Dealing in Dreams

by Lilliam Rivera

“We’re sorry. We don’t mean to disrespect you or your house,” I say. “We’re just walking through.”

  “Walking through? You can’t walk through here. You woke us up from our nia nia. Now we’re grumpy from not sleeping enough.”

  Nena laughs at this. Smiley hushes her. I get it. These girls are a bit on the kooky side. How long have they lived here? Are these girls outcasts from Mega, garbage tossed aside? The whole baby-doll voice must be an act, a way to scare people into thinking they’re a threat. They would not last in Mega City, not with their cutesy girly act. Without real protection from Déesse’s army, the Muñecas must feel the need to invent unusual ways to safeguard themselves from harm. Are the Ashé Ryders the threat? The Gurl Gunnas?

  “We are down to trade, if that’s what you want.” I look around. “I can see your dresses can use an update. We have accessories you might like.”

  In Smiley’s bag, we stored a few trinkets for such an occasion. Shiny baubles picked up from the mercado. Smiley opens her bag and pulls out a gaudy necklace. These girls must be trading. There is no way they can maintain this getup by scrounging through garbage.

  A Muñeca walks toward Nena. Nena anxiously glances over. I don’t give her a sign. I don’t do a thing. Instead I wait to see what Nena’s reaction will be. Before the Muñeca reaches her, Nena jogs to the girl and pushes her with all her might.

  “Don’t even think about it!” Nena yells. She uses a deep voice to try to make herself sound way older than she is. Good girl. Shi pulls Nena back to formation. Nena’s force is a minor display to alert the Muñecas we are not above getting rough.

  The Muñeca adjusts her mask and fixes her dress. I can’t tell if she’s ruffled from the push or not. Dealing with masked enemies definitely has its disadvantages. Even with the mask I can see the Muñecas are a healthy bunch. Where are they getting their food? Are trades being made across the border? And if they are, what does this mean to Mega’s powerful reputation?

  “That’s enough,” I say, pretending to scold Nena. “We’re Las Mal Criadas from Mega City. We’re bringing this ANT back to his home. Just taking a walk.”

  “I know who you are,” the Muñeca says. “We know everything because our mama tells us everything.”

  Mama. So this idiot is only second-in-command. Wherever Mama is, she’s the one directing these clueless amateurs. I need to get to Mama before I can pass go.

  “Where’s Mama? Can I speak to her, tell her how sorry we are for disturbing you? Maybe she’ll want this necklace. It comes straight from Mega City.”

  “Where’s Mama? Where’s Mama? Where’s Mama?” They start to repeat this over and over in their baby talk, tilting their heads left to right. Smiley shows me her weapon again. I decline her offer to stun them.

  “I’m right here.”

  She appears from within the garbage. I can finally see it. The Locas have made structures, dwellings camouflaged with debris. It is amazing. They have found a way to create a home with the abandoned trash of my city.

  Mama has a mask of an old woman on. It’s a total contrast to the scary baby faces. The bata she wears is so thin you can see right through it.

  “It’s nap time. If you’re going to pay us a visit, you should have at least come with treats,” Mama says. “Maybe lollipops or gum. We love chocolates, don’t we?”

  They chime in agreement. This is what I’m negotiating with? We have no sweets to give, and even if we did, I sure as hell wouldn’t be wasting it on these freaks. I’m losing my patience.

  “As I mentioned to your, umm, Muñecas, we’re walking through. I’m Chief Rocka, and these are Las Mal Criadas,” I say. “We’ve heard of Las Muñecas Locas. You girls rule this area. We’re honored to step through.”

  Mama shrugs. She adjusts her bata.

  The ANT continues to be spaced out on the ground, oblivious to the negotiations going on in front of him. He pretends to be injured to avoid the drama. I see through his tricks.

  “We’re offering this in exchange for a walk-through,” I say. “No drama. Just taking a walk.”

  “No!” Mama yells. “We are Las Muñecas Locas. We don’t need a shiny new toy to make us pretty.”

  Okay. A necklace won’t work with this bunch.

  “You woke my babies,” she says. “You make it right. Give us treats!”

