During the winter a lot of garbage floated by the stream that passed under the stilts built by the riverside people inside the bags thrown by the residents of the upper parts of the city, it was such a huge amount that it caused astonishment for those who had the bad luck to live there.

At the end of the rains, when the thunderstorms finally ceased, it was hard work to remove all that dirt that was stuck in most of the pillars that supported the houses built in the water in the summer. The woman was not yet thirty years old, but she looked much older due to the exhausting life she was leading, she had almost no rest, she ate poorly and lost a lot of weight.

In one of those wooden huts rotted by the passage of time, there was a mother and son surviving as they could for several decades. Lucia and Pedro lived in a small hut, measuring about eight square meters.

Whose roof covered with old raw clay tiles dripped whenever winter came and the rains became more frequent. His daily routine was to leave his young son with his neighbor while doing various jobs in the homes of the rich in exchange for some changes that were barely enough to maintain his livelihood.

Things improved after the mayor had a small nursery built in the vicinity of the place that allowed mothers to leave their children there while they worked, so they studied and mothers still received a living allowance from the government to keep them in class. of class. She was encouraged by other mothers to enroll the boy.

— ... Yes, woman, put your son there who is already a great help! — Warned one of the residents

— For sure, I already enrolled my three boys! — added the other

— Okay, I will do as you are advising me, tomorrow I will ask the boss for leave and on Wednesday I miss the service to solve this

— Good idea, my neighbor, we don't give up these things!

The woman was not yet thirty years old, but she looked much older due to the exhausting life she was leading, she had almost no rest, she ate badly and lost a lot.He led an exhausting life, losing sleep when he had to work all day and when he returned in the evening still taking care of little Pedro and the organization of the old shack where they lived together.

She had become pregnant with the boy ten years before, during which time she was abandoned during the first months of pregnancy by her husband, who exchanged her for another. Since then, he had to assume a dual role in raising his son, acting as mother and father, thus duplicating his immense responsibility. The child's intelligence was notorious and he soon learned to read and write, was passionate about reading and was enchanted by the stories in his books.

Everything was going well, summer had come and the heavy rains were giving way to beautiful sunny mornings and, early in the morning, you could hear the birds singing on the tree branches, as they walked hand in hand with the mother towards the nursery. , where Aunt Lucia taught him to write new words and do math.

However, the unexpected happened that afternoon, when one of the drunken residents caused the fire in one of the shacks. The fire started under a strong blow of the winds that usually manifested itself there at that time and soon spread through all the other hovels at an incredible speed.

 So fast was the action of the flames that barely enough time for some residents to manage to save their own life. All the stilts started to burn and the fire spread from one to the other in the blink of an eye. In a matter of minutes everything turned into a heap of ashes.

 And when the fire brigade arrived with the intention of containing the fire it had already fulfilled its role to destroy everything he found ahead. At work Lucia received a call from a friend, warning her of the huge disaster that had occurred at her home. When he got there he only cared about hearing news from his son that nobody seemed to know the whereabouts, he only had peace when he heard from one of the residents that the child was safe.

— Calm down, neighbor, he's at home!

— Blessed be God, my neighbor, I almost died of fright!

— Don't worry, as soon as the panic started he had the idea of ​​going to our house on the other side of the stream

— Yes, I always told him that if something bad happened to run to the residents' house on the other side of the small bridge

— Well, you did very well!

— And now, how will it be for us who lost everything?

— Bed, neighbor, everything will be fixed, you will see

— God hear you, because I have no idea how we're going to survive this

João was a widower, had lost his wife to cancer many years ago and always asked Lucia, who also lived alone in the struggle for survival. However, she never accepted her various proposals. However, on that desperate day, he had no choice but to agree to spend a season there.

 Pedro loved the idea, because it was a large house, with several compartments and built in masonry, it seemed like a palace, since he grew up in that shabby rotten wood, climbed on four pillars and in the middle of the stinky stream where the excrement flowed. uptown staff, it was almost unbearable rot.

— Do not worry about the gossip, Lucia, we are free people and we have nothing to explain to these people. So, settle down with your child in one of the rooms and take charge of everything around here, pretend that the house is yours

— Thank you for your accommodation, João, I promise I will do my best not to take too much of your time, as soon as I find another place we vacate your house

— Stop it, woman, you know you don't need to be in such a hurry, if you want to accept my proposal or need to leave here.

Lucia responds to the elderly man's invitation with another yellow smile, showing little interest in accepting to be his companion. At thirty-eight years old and completely disappointed in men, she no longer believed in love and completely lost a woman's desire. He knew that he would not be able to give her sexual pleasure and that it would become a major disappointment for a man who had several fantasies about her.

