Reckless

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,"

Dallas, whose head was under the hood, peeked from under it to see Abel, one of her uncle's lackeys standing there watching her. He had been watching her closely since she got in and always made it a point to speak to her. So, she wasn't surprised to see his face looking down at her.

Abel was someone that Dallas considered her uncle's closest associate out of all of the guys that he talked to. She didn't care too much for him, though. Abel was an older and very attractive man, but there was something about him that just seemed grimy to Dallas. That didn't even include the way he'd look at her when he was around.

She wasn't the type to cause trouble, however, and would just shrug the man's attempts at conversation off. Technically, while he'd say sly things to her that most would deem inappropriate for a man to say to a seventeen-year-old girl, he hadn't ever really done or said anything reprehensible. And as long as her uncle Gael was around, she knew that she didn't have to worry about him doing so at all.

Dallas glanced at him for a moment and then her uncle, who still seemed to be preoccupied with what looked to be a rather serious conversation with one of his associates.

"Olá, Senhor Abel." She respectfully greeted before returning her attention to what was underneath the hood of the car.

"Abel-just call me Abel, please. I insist."

Dallas paused. "I'd rather not, thanks."

She saw him shrug from the corner of her eye. "Suit yourself." He said. There was silence and Dallas was becoming annoyed by his presence. "So, my son tells me you left their little gathering in a hurry."

"Oh, did he?" She sarcastically said.

"Yes. I got a call from him while you were talking to your uncle." He replied. Dallas heard him sigh. "He was concerned."

"And I appreciate that, but I can take care of myself." Dallas pointed out.

Abel scoffed. "Of course you can. I would expect nothing less from Gael Souza's niece." He grinned. Again there was utter silence, Dallas wondering when her uncle would intervene when Abel spoke again. "You know, my son is quite fond of you, little Dallas Black." He said. "I definitely understand why."

Rolling her eyes, Dallas lifted up from the trunk. "That's nice. I think my uncle called for you." She said.

"That's funny, I didn't hear a thing-"

"Everything alright over here?" Gael interrupted the conversation.

"Ah! Of course," Abel said, looking at Gael. "Was only asking about how Dallas was getting along with my son."

Gael watched Dallas for a moment as if to see if that were really what the conversation was based on. Dallas sighed and subtly nodded her head before Gael returned his attention to Abel. "With the rumors that I've been hearing, I'm not sure I want you or him around my Dallas." He gestured his head for Abel to move along.

Abel chuckled. "Ever the distrustful man, Gael," Abel said before turning his gaze to Dallas and serving her with a wink before walking out of the garage to take his leave.

"You'd let me know if he was bothering you, right?" Gael asked.

Dallas, who had zoned out for a moment, looked at her uncle and sighed. "Of course, tio." She said.

Gael looked at her doubtfully for a second before reluctantly nodding. "Okay." He said. "I'm going to go get your tia. I'll be back." He said walking off.

As he walked away, the thought of their conversation earlier came back to mind. "And then we will talk?" She said in a hopeful way.

Judging by the expression on Gael's face, it was obvious that he hadn't forgotten what he promised. He looked at Dallas, silent, and seemingly pensive before he finally agreed.

"See you when I get back, boneca." He said and walked away.

Dallas watched him leave, suddenly anxious about what needed to be discussed. She took her phone out again to check her messages and phone calls before attending the car again. Nothing. Reluctantly, she began tinkering again to take her mind off of the dread building up in her but her tinkering on the care only lasted so long before she picked up her phone again to call.

"Come on, pick up, pick up." She whispered. Again, no one did. So she called her father. "Come on, daddy. Please." She said, concern filling her insides as the line continued to ring. She wasn't hopeful for an answer, feeling like she would just get nowhere again. She waited for the moment that her father's phone would go to voicemail.

"Hello?"

Eyes wide, Dallas was so shocked and relieved to hear a voice on the other end of the line, she was speechless for a moment.

"Jellybean?"

Dallas snapped out of it. "Da-daddy?!" She called him.

"Yes, baby. It's me."

His voice sounded...worn and solemn. Dallas was unnerved. "Daddy, I've been trying to get in touch with everyone all day." She said nervously. "It's so good to hear your voice!"

"You too, sweetheart." Her father said and then he was silent again.

"Is everything alright? No one's been answering and I-I kept calling you and mom and everyone but-"

"I know, I know, sweetie. I'm sorry." He said and then there was silence again.

His spacey conversation was becoming more and more unnerving. "Daddy? Is everything alright? You're scaring me."

She leaned against the car, listening to her father's shaky breathing. Immediately she clenched the heart of her chest as she struggled to take deep breaths. What was he going to say? "Baby there's uh....there's no easy way to say this." His words were broken and breathless.

"Daddy, what is it?"

"Is your uncle and aunt around?" He asked.

"No, he's gone to get tia Mariella." She answered. "Why? Why does that matter? What's going on? What are you keeping from me?"

"Sweetie, I don't think you should be alone when you-"

"Tell me!" Dallas snapped. "Daddy, please! What are you keeping from me? Why haven't you been answering your phone? Why hasn't mom?" She asked.

She heard her father sigh. "Dallas, are you sitting down?" He asked.

So tired of the procrastination of whatever inevitable bad news that she was about to hear, Dallas broke down, tears warming her eyes, running down her cheek.

"Daddy, what happened?" She asked again,

After another long minute of silence, Hassun Black finally answered."Dallas, your mother...was sick."

Was? Why was he using past tense? This was the first thought that plagued her mind as her father continued to speak. Next, was the fact that Dallas didn't even know that her mother was sick in the first place. She attempted to hold on to what was left of her nerve. "Wha-that's impossible! She-I talk to her every day. I talked to Linkoln, King-Beatricia-even you! No one ever-"

"She made everyone swear not to, sweetheart." Her father said. "She'd been sick for a few-a few months now, following her pregnancy. Or...at least that's when they caught it."

"Pr-pregna-she was pregnant?" Eyes wide in further shock, Dallas could barely retain this information without the temptation of completely blacking out. She tried to take a deep breath, her anxiety going into overdrive as her knees buckled beneath her. Bu-why-what-why would she keep that from me?!" Nothing was registering to her. "That's-that cannot be true," Dallas said, a harsh chuckle escaping her as she continuously attempted to hold herself together.

When her father didn't respond to what she said, she stopped talking as well. There was a reason why he was telling her all of this. It all revolved around her mother, and she had a heart-wrenching feeling of what he was trying to lead up to. He just hadn't said it yet.

"Daddy...where-where's mom?"

There was silence on the phone for a while-what seemed like forever before her father finally got himself together long enough to answer. And the news broke her.

"Boneca?"

Her uncle's voice was a distant echo as she dropped the phone, the tears streaming like waterfalls from her bright amber-colored eyes. Her mouth was open as she knelt there, dazed.

"Dallas?"Her aunt's voice rang in her ears. They both approached her in the garage, their outline a blur to Dallas as she felt herself losing consciousness...the last thing on her mind before she completely blacked out was her father's words: "Dallas, she's dead ...your mother's gone."