There once was a boy who people said resembled a well-known rapper. He had hair that looked like long rows of twizzlers going to the back of his head in designs, with a little bit of hang time. He could barely get on the big rides at six flags, but he didn’t care because as far as he was concerned he was on them. His skin looked like Reese’s chocolate in the wintertime and Oreo’s in the summer. He dressed himself pretty nice although he didn’t always dress to fit the weather. The way he felt about it was, the hell with the weather. His name was Erin, but he had many aliases. Some of his potnas called him E, but the streets called him Scarface.
Scarface was once only a nickname describing his attitude and mentality, not his physical appearance, but in the spring of 2005 all that changed forever. This time of year was always beautiful. The days weren’t too hot, a nice breeze constantly blows, and just enough rain falls which keeps it from being to dry. The only bad thing about this time of year was that if you have allergies, the amount of pollen in the air will kill your nose and make you want to become a house bum. You have to constantly wash your car because it’ll change from whatever colors it is to yellow in just one day. Despite this, St. Louis for the most part is a nice place to live.
Scarface was seventeen around this time of year, and like any seventeen-year-old kid, he thought he was long over due for a set of wheels. “So Pop, when can I finally get my own car,” Erin asked reasonably, ”or am I gone have to wait until I move out and get a job?”
“Naw, son you’ll get one someday soon,” Pop answered.
“When is dat gone be.”
“I don’t know for sure son, but it’s gone happen soon enough.”
“Soon enough ta who, not me, cuz I think I should’ve been had a whip.”
“Jus sit tight and it’ll come, okay?”
“Aight pop.” So Scarface started using the computer to look for a whip. He saw many to choose from since he didn’t know what kind of funds he was able to put on a car. “Ay pop, what kind of cheese are tryin ta spend on a car?”
“Umm about eight, nine hundred all together or sumwurr around two ta three hundred a month.”
“Aight.” That narrowed it down to about ten but he only like about five of them. There was a Taurus SHO, two Caprices a 91 and a 93, an old Monte, and 2000 Impala LS. So the father and son went to talk to the dealer. The Taurus was a stick shift, but it was already sold. The Monte Carlo was a beater, but they had a Camaro on the lot and that got test-driven. “So pop wut do ya think about the Camaro?”
“It rides nice, but their askin’ price is a lil’ too much.”
“If you put a thousand down, I’m sure we can get the monthly payments down into a range that you might feel comfortable with,” The dealer pleaded.
“Naw I think we’ll jus keep lookin for a lil’ longer.”
“Aw, pop I liked that car, but I don’t wanna pay that much either, lets go.” Next were the Caprices. They both were white. “I like the 91, cuz it was white wit blue pen stripes and dark blue cloth interior. Plus the 93 had skirts over the wheels, but it was in good runnin condition too.” The 1991 Caprice would have been snatched, but the dealership wanted twenty three hundred for, which wasn’t a lot but they wanted it all right then and there. “Pop I want it, this is the car I want.”
“I know son and its gotta V8, but they want it all up front and you aint got that much save up in the bank.”
“So I guess we finna keep on looking huh?”
“Sorry ta say so, but yup.” There was only one more dealer to check, which was Auto Stop.
“I wanna take a look at that white Impala ova thurr.”
“Okay sir, I’ll be right back wit the keys,” the salesman replied. “Here you go sir, pull off the lot and go around the block.” Scarface whipped it around the area for a while then pulled back onto the lot grinning because he knew that this one was his. “Let’s get your paper work started.” “We can get your monthly insurance payment down by gettin the good student discount.” “Jus get a principal to sign this form.” Scarface pulled off the lot in his new car.
“If I died today, I’d die a happy man.” Scarface swerves on to the block in fresh Impala LS and everybody jocks him.
“So E what you be on now since you got a new whip n everything?” Jamil questioned.
“Man, now I neva be at da crib.” “I be constantly gettin on different gals, n dey be bad as hell too.” “I aint messin wit dese broads around hurr no mo.”
“Me neither cuz, I be on dem gals in da city,” Jamil interjected. “Da gals out hurr be trippin cuz.”
