All She Can Take

T W E N T Y - T W O

"There's extra space in the trunk. Great for a stroller or you know, a really large shopping trip." The woman had not stopped talking since Sid pulled off the lot. Car sales people's scripts must be preloaded in their head as soon as the customer walks in. Young woman shopping for a brand new car? Talk about all the shopping bags she can fit in the trunk! A sporty guy comes in? Launch into a spiel about many women would step out of their panties seeing him that car. Throw in some comments about the horsepower and crap. 

It was comical as she watched each of the salespeople come to the waiting area, size up their victim, and play into whatever tired stereotypes they thought would move these cars the fastest. There was no need to try to sway Sid or sell her anything. She knew what car she wanted. A Toyota Rav4. Anyone was fine for her. She'd done her research and selected the most dependable car with cheap replacement parts. Something that would rescue her and AJ from the maze of bus routes. She didn't care about the color, the interior, or how many shopping bags the trunk could hold.

As she test drove a shiny red one through the streets around the car lot she noticed the car handled great and traveled nicely over the ragged streets of Brooklyn. Sid pulled to a red light and pressed a little too hard on the break. They both jerked forward.

"Whoa! Maybe let hubby drive." The woman with her fake enthusiasm high pitched grating giggle, shot a wink at AJ who was strapped into a brand new car seat in the back. Sid could have told her that she hadn't driven in six years. That the last time she drove was from her parent's old apartment in Fort Greene to the IHOP in Canarsie. When her parents took them all to celebrate the weekend after she got her license. Her Dad was so proud of her. Their lessons for over a year in a car borrowed from one of his friends had paid off and she passed the road test on her first try. If the woman wasn't being so fake maybe Sid would have shared the fact that he was killed a week after that. But instead, Sid kept that all to herself.

"Been a while. How much did you say this was again?"

"Well, with financing you're looking around $250 a month but we have great lease options right now for around $180." The red light turned green and Sid turned the corner heading back to the dealership.

"What's the total for the car?" Sid asked, appreciating that her turn was tighter than the previous two she had made. She was already falling back into the groove of it. Like riding a bike. The saleswomen flipped through the booklet in her hand.

"The total is $28,862...before taxes and fees."

"Can you do it for $25,000? This model doesn't have some of the premium options like the one I saw online. There's another dealership around the corner that has last year's model for $22,000 with all the extras. I could really go with that one... but I like this." Sid pulled back into the dealership, sliding the car between two others parked on the lot. "Oh, and I can pay cash."

Sid had never seen a human float but if she imagined it looked like miss high pitch right at that moment. If Sid knew all she had to say was 'cash' to shut her up she would have said it as soon as she walked in. The woman nearly fell out of the car in her race to get to the office and draw up the paperwork before Sidney could change her mind. Hopping out of the front seat and rounding to the rear seat, she popped open the door and looked at AJ sitting there in his chair playing with a small action figure. A smile spread across his face as she rubbed the beautiful curls on the top of his head. He looked so comfortable in his seat. Mellow. Instead of sweaty and agitated like he usually was on the bus. 

She was able to shove down the thoughts and guilt that was nagging at her about where the money came from. She got existential about it. It was money and what was money anyway but some man-made device to assign arbitrary value to things. It belonged to no one. It belonged to whoever possessed it at the moment. It came from everywhere. Most recently, it came from a series of people making bad decisions that hurt other people, ruined lives. This was probably the first time that this money had ever been exchanged for something good. Besides, she looked damned good behind the wheel. She couldn't help that.