  Her crew starts to cry. Not any ordinary crying. They’ve thrown themselves on the ground and are having full-on temper tantrums. I’ve had enough. We need to give these dolls what they are in dire need of—a big pao pao.

  “You girls want chocolate? Let me see what goodies we can share. Be right back.”

  Without me having to say a word, Smiley and Shi get the malasuertes ready. The Muñecas thought the cute doll bomb could cause damage. They haven’t seen what our malasuertes can do.

  Smiley holds the malasuerte in the palm of her hand. Shi moves the lever down.

  “Nena, get ready to head east with the ANT.”

  Nena grabs hold of his arm. He finally seems awake.

  I flick my head east to the direction I want Truck to go. She gives me the nod. The Muñecas Locas are done with their temper tantrum and are now swinging their machetes again. The machetes are rusty, and the bats look just as pathetic. These fools are harmless and should be placed right back in the waste they crawled from.

  “Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate,” they chant.

  Is this what happens when you no longer live in Mega City? The baby-doll getup is a strange way of bringing back the childish things we aren’t allowed to indulge in. It is truly sad. The malasuerte is ready to detonate. I nod, and Shi tosses the box behind us into the middle of the Muñecas. We’ve got to jet. I run, following close behind Nena and the ANT. The bomb is going to rock these girls’ world.

  The explosion propels our movement even more. I don’t need to look back to see the Muñecas have scattered. They wanted chocolate. Toma chocolate.

  I run past Nena and push the ANT farther. I scan around to make sure there are no other surprises, no other Muñecas waiting to talk their baby talk. When I feel my chest is about to burst open, I run even more. A few yards ahead I see the crumbled facade of a building. I duck in. I try to catch my breath and wait for the others.

  The first to come through is Nena with the ANT. Nena coughs. She is completely winded. The ANT? He laughs as if he’s on a fun ride.

  “What the hell are you going on about?” I yell as I grab his shirt. “You think this is funny?”

  He doesn’t stop. I let him go and he drops to the floor.

  “What’s funny is you think you are so different from the Muñecas. Those girls are only following what Déesse has created in Mega City. Don’t think for a minute they are not stealing every one of those ideas straight from the source. It’s tragic. So are the LMCs.”

  Nena is worried I’m about to thrash this ANT. He hates what Déesse has created. There was a time when he lived in Mega City. He believed in Déesse once. When did that change?

  “Wait outside for the others,” I tell Nena.

  She hesitates, then leaves.

  I scrutinize him. “You lived in Mega City before. It wasn’t a place of hate for you. There was a time when you had confidence in Déesse’s vision.”

  “Can I see the necklace you wanted to trade?”

  I hand him the piece of jewelry.

  “This is what Déesse is selling—an unattainable object that appears beautiful and luxurious. If you look closely, though, you notice it has no true value.

  “If you want to live in Mega City, you are forced to abide by rigid rules on what it means to be a man and a woman,” he continues. “There is no room for fluidity. Do you think violence makes you more of a woman? Does forcing papis to work at boydegas make them a better ally? Déesse’s vision for Mega doesn’t allow for differences. It doesn’t allow for true self.”

  Has he been speaking to Books? The sueños are confusing him as to what is right and what is wrong.

  “Did
living in Mega cause you that much pain?”

  Instead of responding, he puts the necklace on. He raises his chin, defiant.

  “You’ve said Déesse abandoned you,” he says. “Is this the real reason why you left Mega?”

  “Of course,” I say. “I got tired of watching others gain entrance to the Towers.”

  He nods. He seems to believe me. I need him to. He is going to take us to the Ryders. I try a different approach to reach him.

  “We’re going to be together for a couple of days,” I say. “I should know your name.”

  “Oh, how nice, Chief Rocka. Wait. That’s not your real name, is it? Your name was a gift from Déesse,” he says. “Being christened by her also means she owns you.

  “I’m owned by no one,” I say, angered by what he implies. “My name is Chief Rocka because I am the leader of this crew.”

