Buying a Car

Tony, who claimed he knew how to find cheap deals, was ready to go at a moment's notice. He directed Silencer to drive out of town, and after winding through the maze-like interior of an abandoned vehicle scrapyard, they finally stopped in a secluded spot.

A decent-looking '88 Jeep Cherokee came into view. A few shady-looking Black guys gathered around them. Don't get the wrong idea—they were just doing business. Their leader, nicknamed Rat, quoted Tony four thousand. It looked like there was still room to haggle.

"WTF!" Song Ya sensed something was off. A new Jeep Cherokee seemed to cost around twenty grand now. A used one couldn't possibly be this cheap...

Silencer noticed Song Ya's confusion and quietly made a "pickpocket" gesture.

"So it's stolen?"

Song Ya regretted it a little. He'd just come into a lot of money and gotten carried away, letting Tony do whatever he wanted. He'd stuffed four thousand five hundred dollars in his pocket and swaggered into a place like this to pick up a stolen car...

He was carried away, but Tony was even worse. Not only was he happily chatting with Rat, he took the "hand-rolled joint" Rat offered and smoked it. Once he was high, he went and took the gun from Silencer's car, then climbed into the Cherokee.

"This thing's got a lot of room inside. Ya Li, where do you think we should hide the gun? Here? Here?"

He excitedly tried stuffing it under the driver's seat, but didn't like how it felt, so he crawled into the back to look for a place to stash things.

"Hey! Hey! We're not buying it. Let's go!"

Song Ya was furious. He grabbed Tony and dragged him toward Silencer's car. "Are you an idiot? A car this new would be gone from outside our house in less than three days!" he shouted, deliberately making up an excuse for Rat and the others to hear.

"It wouldn't be that bad..."

Tony still didn't want to leave. Song Ya had to give him several pointed looks before he finally managed to coax him into the car. "Forget it. My little brother's got a screw loose." He pointed at his head for Rat and the others. "Sorry for the trouble."

"No problem, brother."

Rat didn't say anything more. He waved them off and let them go.

As soon as they left the scrapyard, the two of them launched into the fiercest argument Song Ya had had since crossing over.

"You made me look like an idiot back there, you know that?!"

Maybe the joint was still affecting him. Tony practically shouted his displeasure. "I brought you there because I knew it'd be fine. There are tons of people driving stolen cars on the South Side. The cops can't keep up. Other than the time ET got killed, have those police cars ever come into our neighborhood? They're afraid to come in..."

"Look at yourself! You're gambling on a chance!"

Song Ya was furious too. "What do you think would happen if we got pulled over driving that car?" He counted the points off on his fingers. "The car's stolen, one of us reeks of weed, and there's a gun hidden in the back seat! Have you thought about how many years we could get for that alone? I'm telling you, I've got a bright future ahead of me. I'm not about to get dragged down by this kind of crap for no reason!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

Tony clapped his hands repeatedly. "So this is what APLUS is like now that he's made big money! What, you think your big brother's holding you back? Let me tell you something! Without me, would Little Lowry ever have had the chance to sing your song? I'm your brother, and I'll always be the one calling the shots around here! And haven't you noticed Little Lowry's been keeping his distance from us because of you? Silencer and I are both making sacrifices for you!"

"Sure, sure, sure. You're still bitter that you gave up the chance to be a sidekick, and now you're ignoring the danger of getting yourself and your little brother thrown in jail?"

"I've told you how many times? He's not a sidekick. He's our brother! Little Lowry and I are brothers!"

"He's a sidekick. No matter how nicely you put it, he's still a sidekick."

"He's our brother! Our partner! Little Lowry's the star! We're his star partners!"

"Sidekick..."

Just as they were arguing themselves hoarse, Silencer suddenly pulled over. When they looked around, they saw they'd driven up to a gigantic used-car lot.

"F*** you!"

"F***!"

They slammed the car doors and got out. At least they'd stopped arguing. A salesman was already coming over.

"Pickup truck."

Silencer headed straight for the pickup section.

