“¿Qué tal? ” Angie Alonso-Cruz greets as she rings the bell.
“Not good, hermana,” says her brother Javier.
He huffs as he clicks around, face illuminated by the old Thinkpad 600E.
“And that is because…?”
“Look at this place! Is this place worth 2500 a month?”
“This place is worth the world,” she says honestly. “Papá left it to us.”
“He didn’t leave shit to us, if we’re paying rent still.”
“Don’t say that! This is our store, and it’s all we’ve got,” Angie insists.
“The Hernandez daughter, I think you went to school with her,” says Javier. “She’s a fancy finance girl now.”
“So she’s boring.”
“She’s stable, Angie. They came into the store earlier today. She’s got a shitload of PTO and she’s already got plans to tour Europe.”
“What’s that gotta do with us?”
“I’m not saying we gotta do that, but wouldn’t it be nice? For us, or at least Max to get to choose like that?”
“You want to sell the store,” Angie realizes.
“Eventually, yeah. I’ve been talking to Alandra, and we’re gonna save up; it’s not gonna be easy, but we’re putting together a plan. Talking to people like the Hernandez family, guys who’ve done it before. When he’s ready, yeah. She’s got her uncle’s business in Manaus —”
“What about me, Javier?” She demands. “What if I don’t want to sell the store?”
“Well, by that time, ol’ Manuela will probably retire. You say you’re her favorite, right?”
“Yes,” admits Angie.
“Keep it up and you can snag the salon.”
“You’re joking; that’s your plan?” She crosses her arms.
“It’ll be okay, sis.”
“I need to go for a walk,” says Angie, stepping back.
“Ala’s making moqueca, tonight, don’t be late!”
Alandra Mendes is in the midst of rearranging her son’s blocks, when she sees Angie stalking out of the store downstairs. Javier must have told her. Angie would not take the news well, Alandra had warned.
The girl had been seventeen when their father passed; he was a strong man, and the only parent they had. Alandra had met their father briefly. He was a kind man, although often busy with the morning rush.
Javier told Alandra that he remembered her bright smile and even brighter jersey. He then said their mother would have loved her as well; Angie never seemed quite as sure.
Her son starts to cry, and Alandra turns back.
“Shhh, it’s alright Maxi. Mamãe is here,” she coos as a shadow falls against the wall.
Immediately after, she hears a loud thud.
Alandra whirls around. A massive dog-like creature howls against the window. Slobber splatters across the glass.
“JAVIER!”
“Who is this again?”
“My cousin,” says Neves. “She moved here before I did. I haven’t seen her much in recent years, though. Maybe every few months? She married a bodega owner in the Bronx, and they live above the store. That’s where we’re going now.”
“Why else would we be on the subway this long?” Rocky grumbles.
“It could be worse; we could be on the ferry,” Skylar argues.
“Hey, no ferry slander!” Millie retorts.
“I’m sorry, but I do get seasick,” Imani grimaces.
“Seasick? It’s a harbor!”
“Same deal.”
“So what happened?” Skylar asks Neves.
“Right. So she got attacked by this giant dog thing; Javier says it’s a Chupacabra.”
“And Javier is…?”
“Her husband, duh.” Skylar mutters.
“I’m just asking a question, calm your tits down,” Rocky snaps.
“Enough from both of you,” orders Imani. “Neves?”
“Well, yeah, that’s her husband. She also has a sister-in-law. Here’s where it gets tricky,” Neves runs a hand through her curls.
“Oh?” Millie leans forward.
“The sister-in-law, Angie, has never liked Ala. She was also really unhappy,” Neves lowers her voice. “Because they’re going to close the store, selling it to give their son a boost at college. Y’know how crazy expensive it is.”
“Okay…but this is a giant dog?” Millie says slowly.
“Well, Mandy wasn’t a real succubus,” Skylar notes.
They off the train, and Millie sighs loudly. “Can we get breakfast?”
They walk past a large construction site.
“Wonder what’s happening there,” Skylar says conversationally.
“They’re building something,” Rocky scoffs.
“I know that,” Skylar snaps. “I just meant I wonder what they were building.”
“Do you guys ever tire of arguing all the time?” Imani sighs.
“Rocky started it,” Skylar protests.
“Don’t make inane remarks,” Rocky shrugs.
