, is that something that happens when you have twins?

When will he begin to catch up?

All that.

Uh, they-- they think that Jayden may have autism.

What?

He-- no.

He's sleeping so peacefully up there.

Come on, CJ.

Autism.

Really?

Just because he's not talkative?

That-- that-- that's impossible.

It can't be that.

Well, the doctor says that he's showing all

the signs, that he's not sure.

He's got to do some more tests.

More tests.

OK, well, what about Hayden?

He says she's fine.

How does this happen?

I don't get it.

I just don't get it. How?

How does this even?

Do you think this was my fault?

What are you talking about?

You mean--

Drugs.

Do you think this was my fault?

No, that was a long time ago.

That was way before we had the twins.

Is this my fault?

Don't you-- hey, no.

You didn't have nothing to do with this.

I-- I don't know how long that stuff stays in your system.

No.

And I don't know how it could have

changed my body or something.

You know?

I don't know what effect it had on my babies.

Janine, don't you start blaming yourself for this.

I'm just saying, I don't know.

I don't know.

Baby, come on now.

Stop this.

My God, did I do this to him?

No.

I did this.

OK, you know, I gotta--

I gotta-- - Hey.

- I need to clear my head. - Hey.

I gotta go.

Don't you-- you better stop it now.

And God blessed the seventh day, Floyd.

Floyd, wake up!

What?

You just wanna go to Hell, don't you?

Thought I was already there, hell.

You made me lose my place.

Now I gotta start at the beginning.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Don't do that. Don't do that.

Please, don't do that, Curtis.

In the beginning, God created the heaven and earth.

Gotta start over again.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth.

I'm sorry. I gotta take this call.

It's my mama. This my mama.

She calling.

I gotta take this call.

Yes, ma'am.

What's go-- what?

A stroke?

Oh, God.

And the cat died?

Look, get the jumper cables.

I'm on my way.

- Tell her I got healing hands. - I'm on my way.

Tell her I got healing hands.

I got healing-- I got healing hands.

Hello?

Ain't nobody on the phone, Floyd.

Just like I thought.

Come on, Curtis, man.

Can-- can I at least tip out?

No.

Look, now if you gonna be living by the Bible,

you got to learn how to respect the church finger.

OK?

You better be glad it ain't another finger if you

know what I'm talking about.

OK, Floyd, but hurry up, OK?

Hurry up.

You are disrupting class.

You are disrupting my Bible class,

and it is not fair to make everybody in here

wait for you in my Bible class.

OK, all right.

All right.

Excuse me.

All right, I see.

All right, praise the Lord.

Oh, it's good seeing you, Sister Sledge, all right.

Curtis, how you gonna be in front of everybody

with your fly open like that, man?

Don't you judge me!

Don't you judge me!

Hey, baby.

Hey, Aunt Ella.

How were you?

Hey.

How's Janine?

Oh, we just--

just trying to process this whole thing,

trying to figure it all out.

Well, good.

I'm glad you're here.

I've been doing some research.

Oh, I don't wanna talk about that,

'cause I just came over here, I just wanted to clear my head.

That's all.

Right, but CJ, there are statistics.

I don't care about the statistics, Aunt Ella.

I just care about my son.

OK, but CJ, you don't have all the facts.

I don't know if you have--

The facts?

Janine thinks that her addiction caused this on the baby.

Autism is probably caused by a combination

of factors, some genetic, some environmental.

But she just doesn't know that!

Do they tell you how to get rid of it in there?

Can you find out what you gotta to do to fix this?

C.j.

CJ, wait a minute.

All right.

It just hurts me to know that my son

is just gonna have a hard time just going through life.

CJ, people with autism are faced with challenges,

but that does not mean that they do not have good lives.

And remember, we don't even know if Jayden has autism.

But what if he does?

Either, way, baby either way, he's gonna need love,

and he's going to need the support of his parents.

And that I know you two can do it, you can do it well.

OK, all right, all right?

Yeah.

I-- I just didn't--

I didn't plan for it to work out this way, you know?

I wanted my little man to be able to play football,

you know?

Run with the kids in the yard.

And he will.

And he will.

Jayden was created, baby, just like God planned it.

And no matter what, we will love him.

And God will love him.

Yeah. yeah, he's gonna be all right.

Hey.

Twins asleep?

Yeah.

Um, I freaked out.

And I said some things I probably shouldn't have said.

I'm just really feeling like an unfit mother.

Hey, you are not an unfit mother.

How can you say that, CJ?

I put Jazzy and Malik through hell.

Now Jayden's going through this.

Autism is a mystery.

The doctors don't even know what causes it.

CJ, if I knew when I was--

if I thought that there was any kind of a possibility--

We've been through tough times.

Really tough.

And somehow we got through it.

This is different.

This is our baby, OK?

This is our baby.

When you think of having a baby, you

think of a perfect, perfect little bundle of love.

Listen, lots of people have special needs children.

You know, they're still little bundles of love.

I know.

I know.

Listen, all we got to do, we gotta-- we gotta stay positive.

You know?

We gotta be-- we gotta focus.

We gotta focus on the future.

I just wish there something we could do for them now.

There is.

What we can do?

We can gather up as much information as we can, right?

Mhm.

Because we're not the only parents

to have to go through this.

Why us?

I don't know.

This is scary.

This is so-- this is really scary.

We'll get through it.

How?

The same way we get through everything else.

Faith.

Come on. Faith.

- Faith. - Faith.

Faith.

Come on.

MAN [ON TV]: You too can read the Bible.

Curtis.

MAN [ON TV]: Heed the call.

Yes, I will heed Thy word, O Father.

MAN [ON TV]: Don't delay.

Yes, I will read the Word.

Curtis, wake up, baby.

Curtis, get up!

Word of God.

So glad to--

Curtis, get up, get up, get up.

Baby, what are you doing?

Why did you wake me up?

I was talking to the Lord.

Man the Lord were talking.

Well, the Lord was not talking to you.

Listen.

MAN [ON TV]: For $19.95, you too can heed the call,

know your purpose.

Sound familiar?

God?

No, Curtis.

That is not God.

God did not talk to you.

I knew it.

That was an infomercial!

[laughter]

That's an infomercial?

You mean, I was listening to an infomercial,

and I thought it was God speaking to me?

I mean, really, baby, it could happen to anybody.

I feel so stupid.

No, no, baby, really.

It could happen to anybody.

Ella, do you know I was about to change my evil,

wicked ways, all of 'em?

Curtis, you should.

Whatever.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh, Curtis.

No, no, no.

You are still going to church with me on Sunday, right?

Hell no. ELLA: Curtis!

I'm back!

Curtis, you better--

Curtis!

[music playing]