Reckless Renegades Merigold s Story

The February weather was particularly warm that day in Rio de Janeiro. It was a little over two weeks after carnival and the streets were still abuzz with the phantom excitement of the festivities that not so long ago had ended.

A small, warm breeze danced around playing with the tips of her damp hair as she made way to the sidewalk that opened into the street.

She was starting her on her way home from the beach with a few friends-emphasis on a few-as she never did care for being social. It was the weekend, however, so that meant that she'd either go out or hear about her 'anti-social problems' later. Tio Gael and tia Mariella were constantly on her about her reclusive lifestyle. She, on the other hand, didn't feel like she was missing much; at the end of the day, being anti-social was just who she was. Which was the reason that she decided to cut her little ‘day of fun’ short. She loved the liveliness of Rio but, just wasn't the type to actually be a part of it. Especially not lately; there was just too much on her mind.

As the sun began to set a beautiful mixed hue of burnt orange, yellow, and dimming blue, Dallas waved goodbye to her friends and took out her cell phone. She unlocked and immediately dialed her mother's number.

It was the third time that Dallas had made an attempt to call her that day and, yet again, she didn't answer.

During her whole day out, she was trying to contact everyone but there was never an answer-not even a return text. Dallas was steadily becoming more and more concerned about what was going on.

The spacey texts and calls had been going on for a little over a month now. Her siblings being short with her over the phone, as well as her father, and she had begun noticing her mother’s forlorn tone over the phone. When Dallas would ask if everything was alright, the subject would either change she’d be poorly reassured before the call was ended. Dallas didn’t like being in the dark and that was exactly where she was at this point.

While everyone had been a little finicky of late, the one person that Dallas always could count on was her mother. That day, however, she didn’t even answer and it wasn't like her mother to ignore her calls. Dallas tried to call one more time before leaving a voice message:

“Mama, is everything alright? You're starting to scare me. Call me back, okay?”

She dialed her siblings, texting them, trying to contact anyone so that they would let her know if everything was alright. No one answered-not even her father. Each time she ended the call, she left a message, begging for someone to call her back. Even a text would have been okay.

She looked at the contact pictures of everyone in her phone for a while, a lump suddenly building in her throat and a heat in the pit of her stomach. Something was wrong.

“Ei Menina!” A voice called out to Dallas as she walked barefoot on the sand-covered sidewalk heading home.

She paused, trying to push away from her negative thoughts. Before she turned around, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, feigning a smile. When she was sure that her smile was wide enough to seem genuine, she switched her attention to the young attractive guy that came running up to her from the beach.

Dallas smiled at Aberto, the guy that seemed to have a little thing for her. As attractive and charming as he seemed to be, however, she was well aware of his reputation as a player. Dallas knew that she was only the latest attempt in his sexual conquests.

“Onde você vai?” Where are you going? He asked her with a smile on his face.

“Casa,” Dallas answered. She needed to get home, her mind not at ease enough to even attempt to be out and act like she was having fun anymore.

“Por que você está saindo tão cedo?” He asked, wondering why Dallas was leaving so soon.

“Estou aguardando uma ligação.” She replied, relaying to him as she did a close friend, Rina, that she was expecting a call.

“Is it a guy?” He asked in accented English this time. He knew that while Dallas was fluent, she preferred to speak English when not around her friends. His English was struggled but good enough.

Finding his inquiry amusing, Dallas smirked. “Goodbye, Berto.” She said and walked away.

“Can I-at least walk you home?” He requested.

Dallas turned slightly, side-eyeing him as she kept to her stride. “I'm good. See ya.”

Dallas was not too far from her uncle Gael and aunt Mariella's home. She'd been staying there for the last three or so years.

She missed her parents, Marina and Hassun Black-her siblings, Linkoln, King, and Beatricia as well. She even missed her brother's friends-one of them adopted as her brother at a young age, Black. That wasn't his real name but that was what everyone called him.

Resigned to the day, Dallas arrived at the open garage, seeing quite a few men standing in the way of the car that she'd been working on with her uncle Gael. Usually, when there were a bunch of her uncle's guys around it didn't bother Dallas. This time, however, the fact that her mind was set on releasing stress by working on the car undermined her tolerance for the gathering.

