Deacon King Kong: Chapter 14: Rat Summary & Analysis

Lightbulb, one of Deems’s henchmen, goes to a meeting with Bunch. He tells Bunch that Deems is not as effective at his job as he should be. He claims that because Deems grew up in the church, he does not sell to as many people as he should, and he makes sure to keep up his choir boy image around the church community.

Deems’s primary selling location is near a flagpole, a central location in the Causeway Projects, which he claimed by severely injuring another drug dealer who had previously wronged him. Lightbulb tells this story to Bunch. After Deems’s grandfather died, Deems stopped playing baseball and turned to drug dealing instead. Deems’s cousin Rooster recruited him, and Deems joined a crew that consisted of himself, Rooster, Lightbulb, Bumps, Beanie, and Sugar. Rooster was the leader of the crew. After selling drugs for a while, the boys were caught and sent to juvy. While serving time, Rooster was killed. This was difficult on Deems, and it also meant that the group needed a new leader. Also, at one point, Bumps brutally beat up Deems and took some of his money to get back at Deems for not sharing his rice and beans with him.

The first to get out of juvy was Bumps. As such, he made himself the new leader of the group. When the rest of the members of the crew got out of jail, Bumps gave them jobs but made it clear that they worked for him. Deems agreed to work for Bumps and pretends to forgive and forget the incident in juvy. However, instead he secretly plots revenge.

One day, while Bumps was selling drugs by the flagpole, a woman approached him and offered sexual favors for drugs. Bumps agreed to the deal, and the woman leads him into an alleyway where some Jamaican men to whom Bumps had sold dangerous fake cocaine jump him. The Jamaican men cut Bumps up bad, leaving him disabled. Deems watched the entire incident, which he orchestrated, from afar. Then, as soon as the Jamaican men left, he went inside, grabbed a boiling pot of rice and beans, ran over to Bumps, and dumped it on him. After his revenge was complete, Deems took charge of the flagpole.

Lightbulb gives all of this information to Bunch in the hopes that Bunch will let him take over Deems’s flagpole. Bunch tells Lightbulb that he will consider it. However, when Lightbulb pushes him for an answer, Bunch tells him that he’s not going to give the flagpole to someone who just stabbed his friend in the back.

Lightbulb leaves and Bunch considers the best way to get rid of Deems. He agrees with Lightbulb’s assessment and wants Deems gone because he has a large quantity of heroin coming in from Joe Peck. Additionally, Bunch tells Earl, whose been sitting in the corner and listening in on the conversation with Lightbulb, that he’s called in someone else to deal with Sportcoat because Earl cannot seem to handle him. Unknown to Bunch, Earl recently decided to become a police informant to avoid jail time. He worries about what will happen if Bunch finds out.