“Ai meu Deus,” Neves throws her hands up. “Look, Alandra is super stressed, so let’s just drop up and show up looking like a productive team?”
“Is that what we are?” Millie snorts.
“Hey! We have one success under our belt,” Neves insists. “Come on, my cousin will feed us.”
They continue to walk; Neves leads, and Imani follows close behind. In tandem, Rocky and Skylar start to listen to their music. Millie lingers behind them, looking around. A shadow darts by and she startles.
“What is it?” Skylar asks lazily.
“What is what?”
“You got all jumpy,” Skylar notes.
Millie braces herself for Rocky to interject, but the other woman ignores them for once.
“I just thought I saw something,” Millie mutters.
Skylar looks around, and Millie follows her actions. Nothing is there, just a tumbling piece of trash. It is a light shade of purple with a logo on it.
Skylar lingers for a moment, frowning.
“That piece of trash, the logo, it seemed vaguely familiar.”
“Think it’s a clue?” Millie questions.
“I don’t know. Remind me if I don’t bring it up later.”
Alandra Mendes is a petite woman with a brown bob, strong brows, and freckles. She cradles a curly haired baby in her arms.
“Thank you for coming out here,” she tells them. “It is nice to see you Izabel, and nice to meet your friends. I made lunch; there aren’t any big grocery stores here, especially not ones with special international products. However, I had Javier go this morning to a Halal restaurant.”
“Thank you, that’s very nice of you,” Rocky says.
Alandra smiles, although she looks tired. “It’s hard, because I can’t get formula for Maxi. I’m also on my feet all day, and we don’t have any staff.”
“Javier, her husband, took a job at a gas station, recently,” Neves explains.
“It’s more flexible to have me run the store, as I do not have an unforgiving, inflexible boss.” Alandra sighs. “The customers understand, they’re mostly locals up here. Javier’s abuela watches Maxi during the day. She also watches the store while I feed him.”
“Does Arlo still come?” Neves asks.
“Yes. Arlo is my husband’s cousin. He is currently sixteen and has been helping out at the store since he was thirteen,” Alandra explains. “He is not technically an employee; we pay him in cash for his help, and he can get snacks.”
Maxi starts to cry, and Alandra grimaces. “Excuse me.”
“Poor woman,” Neves mutters.
“You don’t like her in-laws?” Millie asks.
“What? No! Well, I like some of them more than others. It’s just that it’s tough overall,” Neves says. “She—”
The door opens again and Neves falls silent, shaking her head.
Alandra puts small bowls down in front of them, and hands Rocky a tin container folded around a paper lid.
“This is caruru,” Neves tells them as her cousin sets down a pot of green stew.
“We don’t have shrimp or nuts,” Alandra says apologetically. “This is a very simple, basic version of a traditional. I also made Izabel’s favorite, acarajé. Again, this is a basic version, so there’s no filling. Sorry.”
Neves smiles sheepishly. “Ah, you told me you would make acarajé and you’re hosting us, so I got some filling.”
She unzips her cooler bag and pulls out a yellow mixture with chopped vegetables and shrimp. Then, she pulls out an unopened bag of frozen shrimp.
“Here, Ala. This is for you.”
“You’re already helping us though,” Alandra protests.
“Just take it,” Neves groans. “Anyways, acarajé is a food popular in my father’s home state of Bahia. In fact, my grandmother ran an acarajé stand for many years.”
“The best acarajé I ever had,” Alandra says fondly.
“Is she your grandmother too?” Skylar asks.
“We are maternal cousins,” Alandra says. “However, when my mother’s cousin, her mother, wed her father, I was…I think four? I had them there for the first time. Our families got along well enough that they’d give my family some whenever Izabel and her mother visited.”
“Where did your family live?”
“We lived in Rio Grande do Sul, not to be confused with Rio de Janeiro,” Alandra says. “While Izabel’s father was from Bahia, they moved to São Paulo when she was young.”
“W-”
“I can tell you more about Brazil later,” Neves interrupts, albeit gently. “Alandra, what was this creature like? Do you have any early leads?”
“Javier thinks it’s a Chupacabra,” Alandra whispers. “It’s a legendary creature in Puerto Rico. In Spanish, it means goat sucker.”
“Goat sucker,” Rocky echoes flatly.
