It wasn't until

Kansas

that the 

van

finally broke down. It was only a matter of time. You can expect a later model

Toyota

or even a

Hyundai

to go all the way to the Pacific and back. Damn those

Asians

could really make cars couldn't they? But with these old American vans were like taking a bet. You could never be sure to make it to the ocean and back. Hell you didn't even know if you could make it to the ocean to begin with. But the two of us being unemployed and without a home. What else was there to do? Might as well drive west and see how far we could get. 

In Kansas we drove 40 minutes between anything civilized. You did not want to break down in the middle of here. And that's where we finally broke down. It took over an hour for the 

tow truck

to arrive. And then it was another 30 minutes to the mechanic.

When Rod -- the mechanic -- told us that our car was kaputt. That it wasn't worth fixing. That we ought to just junk it and buy another. That's when I began panicking. It didn't really hit me until that moment, because up until we were without a set of wheels it had all felt like an adventure. Knew the possibility of the car breaking down existed... but even that possibility felt like an adventure.

When it finally happened, it no longer felt like an 

adventure

. Now it was real life. A real shit situation. We were going to be stuck. My brain began calculating how long it would be to 

Topeka

, the nearest city. You couldn't survive without a home out here. The rural folks did not tolerate people like us. You had to be a in a big city where liberal minded folks tolerated you because their egos wouldn't allow them to not. That was the only way. I was calculating how to get to Topeka... calculating how much money I had in my little bag.

That's when Blue asked about the prices of some cars Rod might be willing to sell. Rod began listing off prices. The cheapest one being six grand. I didn't know what the hell Blue was asking for. He should've known better than to think we could find a car for under 1000 dollars. That's what I was thinking when Blue said he wanted to test drive the 

Hyundai

Elantra with 110k miles on it.

Was he crazy? I thought. Was he thinking about jacking the car? I tried to see if Blue was giving me any signals using his eyes. But he didn't seem to be. He was simply focused on looking at the car. Making sure it was the right one. I was imagining at any moment Blue hitting Rod upside the head with some blunt object and then turning to me to tell me "get him out of the fucking car! Come on let's go now!" but this never happened.

We drove around. The ride was decent. Blue said he'd buy the Elantra for $7200. He pulled out a credit card... I'd never seen him with a 

credit card

before. Had he stolen it? I tried to see the name on it, but never had the chance because of the way he and Rod held the card when they were performing the transaction.

While the card reader processed the payment, I was still doubtful. There was no way the thing would approve. It took a few seconds for the machine to go through. Those seconds felt heavy. No way this credit card would go through. Right? I thought. I kept doubting. Kept doubting. Then a long computerized beep signaled that the card went through.

"Thank you. Enjoy your new car!" Rod said with a white smile.