The Get Over by Walter Dean Myers Read Free Book Online Page A

me?
    â€œOkay, it goes like this,” Arnold said. “I see this armored truck pull up to the bank on 145th Street to pick up some cash. The first guy hops out the cab and pulls his piece. Then he looks around like he’s mean mugging the fucking world and spreads his legs. He thinks he’s got everything under control.”
    â€œGo on,” Slice said.
    â€œThen the second guy gets out, but he don’t have his piece out.” JT was talking now. He was short, square, brown skinned, and ugly. “The first guy is still holding his piece as the second guy goes into the bank. Two minutes later he comes out with a pouch and some boxes, which I got to think is coins.”
    â€œYeah, yeah.” This from Slice.
    â€œBut then me and JT are across the street, eating some pizza—and you know that little cage they got inside the truck?”
    â€œYeah.” Slice.
    â€œThe first dude reaches in and pulls that mother open,” Arnold said. “He don’t unlock the mother. He pulls the mother open.”
    â€œSo what does that mean?” Bobo asked.
    â€œIt means the lazy assholes don’t lock up between pickups,” Arnold said. “When I saw this, right away I checked the time.”
    â€œThere’s a clock right there in the window of the pizza place,” JT said.
    â€œI see it’s three o’clock, and I figure the dudes are running late so they’re getting careless,” Arnold said.
    â€œSo what you going to do?” Slice asked.
    â€œMe and JT figure we hit the truck,” Arnold said. “No big deal. Bam! Bam! We get the drop on the dude with the gun while the other dude is in the bank. We open the cage and snatch the pouches, and we get down the street into a car we got stashed with the motor running.”
    I see the scene in my head. The camera PANS down a busy Harlem street. It goes past the armored car, then stops and pulls back. On the right side of the screen we see people in front of a pizza shop.
    CLOSE-UP: A profile of Arnold. His eyes are narrowed as he walks along the sidewalk. We see ARNOLD as he speaks to the GUARD, who waves one finger to let him know that he doesn’t want to talk.
    Then: We see JT open the gate. The GUARD turns, but he is face-to-face with ARNOLD’s gun. Stunned, he puts down his weapon.
    â€œThen we drive ten blocks to where we got another car stashed.”
    â€œAnd all the while we driving the ten blocks, we’re changing the jackets we had on when we made the grab,” Arnold said.
    â€œSo you need drivers?” Bobo said.
    â€œNo, man.” Arnold hunched his shoulders twice. “We got two girls who can motor their asses off. What we need is a way to turn the paper right away. We can run with the paper for a minute, but then we got to get rid of it in a hurry. We want to find somebody to take the paper right away and turn it into something useful, like some coke.
    â€œAnybody be looking for us, they’ll be looking for some guys with a bunch of hundred-dollar bills, but we’ll be clean! We’ll put the coke out on the street, and it’s just like another shipment came in from Mexico or somewhere. Right now we need a hookup.”
    â€œWhen you want to run with this thing?” Bobo asked.
    â€œSoon as we get the hookup,” JT said.
    â€œI can hook you up,” Slice said. “I know some Latino brothers who can deliver 24-7 if you got the cash. All it takes is a phone call.”
    Arnold and JT got all excited about that and said they would contact the girl drivers right away to get ready. Then they split, headed up the hill toward Douglass Boulevard.
    â€œThem fools ain’t going to get no money,” Slice said. “They don’t have enough brains between them to change their minds.”
    â€œYeah, but they thinking they got a get over,” Bobo said. “We can use that to get something. My brother got a sentence hearing coming up.