They Gave My Cousin a Car, I Built an Empire novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Keys
Gary hands his nephew Tyler a forty-eight thousand dollar Camaro while Vicky's forty thousand dollar loan sits refused. She asks on camera, then walks out, and Ben says the lease deposit is due Friday.
My father handed my cousin the keys to a red sports car in front of forty relatives.
My cousin filmed himself crying about it.
It was his twenty-second birthday, and my aunt's backyard was strung with lights.
The car sat in the driveway with a white bow on the hood.
"My uncle is literally the best man alive," Tyler told his phone, wiping his eyes with his wrist.
Dad squeezed his shoulder.
"Your dad would've done the same for me, bud. I'm just standing in for my brother."
Everybody went "aww."
My aunt pressed a napkin to her mouth.
I stood by the cooler with a paper plate and a folder under my arm.
Dad had won five million dollars on a scratch-off five weeks earlier, and ever since, every story at every party started with his lucky quarter.
"Rubbed it right there at the kitchen table," he told the crowd now, miming it. "Quarter out of my pocket. Boom. Retired."
I knew that ticket.
I had bought it with my last twenty and taped it inside his birthday card, with a quarter beside it.
He said "my lucky quarter" and nobody looked at me.
Three days earlier, I had sat at that same kitchen table and asked him for forty thousand dollars.
A loan. Interest, a payment schedule, my signature on every page.
It was for the pet supply store Ben and I had been planning for two years.
"You're an adult," Dad had said. "If this is your project, you figure it out."
The car in the driveway cost forty-eight thousand.
I walked across the grass and stopped in front of him.
Tyler's phone swung around to follow me.
"Dad, I asked you for forty thousand dollars. With interest. In writing."
The yard went quiet.
"Vicky, this is a gift," he said. "That's different."
"How is it different?"
"Because it's family."
"I'm family."
My mother stepped in beside him and put her hand on my arm.
"Honey, not today," Mom said softly. "Gary and I aren't saying no forever. We'll sit down after the holidays and look at it again."
She had her calm face on, the one she used for the cafeteria when a kid threw a tray.
It sounded kind.
It was also the third time she had told me "after the holidays," and the first holiday was eleven weeks away.
"Linda, don't," Dad said. "She wants to do it her way. Let her."
"Is this still recording?" Tyler whispered, and grinned at his lens.
Aunt Deb leaned in. "Vicky, sweetheart, please. Not at his party."
Forty faces were looking at me.
My cousin was holding the key fob up for his camera.
My father was looking at the grass.
I put my plate down on the cooler.
I handed the folder to my mother, our proposal with my name and Ben's on the cover.
"The numbers are on page six," I said. "In case anyone wants to read them."
Then I said, to nobody in particular, "Happy birthday, Tyler."
So I stepped out.
I went around the side of the house, past the trash cans and the bikes, and onto the street.
Behind me, I heard Dad's laugh start up again, easy and loud, and then the clapping.
Ben's white pickup was parked at the curb with the engine running.
I had told him not to come.
He had come anyway and waited out front with a bag of sour cream and onion chips, because he knew me.
I climbed in and slammed the door.
"Well?" he asked.
"The car's red."
He looked at my face and put the chips down.
"I'm sorry, Vic."
"Don't be. Drive."
He didn't move.
"Before you say no to anything," Ben said, "the landlord on Wilmington called an hour ago."
My stomach dropped.
"Someone else made an offer on our unit. If we want it, we sign by Friday and put down four thousand one hundred dollars."
"We have eleven thousand four hundred," I said. "Mine. Nothing from them."
"I have nine," said Ben.
I looked at the house in the mirror.
My mother had come out onto the porch with my folder in her hand.
She wasn't looking at the party.
She was looking at the street, and at me, and I could not tell what she was thinking.
My phone buzzed in my lap.
It was Mom.
*Please don't post anything about today. Dad doesn't want the loan talk online.*
I read it twice.
Then I turned the phone face down on my knee.
"Friday," I said.
Ben put the truck in drive.
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