“Yeah, they do be on dat otha stuff.” “Sum of ‘em be actin like dey mind gone or sumthin.” A month goes by, and for that whole month E.merk was living it up. Saturday the twenty-third comes, it starts off as a normal Saturday. The homies kick it in the neighborhood until nightfall. “Wut we gone do tonight, Tall Chris?”
“I don’t kno. I think Lil Scott was tom bout postin up ova durr tonite,” Tall Chris replied. Night came and everybody mobbed out two cars deep. Before getting to their final destination of Lil Scott’s house, they made two stops to pick up some drink and some greenery.
“Let’s get tow back tonite, cuz.”
“4sho!” screamed the house. As the night went on everyone eyes got lower and redder. He was hella sleepy and throwed.
“Ay E can you take me to da crib?” DT asked with a slurred voice.
“Aight man, I think Ima go to da crib too.”
“I'm ridin too, fam,” Jamil added. The homies swerve to DT’s crib in a matter of moments.
“So ya’ll finna hit up da cribs too?”
“Naw we gone go ahead n chill at Lil Scott crib fo a minute.” Even to this day I still say that was my only mistake right there. He was hella sleepy and throwed. I shoulda just took my other potna home and then went to my crib. If he would have went home and got in the bed, Scarface would’ve just been a nickname, not a fact. He still doesn’t remember exactly what happened when I was on my way back to Scott’s house. Far as he knew, he was coming up the street and he blacked out with my foot on the gas. His homie on da passenger side must have been out too, because he didn’t grab the steering wheel. If I was riding shotgun and my potna blacked out behind the wheel, I know I would’ve grabbed the wheel. Blame can’t be place on anybody but him.
“Wut???” a dazed Scarface inquired.
“You wurr in an accident, son,” Mom said lovingly.
“Wurr my car at, wut it look it look like?”
“Son, …It’s totaled.”
“Wut?!!!” “Put me back unconscious.”
“Don’t say dat.”
“Naw, Im 4 real.” “I aint got nuthin now, Im back wurr I was, wit nuthin.”
“Boy, you need to be happy you got yo life, boy.”
“Wuteva.”
“How r u feelin Eric?” a nurse asked. The nurse sounded very familiar.
“Is dat who I think it is?” It was. He had forgotten DT’s mom worked at the hospital where he was. At that moment, he finally took the time to notice all the faces in the room. He was, so concerned about my car that was obviously gone forever. Almost his whole family was in the hospital with him when he awoke. His accident did have one positive affect, it showed him what was really important, and those things are friends and family. He woke up with a swollen face, stitches, and a catheter stuck in a bad place, basically it was a tube he had to use to pee in, because the doctors didn’t want him to have to get out of the bed yet. His face being swollen affected his speech. He was sounding like 50 cent. Erin was in the hospital for two days; he was sleep for most of one. When he finally got home he had quite a few visitors. After he took his first nap in his own bed again, the doorbell rang. He answered it after taking his time to hobble to the door. “Who is it?”
“Yo niggas!” they responded. I opened the door and saw four of my real homies.
“Wuts good, Jan, DT, Jamil, n Tall Chris?”
“Jus comin ta see how you was.”
“Im aight, jus still tryin ta get my legs back under me and let dis swellin to go down.”
“When you goin back ta school?”
“I don’t kno, probably next week. The way I feel rite now, I couldn’t even tell ya’ll.”
“You a tough dude cuz.”
“Wuteva, I don’t feel tough tho.”
He thought he couldn’t be happy without a car. Well, he was hella happy when he was whippin’, but he’s o.k. Scarface does wish he had a car sometimes when he need to go somewhere, but his Pops lets me drive his car almost anytime he wants and that’s aight. It still isn’t like having his own though. It took a set back like that last year around this time of year to slow me down, and put his life into perspective. If you haven’t already figured it out yet, the main-character and I are the same person. I still don’t have another car, but I’m on my way to it and this time I’m gone get to put some money into it. Basically, material objects aint nothing compared to a person’s life and the other people in it.