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"It’ll be easy No one orry about a girl your age in a school unifor around after curfew"

"What if I get caught?"

"You’re not going to get caught It’ll take two hours You’ll be in bed by "

"No way This is crazy Take ht off a wave of nausea Yeah, she kne to steal a car She’d known as long as she could reer This wire to that wire But that was a ga to do to iuys he worked with Look at me, I can do it faster than you They’d pat her on her head, applaud, tell her she needed to work for the her time in school Those were jokes, funny cracks, playtime

"Honey I need your help here I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t life and death"

Life and death She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the visions of her father lying in casket that danced through her head Casket? Probably not If he didn’t pay off the h left of him for a casket

"Don’t call me honey"

They drove in silence the rest of the way to the city Friday night in Manhattan, all the money had come out to play Up ahead on the left Eleanor spotted a black Jaguar trying to parallel park in front of a bar

"Elle--" her father began but she didn’t let hied "Five?"

"Five Fine I’ll see you at the shop" She opened the door and slammed it behind her

Five cars Home by dawn No one would suspect her

Eleanor walked down the sidewalk, not taking her eyes off the Jag Finally the driver ed to worm the car into the spot He opened the driver’s side door and Eleanor stood on the passenger side

"Sir, I think you hit that car behind you," she said over the roof

"What?" He barely glanced at her "No way"

"Looks like it to me Check the bumper"

The driver, who looked half-drunk already, stuood You scared me there" He pointed at her over the trunk and smiled

"No proble her a second look He didn’t seem to notice that while he’d exaer side door When she was certain no one on the street was paying her any attention, she dropped into the car and shut the door behind her

Seconds later, she was on her way to Queens

She’d snagged the Jag so fast she beat her father back to the garage

Sitting on the hood of the car, she watched the shop at work They’d known her since she was a baby; Jimmie, Jake, Levon and Kev had entertained her with card tricks and jokes and let her watch the under the hoods of the cars anytilanced at her In fact, in the past year whenever she’d stopped by they all treated her like a stranger