“In the 1990s, hundred of animals were found dead in Puerto Rico. They had strange puncture marks and seemed to be drained of blood,” Alandra says, shuddering. “Javier’s family raised livestock on a farm on the outskirts of Caguas. I know it sounds crazy, but they lost so many animals, they had to sell the farm!”
“And what did these…Chupacabras look like?” Imani asks.
“The one I saw, or the ones from the accounts in the ‘90s?”
“Both, if you know.”
“They both had large fangs, and brown-ish fur. The ones of the older stories had red eyes. The ones I saw did not, though.”
A man enters then.
“Hey Javier,” Neves greets.
“Hey, Izabel. Thanks for coming, guys,” Javier says.
“Morning rush over?” Alandra asks.
“I wouldn’t be up here if it wasn’t.”
She nods. “I pumped enough milk to work with his current situation. The blended food is already in the bottle as well. You know what to do.”
“You’re the best, corazón.”
“We’ll figure this out, Ala,” Neves promises.
Alandra hugs her and kisses her head. Javier puts Maxi in his coat, and Alandra packs their bag.
“Be good for daddy,” she tells him.
“Javier, is Angie around?” Neves asks.
He scratches his neck. “Ah, no…she kinda does her own thing these days. Work, friends, I don’t know.”
“Okay, thanks.”
The couple leave with their son shortly after.
“Alright,” Imani laces her fingers. “Let’s start. Neves, is there anything we should know about this Angie?”
“I don’t like her, but that’s besides the point,” Neves huffs. “I’ll try to stay neutral though.”
“What’s wrong with her?” Rocky asks.
“She’s always been unsympathetic to Alandra,” Neves says.
“Wait, this creature went for Alandra and the baby first, right?” Skylar asks.
“Yeah.”
“Is Angie’s dislike of your cousin to the point that she may have something to do with it?” Millie asks.
“I don’t think so,” Neves sighs.
“Hey, there’s something on the fire escape,” Imani says.
She points to a small slip of leathery fabric.
“I can get it,” Rocky offers.
She shoves open the window, and reaches out to grab it. Something creaks loudly, and as she leans back, a clawed paw slaps the metal. Rocky moves to slam the window closed, when the creature leaps in. It snarls, and lunges at Millie.
Millie stumbles to left, and Rocky gets behind it. She tackles the creature, and hooks her arm around its neck. As she tries to tighten her grip, the creature thrashes around. It knocks over a table and a lamp comes crashing down.
“Fuck!” Neves shouts.
She dives for it with no avail. The lamp crashes and cracks.
Rocky cries out then, and releases the creature.
The creature scampers away and leaps out the window.
They all sit there in horror, before Neves scowls at Rocky. “How could you?”
“How could I what?” Rocky demands.
“You let it get away!”
“It bit me!”
“Are you alright?” Millie asks.
“What do you think?!” Rocky snaps.
“Sorry, sorry,” Millie mumbles. “Eh, is there a first aid kit around here?”
“Go look, and try not to break anything else,” Neves grunts.
“It’s not her fault this happened, Neves,” Imani says firmly, although not harshly.
“The reason we’re all in this dump is because of you,” Rocky says bitterly.
“Bitch, fuck you too,” Neves snaps.
“That is enough,” Imani says, sharper this time. “Neves, Rocky came along with the rest of us to help you and got injured. We are happy to help, and do not even need a thanks. However, this open hostility is unacceptable. Rocky, insulting Neves’s family’s home and this neighborhood is unacceptable as well.”
“Yes Imani,” Neves murmurs.
“Yeah,” Rocky grunts.
“I found it!” Millie shouts.
“Neves, is there a bathroom Rocky can borrow?” Skylar asks quietly.
“Next to the kitchen.”
“I am sure Alandra will understand,” Skylar says after Rocky storms off.
“That won’t make it hurt less,” Neves sighs.
“Would you like to talk about it?”
“No. Maybe. I don’t know, actually.”
Skylar hums. “Well, if you ever want to, let me know.”
“Maybe we should split up, give everyone some time to cool off, and cover more ground. Literally and metaphorically,” Imani suggests.
“You already know me staying with Rocky won’t help either” Skylar snorts. “So Millie with her, I go with Neves, and what about you?”
“I want to examine that scrap more, so I’ll stay here,” Imani says. “You guys go check out the area we passed to get here. That construction building and whatever else is there. I’ll send Rocky and Millie the other way.”
