My stuff was waiting on the stoop. Rasul had put the car in park and was rushing forward to help me.

“Just get in …” he mouthed as soon as he saw I was about to question him about the whip. I guess if I was going to ride or die with my man, like Bonnie with Clyde, the first thing I had to learn was to not ask questions when he ordered me to do something. I jumped in and sat tight while he loaded up the trunk with my things.

“Rasul, what the hell is this?” I yelled as soon as he got back in.

“Just a little something for the trip … we ain’t riding no train,” he said. “We coming to New York in style … we gonna be ballin’, baby, so it’s time to look the part.”

The car had a new money shine on the outside, but the inside revealed a different story. The foam lining the ceiling had started to hang down. The leather seats cracked in jagged, crooked lines. The ashtray held caramelized soot and wouldn’t turn back in no matter how hard I pushed. I knew enough about hoopties from my cousins to recognize a slow starter, squeaky brakes, and a ticking engine.

“Rasul, where you get this car?”

“I bought it,” he said, without looking at me, lighting a Newport on the dash. He took a long drag, fidgeted at the wheel, and wouldn’t look my way.

“Where you get the dough?” I knew he had a little filing job, but there was no way he could have saved for this.

“My uncle used to let me keep all my money, so I just saved and saved and saved,” he continued. “Shit, I figured now was good a time as any to put that money to use.”

“You got a license?”

“No, but shit I know how to drive. I don’t plan on getting stopped.” He turned up the radio. I quickly turned it down.

“Did you drive it first? It sound like something wrong with it …”

“Naw, I just bought a ride without test-driving it first. I bought this from my uncle friend—I told them I was ready to leave and be on my own, and they sent me off like a man.”

The rearview mirror was turned his way and he wouldn’t look in mine, so I couldn’t tell from his eyes whether he was lying or not.

“Rasul, we ain’t gonna need no car in New York,” I snapped. “They got a subway there. We coulda rode the train and used that money for something else.”