Along These Highways

Ridin’ like a Balla

57 Ridin’ like a Balla Eric devised a plan regarding the wheels he would buy for his car after great consideration. He would get the wheels from Rent A Tire, who leased their tires and wheels for the cheapest prices of all the rent-to-own tire shops in Corpus, though their interest rates were the highest. Eric knew this but was not worried. He was going to be smart about getting his wheels. The beauty of Eric’s plan was that he didn’t have to get a new car. His 1998 Grand Marquis would be so fly with the rims he would get that even if he didn’t paint the car glitter-flake, candy-apple red and fix its dented-in grille, as was his plan, it would still be the hottest ride on the block. Eric would buy P7000 Pirelli Supersport tires wrapped around twenty -four-inch Conquest rims made by Mondera. When he went to Rent A Tire, the salesman tried to sell him twenty-four-inch chrome spinner rims. Eric just said, “Nah,” and let out a slightly condescending chuckle. The salesman did not notice. Spinner rims were too flashy, too tacky; they were beneath him. The salesman didn’t quite understand when Eric laid out his plan. He wanted to buy two wheels. The wheels were $599 each. If someone wanted to buy a set of four, they could get it for $2,200 even, thirty days same as cash. Eric didn’t have $2,200. He didn’t even have $599, but he was going to get the wheels. He’d heard from a friend who got into a car crash, ruining one of his fifteen-inch gold-plated Prime 258 rims when he drove it into a curb, that single wheels, sold either as replacements or as spares, which doubled as trunk ornaments, were sold at a discount—sixty days same as cash. So Eric bought the wheels. They came out to $600 even, each, the Pirelli tires included. He took the wheels home and, before having his cousin help him change them out with his old ones, thought long and hard about exactly where he would put them on his car. He decided to put them on the car’s passenger side—one in front and one in back. It made more sense for him to put the tires in the back of the car, but this way he would Rene S. Perez II 58 look good to the pedestrians he passed on the sidewalk, and at least half of the drivers he passed would think he was a balla. He took extra shifts at the grocery store where he worked, and that was working fine, but he realized he would need another source of income, because he couldn’t pay his rent, child support, and utility bills and still have enough money left over to cover the $1,200 before the two months were over. He was working sixty-hour weeks and had forgone seeing his daughter so he could spend time at the malls and skating rink selling nickel and dime bags he got from his neighbor, who was pretty big shit, for a smalltime dealer. He had come up with $550 by the end of the first month and was feeling good about his plan, when he took his first payment into Rent A Tire. He was quite chagrined, however, when he got to the store and was informed that the store’s policy had changed on replacements and spares. The wheels would still be sold at a discount, but now they were sold thirty days same as cash. The salesman also told him that at the end of the month, the replacements were going to be sold cash-only, because, as went the company ’s logic, if a customer could afford to have already paid off their original set of four tires, they could afford to buy a spare and buy it cash. So instead of making his first payment, he signed a lease agreement on two more tires. He would have one month to make the $1,650 he needed to buy all four tires in full, so, since he couldn’t, he would aim for half and have to swallow the exorbitant interest that would accrue thereafter. He worked sixty hours a week but hit a setback when his daughter fell ill with pneumonia. He paid the co-pay on his unemployed ex-girlfriend...