  “What happens if I tell you my name? Do we become friends?” he asks. “I am more than what is displayed, more than the clothes I wear, more than a name or a pronoun. I was never allowed to be both in Mega. Déesse and her people want everyone to emulate only her. There’s no room for someone like me.”

  His words are confusing. I don’t understand him. Déesse flipped gender roles around. Women are in power. This is what matters.

  I search in my bag and toss him a sueño. “I only want to know what I should call you,” I say.

  He stares at the tab. Instead of gobbling it down, the ANT stores it in a pocket.

  “I’m Miguel for now.”

  For now?

  “What did Déesse do to you?” I ask, nervous my question may betray my real motives. Yet I can’t deny this longing to know.

  “She fed me a lie,” he says. There is a tiredness in his voice. “I believed her when she said I can do anything. Another lie. This is what we do to each other. We feed off of deceptions that are as sweet as these sueños. It’s never quite the same as reality. Isn’t that what you do to keep going?”

  “No.”

  Miguel chuckles at my response. When did he fall down this rabbit hole of sueños? Self-preservation. It’s what each of us is trying to do. Survive. Align yourself with those whose fists are drawn. Create the family who will ride or die for you. These are the truths I live by. Blood family don’t mean a thing unless they are fighting beside you. He is truly misguided if he doesn’t believe these simple facts.

  From where I stand, I can see his eyes are hazel. His hollow cheeks, shrunken from consuming too many sueños, overshadow what good looks he might have had. Maybe the Ashés are simply a bunch of addicts trying to regulate the sueño business.

  “I saw what you did back there. You’re not fooling me with this whole philosophical sermon,” I say. “Why don’t you take the sueño I gave you? I can tell you’re thieving for it.”

  His eyes cast down to the ground for a second. There’s shame there. “I wasn’t always an addict. When I denied my truth that’s when I started using sueños,” he says. “How old were you when you were thrown in the training camp? Eight, seven? Not much of a childhood. Not much time for laughing or playing, or even figuring out who you want to be in this life.”

  “You think Zentrica found a way to maintain innocence?” It’s my turn to laugh. There is no childhood because of the foolish decisions made by men long ago. If that is what she is selling, then the Ashé are as good as squashed.

  “No room for differences, for love,” he says. “No room for empathy. Huh?”

  “No,” I say. “There’s no room.”

  “Keep swallowing the lies, Chief Rocka,” he says.

  I hear a rustling sound. The others must be on their way. Shi and Smiley come in, with Nena following behind.

  “Truck, where you at?” Smiley yells into her Codigo.

  “She was right behind me. When I turned around, I didn’t see her,” Shi says.

  They check their Codigos. This is not right. Truck is always on the wire. The connection must be bad because of the malasuerte. We can’t stay here. This building will not protect us. Who knows what else we’ll run into.

  “Who saw her last? What the hell were you guys doing?”

  “We were running. That’s what you told us to do,” Shi says.

  Did the Muñecas get her? I can’t see Truck being unable to escape those losers. I tinker around with the Codigo. I’m not getting anything.

  “Let’s go back and look for her,” Smiley says.

  “What about the Muñecas?” Nena asks. I take two quick strides and eyeball her.

  “Are you hesitating? Because if you are I will dump your ass right here,” I say.

  There’s no denying there’s not much love between Nena and Truck. She’d better rethink her reluctance.

  “Shi and Smiley, roll back out,” I say. “Make sure to check in to let us know what’s going on.”

  Right before they leave, the Codigo makes a noise. I feel a sense of relief. Truck must have found a better place to hide. It must be the reason why she isn’t with us.

  “What’s the word, Truck?” I say. “Where you at?”

  The face that appears on the screen isn’t Truck.

  CHAPTER 13

  TRUCK STOP

  Hey, we got the ugliest of your girls right here.”

  Shi and Smiley tune in to the same frequency as my Codigo. Everyone looks into their goggles.

  “You better come correct or we’re hitting repeat on this.”

  Four girls have Truck pinned and are holding her arms and legs. Truck tries her best to pull free. It’s no use. They’ve got her real good. The weapons on this crew look shiny and new against their all-black tracksuits. A tall girl walks into the frame of the Codigo and smiles. She then turns and flips a kick into Truck’s stomach. Truck has nowhere to go to protect herself from the blow, and she can’t fall down to take the hit. Truck’s rage rises, which in turn gets her another roundhouse.