"Hm?" Song Ya's eyes were drawn to the Volkswagen logo on one of the pickups. "Whoa! How much does that badge alone knock off the price? Hmm, not bad, not bad. I wonder if it burns oil? Huh? Why would I even think that..."

"You've got a good eye, kid. It's a Volkswagen Rabbit Caddy. We're offering a big discount on this one..." The salesman immediately launched into his pitch.

"Don't bother looking at that one. A two-seater pickup won't be big enough for us." Tony stood beside a Ford pickup and called Song Ya over.

After looking around, they settled on a four-seat Ford pickup. It was eight years old and only in average condition, but it was cheap: a little over two thousand, everything included.

NGer got over his anger as quickly as it had come. By the time Tony drove off in the "new" car, he was acting like nothing had happened. He hummed to himself and kept testing the car's features. "Where to next?" he asked.

They still had plenty of money left. Song Ya thought about it. "Let's go to the used-appliance market. We've already got a fridge at home, so we can get a washing machine. Then Aunt Susie won't have to haul a pile of clothes to the public laundromat and fight for space."

"Yeah!" Tony said, turning the wheel. "You're a good brother, Ya Li. Honestly, I used to think the way you do now. Probably back in seventh grade? Silencer and I were bigger and stronger than the other kids our age. We were starters on the football team, and all we wanted was a college scholarship through football, maybe even to play professionally. That belief was what let us turn down all kinds of temptations in the ghetto—gangs, drugs, petty theft... But then everything changed. The other kids caught up to us in size, and I couldn't keep my body fat under control. The scholarships were out of reach, and our path was blocked... Day after day, things went on like that, until we became what we are now."

"I get it." Song Ya bumped fists with Tony, and they smiled at each other.

At the used-appliance market, they first picked out a front-loading washing machine and an oven. Song Ya gave Silencer a VCR, bought Tony a Nintendo and a small TV, and picked out an electronic metronome, a guitar, a trumpet, and various other odds and ends for himself.

Since crossing over, he'd found himself dealing in secondhand goods at every turn. Even his first crossover benefit had been a song about a thrift shop. Part of the reason was that buying and selling used goods was easy and common in the USA. More importantly, they really couldn't have new things in the house, especially new appliances. Welfare workers conducted regular inspections as well as surprise spot checks. If they found a major improvement in the family's standard of living, or discovered there was a man of the house and it was no longer a single-parent household, their benefits would be drastically reduced. Song Ya's current income still wasn't nearly enough to get the whole family off welfare and living comfortably, so new appliances were out of the question.

Once he'd taken care of his personal errands, Song Ya focused most of his energy on recording the song. It was his top priority at the moment, and he hadn't been to school for many days. But it was no big deal. The school had contacted Aunt Susie once, but since his guardian had no objections, they'd left him alone.

A few days later, everyone gave their approval to the version they'd gotten back from the professional mixing studio. That meant Little Lowry's new album, which they'd worked on around the clock, was finally ready for production.

"Yeah!"

Old Joe and Pablo had gone to the factory, and the recording studio was quiet again. Song Ya and Eric, both exhausted, collapsed onto the sofa and didn't feel like moving a muscle.

The current version was still a long way from the original in Song Ya's mind. Maybe it was the technology: Old Joe's chorus and Old Morgan's saxophone didn't have anything like the original's piercing sound. In plain terms, they just weren't as catchy. Plenty of other parts fell short too, and Little Lowry's rap naturally wasn't as good as the original's. Song Ya hadn't been able to offer much direction during the recording. He was still a complete newcomer, after all, and he had to consider their relationship too.

He didn't think the song could ever reach the heights of the original, but that was just how it was. All he could do was his best.

"Hey, Eric." Song Ya suddenly remembered what Old Joe had said about Eric picking up girls.

"What?" Eric was nearly asleep.

"Those girls downstairs—can you really pick any one of them and get her to come up here and do it with you?"

"More or less. You want to learn?"

"Emmmmmmmmmmm..."

Eric laughed. "Still putting on an act? You little pervert. Come on, I'll teach you. It's not hard at all."