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finally jumped in his Cavalier it was about three minutes after his grandmother had made the distressed call. It was breaking his heart; Tony’s grandmother meant everything to him in the world. Despite how he treated her – always asking her for money, coming into her house at all hours, smoking weed in her basement, yelling at her when things didn’t go his way – he loved his Grandma more than anything or anybody. He turned the ignition and sped off down the street into the night towards his grandmother’s house in West Philly.
    When he reached the red light at the corner of 53th and Baltimore he had to pause. He had run every light from 60th and on, but now there was a cop crossing down 53rd. He had two nick bags of weed on him, and he didn’t need that extra added aggravation. He knew that even if he explained what his rush was about, they would tell him to calm down, detain him at first and hold him from seeing to his Grandma. He watched the officer pass, and the officer looked right back at him.
    As he finally saw the officer turn the corner out of sight, his car began puttering and jerking violently. He looked down at the dash as if that would stop what was happening. The car finally just shut off completely.
    “What the?” Tony tried the ignition, but it only made that grinding noise that tells you it’s not planning on starting up any time soon. He tried it again, and again, cursing and screaming as the car behind him finally got the idea and went around him. He tried one more time, pressing the gas pedal all the way down as he turned the key, but still the car didn’t turn on.
    “Noooo, this cannot happen right now!” Tony screamed and then fumbled for his cellphone in his pocket. He retrieved the cellphone he had taken from Gucci, and dialed the number to Quanisha’s, who had barely even stirred when Tony ran out of the door.
    At Quanisha’s, the phone rang, and rang, and rang. Quanisha, who was still fast asleep, was dreaming about sitting at her big desk, at her own office at the beauty salon she had always wished she could open. She figured the phone sounds were the phones ringing off the hook at her shop, and smiled in her sleep as Tony’s call got sent to voicemail.
    “Quanisha!” Tony yelled into the voicemail as if Quanisha could hear him. Gucci’s cellphone made a loud beeping sound. “What the hell is wrong with you! Pick up the phone!” he hung the phone up angrily. He dialed Terrance’s number and the voicemail picked up on the first ring. Terrance had his high tech home phone programmed to go straight to voicemail at night so that he wouldn’t be disturbed before he had to go to work. Only his mother and sister’s phones could get through at that time of night. Terrance hated cellphones, and the only one he carried was paid for by his job and used for work purposes only. Nobody even had Terrance’s cellphone number besides his mother.
    Looking down at the phone he noticed that the battery was about to go out. He threw the phone down and pulled out his own phone. He tried to call Quanisha’s house again, but this time his phone wouldn’t even dial out. The message just kept saying “connecting.” Pissed, Tony threw the phone on the seat. He jumped out of the car and searched his pocket for change. All he had was a bunch of pennies, and the two quarters that he was going to give the bartender at Devilutions. Thank God!
    He picked up a payphone, threw in the dimes frantically and tried his boy Terrance again in vain. Instead of the voicemail, this time an automated voice came on and said “45 cents please. Please deposit 45 cents to complete this call.”
    “Shit!” Tony had forgotten that Terrance lived outside of his 215 area code. He clicked the hook to get his change back, but the bootleg payphone ate his quarter. He cursed again and dropped his last quarter into the slot to try Quanisha again, but the phone just kept ringing. The voicemail picked up before he had a