The preamble to Part 2 covers another visit between the author and the other Wes Moore. Their conversations initially centered on what one “thought the other wanted to hear. What the other needed to hear. But over time it was hard to keep up the act, and [their] conversations [drifted] toward an almost therapeutic honesty” (66). Both men pondered what in their lives made them men. Moore recalls,

There was no official ceremony that brought my childhood to an end. Instead, crises or other circumstances presented me with adult-sized responsibilities and obligations that I had to meet one way or another. […] for some of us, the promotion to adulthood, or at least its challenges, is so jarring, so sudden, that we enter into it unprepared and might be undone by it (66).

After entering the drug game, Wes acquired boxes and boxes of new brand-name shoes. Tony challenged his younger brother, asking where he got his money from. Wes made up a story about DJ-ing neighborhood parties. However, Tony knew where that kind of money really came from. Wes vehemently denied Tony’s accusations, and Tony punched him. This altercation inspired their mother to dig deeper into Wes’s situation.