Steven Puente - Co-Op City Ice Cream Run

 

So I'm sitting in my office and I'm waiting for him to show up, but I don't think he's going to show up. It's Joaquin, he's a 17-year-old boy in the Bronx and I'm working in Co-op City as an intern, as a social worker at a family children's service agency. And Joaquin doesn't really leave the house a lot because he's 17 years old and he still hasn't graduated seventh grade. And I'm kind of thinking, "Well, maybe he doesn't leave the house often and maybe he's just not going to show up to my appointment." But he surprises me and he shows up. And that's kind of a victory for me and I think, "Well, let's celebrate." And it's during the summer, and I think, "What's a better way to celebrate than ice cream?" 

 

And I think-- I come from the West Coast, and there's a little saying out there "Leave no child inside," meaning we're going to go outside. And I think that this is what New York City needs, is kids outside experiencing nature. But what I don't realize is there's not a whole lot here. [audience chuckle] So, we go outside, and there was an ice cream truck around the corner, but it had left. It was late in the evening. So, I tell Joaquin, like, "Let's just go find some ice cream." He thinks I'm weird, but we're getting through it. So, we walk around the corner in front of a Jewish guy that cuts meat, I just blanked, butcher, [audience laughter] thank you. And we passed a group of kids and these kids’ kind of look at Joaquin and kind of give him a nod. And me being from West Coast, from a really small town, I'm kind of like-- I look at him like, "What was that all about?" And he's like, "I don't know. I'm not from this section." 

 

If you're not familiar with Co-op City, there's different sections, and it's in the middle of nowhere. But the six train goes out there, and it's just kind of this mass, 55,000 people live in 27 buildings, and there's really nothing out there. So, I kind of ask him, and he’s like, "Well, I'm not from this section. Like, I don't know what their problem is." So, we sit there, and we're contemplating in front of the butcher shop, like, "Where should we go? Where's ice cream? Should we go to Sea Town or--" And these kids kind of approach us and they go, "Hey, what's up?" And I know they're not talking to me. And so, Joaquin's like, "Nothing, man." He's like, "You know Rafi, don't you?" And he's like, "I don't know. I don't know Rafi. I'm not from here." He's like, "No, you know Rafi." He was like, "I don't know." "You were here last week, right? Friday night." He's like, "Nah, man, nah." I was like, "Hey, Joaquin, let's just go. Let's just go. Let's walk away." 

 

They follow us, and there's five of them, and one of them is a Latino boy who's got a nice, bright pink lapel shirt, and a few other black kids. And they look somewhat menacing. And they kind of approach us again. He’s like, "No. Hey, you know Rafi, don't you?" He's like, "Man, I don't know. I'm not from here." And the guy in the pink shirt is kind of clenching his fist and he starts getting really pissed. And I'm thinking-- I'm a social worker. [audience laughter] I've got a lot of experience in drug addiction and group therapy. There's a group of us here. [audience laughter] And one of the things in crisis intervention, kind of put it back to them, is like, "Who's Rafi?" "Shut up, man. Do you?” “Do me?" So, they keep kind of asking him, and he's like, "Hey, I'm with my social worker here,” and I’m like “Oh, thank you. They're totally going to listen to authority now.” [audience laughter] "We don't care [beep]. You know Rafi, you were here last week, weren't you?" 

 

I was like, "Dude, Joaquin, let's just go. Let's just walk home." And if you don't know the Co-op again, I told you that it's kind of this mass space, but it's about a half-mile of kind of nothing. Even though 55,000 people live there, it's about a half-mile walk, but let's just go to the bus stop and maybe we'll catch some public transportation. [audience laughter] So, he takes his backpack off and we start walking. I kind of diffuse the situation. We're not going to talk about the kids, but we notice as we're getting close to this bus stop, the Latino kid is kind of separated from the other guys and has followed us. And he's kind of running towards us, and he starts approaching us I’m like, "Okay, Joaquin, let's just take care of this. Like, let's just talk to the guy." So, he comes up and I'm thinking, "Okay, one-on-one. I'm much better at this. Lots of training." [audience laughter] So, we'll just kind of talk this through as rational human beings. Like, there must be a situation where he doesn't know Rafi. He's been miss kind of like identified for somebody else. And before I could even talk to him, and I'm in between this kid and my client, his arm swings around and hits my client in the face and his hat falls off. 

 

And all of a sudden, now traffic is starting to stop and all the other kids are starting to run up and kind of come after us. I don't really know what to do, but I hear people kind of rolling down the windows like, "Don't do it. Don't do it. It's not worth it! It's not worth it." And I don't really know what's going on. But now people have separated, and the boys have separated because Joaquin, my client, took his backpack off, and he has a gun, and he says, "Back off, mother [beep] I'll kill you. I'll kill you. Steven, get my hat,” “Okay.” [audience laughter] “Let's get out of here." So, we cross the street, and now we're trying to go around. We're walking and then walking. And he looks at me, and he's like, "Run." And I'm like, "Okay." We start running. I'm running much faster than him because he's got his pants real low because he's a gangster. And I'm thinking, the only thing close next to us is actually the mall. And maybe we'll just hang out in Burger King and just like all this obviously come around just kind of fizzle out. But we kind of get to the thing, and we're running through the thing. The kids are chasing us. And we're about to cross into the mall. And all of a sudden, a car stops. Boom. Door opens. And they said, "Get in." I'm like, "Yes, let's go!" 

 

I don't know what's going on here, but I jump in. I'm like, "Joaquin, let's go. Get in.” We get in. And there's the old lady and an old man, and he was the butcher. And she was a social worker, and she noticed that I didn't look like I was from around here. [audience laughter] And I saw the kids chasing us, so maybe they'd help. "So where would you like to go?" I said, "Let's just take Joaquin home." So, we drive, and we drop him off at the building, and she looks to him and says, "Joaquin, go upstairs. Don't leave the house. Whatever you do, don't leave the house." And I'm thinking to myself, in all the years of my experience in being in school, but also the years of being an addictions counselor and thinking I can have these great, amazing things to say, that was the best advice we can give, “Joaquin, just don't leave the house.”