Alandra is visibly disappointed when they tell her, but she simply sighs and tells them she is glad they are alright.
“What’s that?” Skylar points to a flyer in her hand.
“It’s a hiring flyer,” Alandra says. “There’s a new company moving into town. I don’t know what they do. They just said here that they’re hiring locals. Something about creating jobs in the community.”
“What are the jobs?”
“Janitor, cafeteria worker,” Alandra shrugs. “This happens in all sorts of neighborhoods. Same type of situation, same type of jobs are offered to us. It’s just so they can say something useful about pricing out our communities.”
“We’re going to take a look around, Ala,” Neves says.
As soon as they get outside, they see a couple of men walking around with large, brightly colored signs.
A banana mascot dances around nearby.
“Jeez, let’s cross the street,” Neves grumbles.
“Wait!” Skylar protests. “Let’s see if they have samples first.”
When the banana turns around, they all falter at its bulging eyes.
“Hi…” Skylar says slowly. “What’s going on here? Also, ah, do you have samples?”
“We’re Organixx! All of our products are sourced fresh from B Corp suppliers, and everything is, well, organic!”
“And how much are these organic B Corp products?” Neves asks.
The mascot pauses then, it says, “Well, Ma’am, it depends what products! And what brands! There’s no one answer—”
“If I wanted to buy a box of crackers, how much is that?”
“Six to seven dollars—”
“Six to seven dollars?!”
“Yes, well, they are made with healthier, ethically sourced ingredients which makes them more costly to make.”
“I am literally a scientist. I understand that these snacks are healthier, but people around here cannot afford that within their usual weekly grocery necessities,” Neves argues.
“Well, maybe they can prioritize healthy food for their kids rather than getting new phones or shoes every few months.”
“Excuse me?”
“Okay, so you obviously do not have samples. Thanks,” Skylar says curtly.
“Sooo…do you have any ideas so far?”
“No.”
“Tough crowd,” Millie huffs.
“Sorry,” Rocky sighs.
“Hmm? You didn’t actually do anything. I was just being dramatic,” Millie chuckles nervously.
“You’re a good friend, Millie,” says Rocky. “I do not know what I would do without you.”
“Now I think you’re the one being a tad dramatic.”
“You bring the group stability, and I think you don’t even realize the extent of that.”
Millie blinks. “Oh.”
Rocky laughs softly. “Sorry, again. I didn’t mean to put any pressure on you. I just want you to know, because I feel like none of us, except perhaps Imani, appreciates this.”
“Is this a dig at the other two?” Millie raises a brow.
“It’s true, and I am as bad as them in this regard,” Rocky says with a shrug.
Just then, a young woman storms past them. She marches into the store and rips the handle. The door swings closed behind her with a bang.
Millie and Rocky glance at each other before creeping back towards the store.
“Don’t you dare bring Maxi into this!” Alandra cries.
“Maxi,” the other woman spits the boy’s name with revulsion. “Is ruining my life.”
“Angie!” Javier snarls. “Get out!”
“You cannot make me! This is my store as much as yours! Papá will never forgive you!”
“Papá knew what it was like to make sacrifices to give the younger generation a better life! I’d suggest you marry someone to make your life happier and easier, but I can finally see now why nobody wanted you!”
“Javier!” Alandra yelps.
Things start smashing and ripping, and then the noise grows louder. Both Rocky and Millie jump back from the storefront as Javier drags Angie out the door and throws her onto the sidewalk. He slams the door and they hear a click.
Angie slaps the ground and mutters viciously in Spanish under her breath. Then she glares at them.
“Store’s closed, idiots.”
A few minutes after Angie gets to her feet and storms off, Alandra unlocks and opens the door.
“Hello,” she says softly. “My husband said you were there before. I apologize. We really had to get her out, as she wanted to throw something at our baby.”
“Is everything okay now?” Millie asks slowly.
“No,” Alandra says. “We will survive, though. Come, your other friend mentioned that she’d like for you girls to regroup. I’ll text Izabel if she hasn’t already.”
“This was made from the same fabric as a leather jacket from Xenia, but I don’t think it was made from the actual jacket. A lot of companies have deadstock fabric, and a lot of small designers and fashion gurus use deadstock fabric,” Imani explains.
“They’re opening a new grocery store nearby,” Skylar says. “We also found out who owns the new construction development. I need to do some research though, so get back to me later.”