She uttered a hello to the guys as she walked past until she got to the tallest of them all. He was a ruggedly built man, brawny and masculine in his deeply tanned, sun-kissed skin and thick wavy black hair. Looking at him, he always seemed to remind Dallas of a more swarthy-more good-looking and larger Wolverine from the X-Men.

“Ah, boneca!” He called her puppet in Portuguese.

“Hi, tio Gael.” She said with somewhat of a withdrawn smile.

Gael seemed to already know that something was bothering her. “You're back early, puppet.” Her tio would always lapse in and out of English when Dallas was around out of habit because it was how she’d communicate with him and Mariella most of the time.

“Wasn't feeling very sociable today, tio.”

Dallas, who wore a pair of loose waist jean shorts and a bathing suit top, grabbed a pair of dusty, dark coveralls and slipped them on, ignoring the others as she spoke to her uncle.

“You are never in the mood to be social, boneca.” He teased.

Dallas chuckled half-heartedly at her tio's playfully heckling words. She wanted to laugh harder-she wanted to react the way that she would have had he said it any other time. But she couldn't-not this time; there was just entirely too much weighing down her mind for her to do so.

Gael seemed to notice this, his glance over at his guys was momentary before he asked.“You alright, puppet?”

Dallas didn't even know how to answer that. No, she wasn't alright-not at all but also she didn't want to worry her uncle either.

Gael, never having had children because Dallas's aunt was unable to bear them, was extremely protective of his nieces and nephews; particularly, Dallas because of her past. Her coming to live with them nearly four years ago caused their relationship to grow even more over time. So, whenever Gael saw that Dallas was hurting-whether it be emotional or physical, he had a tendency to overreact.

“Fine-I'm fine.” She finally answered. Still, she had to ask. “Have you...has anyone heard from anyone back home?” She asked. “Did ma or daddy call you? Ko? King? Bea?” She was starting to grasp at straws. “Black?” All of them had Gael's number but they didn't call often. Still, Dallas figured she could hope.

Her desperation was poorly masked when she asked the question and her uncle said as much with his expression.

“Still no word, huh?” He countered. Dallas started to answer but then stopped and looked away from her uncle. “Is that what has been bothering you, boneca?” He asked, touching her shoulder.

Dallas didn't want to confirm his suspicions with an answer-though he already seemed to know what it would be.

“I-I just...I usually get a call back by now, tio.” She admitted. “And...I know that it may be my paranoia but...I-sometimes I feel like mama is hiding something from me-that everyone is hiding something from me.” She looked up at her uncle to see his concerned expression.

“Ah, puppet.” He took his niece into his arms. “It is not paranoia.” He said.

Dallas looked up at her uncle curiously. “It's not?” She was suddenly nervous.

Gael looked at Dallas, an empathetic look upon his face as he spoke. “We will talk when your tia gets home, alright?”

Dallas nodded, concern gripping her insides. “O-okay.” She said.

Gael then smiled. “Until then.” He walked past her and opened the hood of a classic 69 Plymouth Roadrunner; a car they'd been working on for a while now. “The car is nearly finished.”

Dallas watched her uncle's face light up at the mention of the car and that brought a smile to her face.

Both Gael and Mariella were quite successful in their careers, Mariella being some sort of Auto CAD designer. Dallas didn't know the specifics of the job but it was one that she enjoyed and it kept her away for most of the day at times.

Gael was the head foreman in an Electrical Engineering company; and as taxing and time-consuming as that sounded, it seemed that Gael had far more time on his hands than his wife.

Though, it didn't surprise Dallas as her uncle would never allow anything to take priority over his passion for cars-something else that brought a great deal of their money in.

“Still haven't found the problem, huh?” She finally asked her uncle as she looked under the hood as well.

Gael shook his head. “Nope.” He left the hood to start the car again. Still, there sounded that annoying noise.

“Did you ever check the transmission mount like I suggested?” Dallas asked. When her uncle turned around and looked at her sheepishly, she knew the answer and smirked. “Of course you didn't.” She chuckled.

“I will leave the rest to you.” He said, pinching her chin and walking away, he started ushering the guys out of the garage. However, there was one left behind as her uncle got caught up in conversation with one of his other associates.

“Olá, linda,”