  “What do you want?” I say.

  “Go north for a mile and meet us at the crossroads,” says a faceless voice.

  “Don’t listen to them . . . ,” Truck says before the transmission goes black.

  The Muñecas were the obvious distraction. This crew waited on the sideline to make their move. Truck pays the price for us not being extra vigilant. The tracksuits look familiar. I need to be absolutely sure.

  Shi quickly gets the intel.

  “Hurry up and confirm!” I say, almost certain Truck is getting the beatdown of her life.

  “Gurl Gunnas,” Shi says. “They’re not in it for the fight. They are in it for the trade.”

  Santo warned me I would run into the Gunnas. What I don’t understand is why they are holding Truck if they trade. Smiles and a welcoming attitude is what I remember from my interaction with the Gunnas during their pop-ups. It doesn’t make sense. We are at a disadvantage here. Mere visitors on these streets without a good enough guidebook.

  “Miguel, is there anything you can tell us about the Gurl Gunnas?” I ask. The others turn to the ANT with a confused look. They don’t approve of me taking into account his opinion. I don’t care what the LMCs feel right now. I need answers.

  “Well, I avoid them as much as I can,” he says. “They’re quite unpolished. They don’t take kindly to my kind.”

  “What does that mean exactly?” I’m so over his cryptic statements. Why can’t he just be straight?

  “It means they follow Déesse’s rule and hate men as much as Mega City does.”

  I don’t hate men. This is also what Déesse has warned us about in her monthly sermons before throwdowns: Men are clever manipulators who use whatever tactics to question women’s capability. I could care less how the Gurl Gunnas treat men. My concern is and will always be Truck.

  “Where’s their leader?” I ask. “Where’s Vanessa?”

  Shi shakes her head.

  “It happened a few months ago,” she says. “A change in administration. Vanessa got the ax by one of her own. It was pretty bloody. It’s the reason why
it’s been a minute since we’ve seen the Gurl Gunnas in the boydegas.”

  Not good. If I don’t know the new leader, then I will be walking in with a deficit. Taking Truck means they will be asking for more than I might possibly be able to give. The bag of sueños Santo gave me seems too small of a trade, not when Truck’s life is on the line. Will it be enough?

  “Another thing, Chief,” Shi says. “The leader of the Gurl Gunnas goes by OG and she’s twelve.”

  “That’s real trouble, then,” says Smiley. “Undisciplined trouble. No wonder she’s flexing her muscle by taking Truck. Truck is by far the strongest LMC. When we walk, Truck is the one who stands out.”

  Twelve years old probably going on thirty. Dealing with a young gun is scary. I don’t know what will set her off. Her taking Truck means they are playing outside the rules. She hasn’t lived long enough to know there’s a process to everything. Offing her leader was probably her first violent act. To maintain her rule is going to take a whole lot of carnage because the older girls are probably counting the days until they can off her, too.

  I can estimate on one hand the number of young leaders who tried to head up crews in Mega City. To prove themselves, these young guns strike in big ways that defy logic or understanding of the game. They want to skip past rungs every soldier must follow to make a name for themselves, including battling other crews until they’ve reached a certain level. Instead, these young leaders steal and beat unsuspecting toilers. Start fights outside of the scheduled throwdowns. Déesse sends her army to disband these minor gangs before they become too much of a nuisance. Is that how the Gurl Gunnas ended up in Cemi Territory? After Vanessa, did the OG try to expand the Gurl Gunnas to be more than just sellers?

  It’s a bloody game they’re playing, and now they’ve thrown the LMCs into the mix.

  My crew looks at me, eagerly awaiting my word on what our next move will be. I’ve got to think fast. I’ve got to make this better.

  “Take inventory,” I say.

  The girls go through their things and start rattling off items for Nena to write down. Four Codigos.

  “My Codigo stopped working,” says Smiley. “It probably has to be reset. Kind of worthless.”