“Neves?”
“I told the banana dude at the store that people in this neighborhood couldn’t afford seven dollar crackers and he started bitching at me.”
“Okay, Millie? Rocky?”
“The sister is shady, and she has a feud with Javier and Alandra. They were fighting over Maxi and the store and Javier threw her out. I know Neves said their feud wasn’t deep enough for Angie to do it, but I think maybe something shifted since the last time you visited,” Millie says.
“Angie had a leather jacket too, I don’t know what brand, though.”
“Angie works at a salon,” Neves says after a long silence. “She always wanted to go into fashion. She applied for FIT, but she didn’t get a scholarship and couldn’t get a loan. At the time, Javier and Alandra were trying to scrape together their own funds to go to Brazil for my uncle’s funeral. Now they want to give up the store for Maxi to get the chance Angie never did.”
She purses her lips tightly.
They hear a howling then, before an eerie scratching sound. When they look up, the Chupacabra is back on the fire escape.
“Fuck,” Neves mutters.
“I’m the best at hand-to-hand,” Rocky decides. “I’ll initiate first.”
The Chupacabra lifts the windows, and crawls in. Rocky approaches slowly, and as the Chupacabra leaps, she ducks with her arms ready. She punches it square in the nose. The Chupacabra stumbles back, and Rocky jumps on it. She presses her forearm into its neck, but the creature tries to claw at her face.
Rocky narrowly avoids it, and the creature rolls them over and pins her down.
“As much as you can, duck!” Neves shouts.
Rocky obliges and a gunshot sounds from the back. Before anyone can protest, a paintball knocks into the Chupacabra’s head, and it collapses back.
“Is that gonna give it CTE?” Millie mutters.
“What’s another lunatic running around New York in an animal suit?” Rocky snorts.
Then she nods at Neves. “Good job.”
“You too,” Neves says.
“How do we get this thing off?” Imani mutters.
“There’s a zipper. It’s really hard to tell unless you’re up close,” Rocky unzips it.
“Um, who is that?” Millie mutters.
“That,” Skylar says, “is Ignacio Quattrorochi. Neves, get your cousin and Javier.”
Alandra checks all of them as soon as they get in the apartment.
“Javier sends his thanks. He is with our son, until we can get this man out of our home.”
“Okay, Skylar, it seems you know who this guy is. Let’s hear it,” Imani says.
The man on the floor groans softly. He’s a young blond man, with tan skin. A bruise is already bloomed on the left side of his temple.
“This is Ignancio Quattrocchi,” Skylar says. “He’s Argentinian, but let everyone think he was Italian. Honestly, he is, in a way, isn’t he? Not in the way people thought, though. He came to New York as a model, and there was a lot of buzz about him as new European talent. He got picked up by a lot of Italian fashion houses, and he speaks Italian fluently.”
She glances at him. “Some say he learned it just to play the part, although that is up to speculation. Anyways, when an old classmate and rival exposed Ignacio with photos of him growing up in Argentina, everything collapsed around him. He has no family here, and modelling was his way to not only make income but support his mother and siblings back home.”
“Why is he here, though?”
“Ignacio’s personal feelings are actually not a big part of this,” Skylar says. “I think first we should talk about who benefits from the store closing.”
“Yeah,” Neves says. “They want you guys out, because you guys will offer affordable food options to the local community. Their claim is that the local stores aren’t offering healthy, certified organic options. This is not wholly untrue, but it is also true that those options are often outrageously expensive for families trying to make ends meet. There was also the issue that no major grocery chains wanted to invest in lower income neighborhoods because they couldn’t make as much profit.”
“But now a new company is moving in,” Millie says. “There was a logo. It must be some kind of office building, right? Unless that was the landlord company?”
“No, you got it right,” Skylar confirms. “That company was a new cosmetics company. I recognized it because it’s a skincare company; they’re new but it’s a big influencer brand so they have the funds. I know this because I have a friend who works in skincare, albeit Korean skincare, but he’s very in-the-know about stuff like that.”
“They plan on bringing a lot of white collar workers in,” Alandra realizes. “They will be the ones making the fancy grocery stores worth it. They want to push us out, and take out options for our community.”
“For the start, they want to drain money from people with no other options,” Javier adds. “With the arrival of new workers, they hope that by making basic needs more expensive, they’ll get the locals out and leave it for a new class of higher middle class.”
