Deacon King Kong: Chapter 1: Jesus’s Cheese Summary & Analysis

In September of 1969, an old deacon nicknamed Sportcoat shoots 19-year-old Deems Clemens, an infamously “ruthless” drug dealer, in the Causeway Housing Projects of Brooklyn. Sportcoat is an unlikely killer—he’s thin, sickly, and a longtime drinker; people thought he was a peaceful man.

After the shooting, residents of the projects gather outside to exchange theories about why Sportcoat shot Deems. Sister T. J. Billings, whom people call “Bum-Bum,” insists that Sportcoat “is under an evil spell.” Sportcoat’s best friend, a Cause Houses janitor named Hot Sausage, suggests that Sportcoat shot Deems to settle a disagreement between the Cause Houses baseball team and their rival, the Watch Houses. Still, nobody really knows why Sportcoat did it—not even Sportcoat himself.

The night before the shooting, Sportcoat dreamed about his late wife, Hettie. Sportcoat loves to tell the story of Hettie’s disappearance, which happened during a snowstorm in 1967. As Sportcoat remembers it, after waking up in the middle of the night to a light floating around the room, Hettie goes out into the snowstorm. Hettie tells Sportcoat that the light belongs to God and that she has to leave to get some moonflowers from the harbor. Sportcoat lets his wife leave and doesn’t question her.

The next morning, Sportcoat looks for Hettie. He follows her footprints to the water, but they end there. Then, Sportcoat looks up and sees a raven circling overhead; he watches the bird until it vanishes, and then he returns home. Later that day, when Hettie doesn’t show up for church at Five Ends Baptist Church, people grow concerned.

Two days later, Tommy Elefante’s crew finds Hettie’s body floating in the harbor. Elefante, or “The Elephant,” is a smuggler and a tough customer whom most people try to avoid, even drug dealers like Deems. However, Elefante promises Sportcoat that he and his men had nothing to do with Hettie’s death.

Hettie’s funeral is a chaotic affair. No one knows where to put the flowers—this was Hettie’s job. Then Pastor Gee makes a joke at Hettie’s expense and arguments break out among two of the singers in the choir. Nonetheless, Sportcoat is relatively cheerful and enjoys the ceremony. He is in a good mood, having spent the previous night drinking with his second-best friend, Rufus Harley, who makes a strong blend of moonshine known as “King Kong.” Also in attendance is Sportcoat’s son, Pudgy Fingers, who is “twenty-six, blind, and said to be half a loaf short in the mind.”

That night, Sportcoat dreams of Hettie and tells her about how great her funeral service was. However, he also has questions for Hettie. In particular, he wants to know where she stashed the Christmas Club money for the church. Hettie acted as the treasurer for the church and the Christmas Club money is the fund the church uses to buy Christmas presents for the children. Now that Hettie is gone, everyone wants to know what’s happened to their money—but Sportcoat doesn’t have any answers. Sportcoat spends the entire next day arguing with Hettie out loud, but he doesn’t find out what’s happened to the Christmas funds.

During their argument, Hettie insults Sportcoat by calling him “the cheese thief.” She is referencing a shipment of cheese that mysteriously arrives in the Cause on the first Saturday of every month. No one knows where the cheese comes from, but it is one of the few boons of living in the Cause. Not only is the cheese free, but it is also of high quality, and the residents of the Cause line up every Saturday to get their hands on some. Hot Sausage is in charge of handing it out and he always makes sure to set some aside for Sportcoat, so he doesn’t have to wait in line. Sportcoat is offended by the notion that this makes him a thief, as Hettie suggests, especially since she benefitted from it as well.

From this day on, Sportcoat regularly talks and argues with Hettie as though she is there with him. Meanwhile, the other members of the projects simply ignore him. They think he is a little crazy, but no more so than anyone else. However, when Sportcoat shoots Deems, their perception changes. They realize Sportcoat may be crazier than they thought, as his actions defy all reason. Additionally, they know that Sportcoat ostensibly signed his own death warrant by killing Deems who is a feared figure in the community.