“I believe so,” Skylar says grimly.
“I know so,” Alandra rubs her forehead. “They’ve done it before, in other places. It’s a pattern we know well, and it works.”
“Why Ignacio, though? What does he have to do with this?” Imani asks.
“This kind of work is a big deal, isn’t it?” Neves asked. “I mean, there’s probably an NDA, and it’s fucking crazy.”
“They can’t just put it on Indeed and call it a day,” Rocky mutters.
“No, but disgraced as he is, Ignacio is an industry insider. He can be recruited discreetly, and things like that. They also knew he was at least somewhat desperate,” Imani says.
The man on the floor groans again, and his eyelashes flutter, a sliver of green showing.
“Dude, it was a mini paintball, jeez,” Neves groans.
“That’s a size mini?” Millie says dubiously.
“What, you never played real paintball?”
“I was the type that called out sick to get out of dodge ball,” Millie says sheepishly.
“Izabel!” Alandra hisses.
“Ala, he tried to ruin your life. Chill.”
Alandra refuses to press charges. Neves calls her soft.
“We need to do something though,” Javier tries. “I mean, I get it. Well, I’ve never done anything this crazy, and I’m mad at this young man for throwing our community under the bus. I know what it’s like to you know, be the provider and to be here alone. But we gotta do something, don’t we?”
“I don’t know,” Skylar shrugs. “The internet loves wackos, although they pretend not to. Look at all the other crazies that have already blown up and gotten full on careers because people meme the shit they do. And he’s pretty. Never been a pretty boy that couldn’t get a redemption arc.”
“Thank you dulzura, but I don’t date women,” the man in question laughs softly.
Ignacio had woken up fully in about an hour. He didn’t fight anymore, although Millie handcuffed him and stuck him in the corner while they discussed what to do with him.
“How long have you been here?” Imani asks.
“Coming on seven years soon,” he says.
“Do you have anyone here? Aside from family, any close friends, a partner?” Alandra asks.
“I was married, briefly, when I came here,” Igancio says. “My mother was from Paraguay, and had a family friend that moved the U.S. many years back. As I worked on learning English, I was penpals with their daughter. We have twin sons, actually. I…I haven’t seen them in years, though. Not by choice, but our marriage didn’t end well.”
“Why?” Neves narrows her eyes.
“I found out I was gay. I never cheated on her, but I couldn’t stay,” Ignacio says quietly. “I always knew I was a bit queer; I played fútbol growing up, and I was obsessed with our team captain. Argentina is generally considered a fairly LGBT friendly country. As I got a bit older I realized I was not a heterosexual. I didn’t think I was completely gay, though. I found girls pretty and sweet, things like that.”
“Do you think you’ll ever have a chance of seeing your sons again?” Skylar asks.
“I have been in conversation with my ex-wife recently. She was upset for years, understandably. She thought I wasted her time, and I cannot deny her grievances. But she decided I could not commit to a family. Two months ago, she considered us working together to split custody. Then, everything happened. She obviously knew, and she had urged me to clarify things. I was prideful, though. I told her that I was who I was, and that it was not my fault if people made assumptions.”
“Those assumptions benefited you,” Rocky murmurs.
Ignacio shrugs. “Anyways, after everything happened, she decided to put a pause on the whole thing. She said she would not let our sons get caught up on my mess, and I needed to get my affairs in order. And find another steady form of income.”
“So you dressed up as a Chupacabra and terrorized my cousin and her community,” Neves grunts.
“They told me they could fix everything, with the most powerful PR firms in the world, if I would sign the NDA and do it,” Ignacio winces. “I also needed to support my mother and sisters.”
“Everyone here is trying to support their own families!” Neves argues. “Why should we let everything slide?”
Alandra looks at him carefully, though.
“Do you have any sort of following left?”
“About 30K on Instagram, and 100K on TikTok.”
“I suggest coming clean. Maybe not about the Chupacabra, but just…tell your story. The way it is to you. I know a guy who can work with what you’ve got, believe it or not,” Skylar says.
She glances at Alandra. “If we can get his career back up and running, and he lands a massive campaign, he could help your family avoid selling the store.”
“Are you sure?” Javier asks, his voice higher with hope.
“We should do everything we can to support Maxi, and keep the store. For Angie, and for our whole family,” Alandra tells him.
“But what about the company? And the store?” Neves asks.
“There’s only so much he can do about it, anyways. We won’t be scared off. We need to be here, for our community.”
They look over to see Angie in the door way.
“Hermana…” Javier starts.
She comes over and squeezes his hand. “I know. We’ll talk about it later. This is a good step in the right direction, though.”
The family has to talk, but they let them each get a free snack and sandwich from the store before leaving.
“C’mon,” Skylar grunts at Ignacio after they get off at the station. “Transfer time.”
“Are you sure about this?” Neves asks.
“I’m not afraid of him,” Skylar rolls her eyes.
“Do anything, and I’ll come at you with something worse than a paintball gun,” Neves promises him.
“I need to go on that train to Whitehall,” Millie says.
“I can walk to my destination from here. See you all later,” Imani smiles.
Neves raises a brow at Rocky. “Wanna hang with me on Steinway? I’ll pay.”
Neves bites into her lamb kofta sandwich and sets it down.
“Our grandmother lived in the Atlantic Coast Restingas, in an enclave in Rio Grande do Sul,” says Neves. “Our grandfather was not her first husband.”
She plays with the bracelet on her wrist. “Her first husband was a local glass artisan. Our glass is much less renowned than the Italians’, but it is beautiful and it is ours. He made that lamp for her. My own grandfather was great in many ways, but not a great husband. Don’t ask, just know I mean it when I say that.”
Neves laughs harshly. “Actually, whatever. I have…I don’t know, four-half aunts and uncles combined. That’s kinda the tip of the iceberg too.”
Rocky nods.
“Anyways, she loved her first husband, and she married him against the wishes of her family. He was a quiet man, she said. He was humble, and often considered meek. Nobody in her village was particularly rich, but the idea dazzled them. My grandfather was a bright boy, they said. Everyone pooled their money for him to go to university.”
“That was kind of them.”
“Yeah. He worked in Rio Grande and came back every two weeks. When he was home, he offered his services to the village people and spent time with his children. My mother said he was very kind to them, and he brought them gifts to make up for his absence.”
“And your grandmother?”
“They spent little time together. He sent money back, but his letters were brief, if he sent any. As much as my mother and her siblings loved their father, they also sympathized with their mother. As I said, I have half-aunts, and half-uncles too. Well, I don’t call them that, but you get the point.”
“Yeah.”
“My grandfather had an affair with a nurse in Rio Grande.”
“Oh.”
“So my mother and her siblings appreciated hearing about her first husband, and how he made our grandmother happy. That lamp was the last gift he gave to her, and she cherished it dearly. The rest of us cherished it was like a light, literally, for her.”
Neves pushes her tongue into her cheek, before sighing. “You know, it scares me. Even more so now.”
“Why?” Rocky asks.
“The thought of it. To spend your whole life loving someone who was stolen from you, either by death or someone else. And you have this one heirloom left, that is your entire world because that is all you have left of them. And it just breaks. What do you do?”
“You, as in me literally, or you as in a general hypothetical scenario?”
“Honestly, just in general. I don’t expect you to know, I don’t know either.”
“I’ve thought of it, actually,” says Rocky.
Neves blinks before she smiles somberly. “Is it who I think it is?”
“Yeah,” Rocky says. “It’s stupid, to me, because we weren’t even anything.”
“Well, you were something,” Neves argues. “Fuck technicalities.”
“I don’t date, at least not in the traditional sense,” Rocky says curtly. “My family has been flexible enough as it is.”
“Your grandmother…she’s still around, right?” she then asks after a pause. “Will you tell her?”
“Alandra says no, it’s not worth it. It’ll break her heart, and then she’ll ask why. Alandra doesn’t want to tell her, because then she’ll just worry on top of the heartbreak. Best to just let her think it’s fine and be happy about that,” Neves explains.
“I get that,” Rocky says quietly.
“I’m sorry, by the way. I’m grateful you came, and for everything you did for my family,” Neves says.
“I’m glad to help,” Rocky returns. “Really. Sometimes I can be kind of grumpy, and it’s kind of awkward, but I care about you. I care about all of you.”
“Do you ever wish things could be like they were before?” Neves sighs.
“I think we needed to go through everything we did to get to this point,” Rocky admits. “And…I think in the end we’ll all be better for it.”
Subway Sleuths 