The very large place, with several rooms, delighted the boy who kept on praising his new home. The brand new fifty-four-inch LED television emblazoned on the wall, all wrinkled and painted in pearl yellow, the luxurious sofa set in the middle of the room, the two-door refrigerator, the stainless steel stove with six burners and so many other pieces of furniture. Everything made the place the most beautiful place in the world in the eyes of little Pedro.

— Mom, everything here is very beautiful!

— Yes, my son, but remember that nothing here belongs to us

— Mom, why don't you marry Mr. João?

— What's this story, boy?

— There, mother, everyone here in the village knows that he likes you!

— Look how you say, little boy, have more respect!

— Fine...

The child was already able to understand the climate between the two adults and hoped that his mother would finally stop beating and accept the suitor's. Request, so that he could live better in such comfort, but his mother seemed to resist the obvious. After the fire in that part of the favela, the State Government and other non-governmental institutions decided to have new houses built for those people who had lost everything and a register was made to account for the damage and how many new houses had to be built to meet all families.

Lucia was one of the first to apply and started looking forward to the delivery of her new home. While he waited, he took care of his friend's residence and he worked at the free market in the neighborhood, where he owned several stalls selling fruit and vegetables. One day, tired of working only on domestic work and feeling the need to own her own money, she decided to propose something to the owner of the property.

— I want to ask you

— Yes, Lucia, talk

— I'm tired of being here washing, ironing, cooking ... I want to work on something where I can earn my own money

— But is something missing for you and your son, here?

— Of course not, you have met all our needs, even Pedro school supplies you give us, but I am used to earning my own living

— I understand, and what do you propose?

— You own several stalls at the fair, don't you?

— Certainly yes, why?

— What if you provided me with one of those vegetable stands so I could start working on it? So, at the end of the week or month, you would give me part of the profit and so I would have an activity that would earn me a salary instead of staying here as a domestic in this house

— Okay, if that's how you prefer ...

— Yes, I will feel more useful

— Okay, so tomorrow we start, you will take care of the stall where I have worked and I will just be managing the other fruit trees

— Okay, then

Lucia routine has changed since that new morning. Every day she woke up at dawn and went to the market to wait for João to arrive with his old car loaded with sacks of fruit and vegetables to be resold at his four stalls at the market.

After helping him distribute it among the other employees, she started to sell the products throughout the first hours of the day and at noon she went to the daycare in search of her son, who went with the mother to spend the rest of the afternoon at the sale.

 On weekends João paid ten percent of everything he had earned with the new employee. And since she and little Pedro didn't have to spend what they received, he kept everything in a small box waiting to receive his new home and be able to buy some furniture there new.

It was many months since the fire set their homes on fire until finally the buildings were rebuilt and the residents, who were scattered throughout various places in the city, some in relatives' houses, others in schools and shelters, could return to tranquility from your own home.

During all this time John did everything to convince Lucia to at least sleep with him a few times, but the woman was resistant and her answer was always negative. Finally, after receiving the key to the new address, she thanked the elderly person for help and moved her son back to his space, where he could rest from the fatigue of living in others.

The new residence donated by the Government was not very large like João, but it was built in masonry and had a firm floor, all in concrete. The boy approved and jumped for joy. No one else lived on the edge of the stream nor on the high stilts built on tall, floating pillars on the slope of the manholes that flowed from the upper part of the city, where the rotten odors of the rich's excrement served as perfumes to the nostrils of the miserable poor.

They had been relocated to a drier area of ​​the neighborhood and after the hovels were decimated to ash, the appearance of the place improved. There, a basic sanitation system was built to serve all families and no one else did their physiological needs in the open.

Air or play in the stream, everyone had a bathroom inside their homes and it was possible to maintain personal hygiene for the whole family. With the savings gained from her work at João fruit stand it was possible to survive even after moving, Lucia bought several new furniture, in addition to receiving donations from charitable people of various other household items.

Such as: Pans, dishes and all badly needed accessories in the kitchen. The financial situation of that woman improved after the immense disgrace that befell her life months ago, when she could not for the moment imagine herself as the owner of a property built entirely of bricks and covered with expensive ceramic tiles. Sometimes it takes a great deal of harm to befall someone's existence for things to change.

However, a time of good rain does not always correspond to a period of great harvests and she continued to work with João at the market stall while little Pedro studied at the new school built in the neighborhood and everything was going well.

However, that weekend something abnormal would happen again in the life of that family who seemed to be pursued by their own destiny. Mother and son went as usual very early to start their sales job at the fair and the boy. Now eleven years old, had already adapted to that routine to the point of being quite useful in his chores.

Often he even took over for sale while his mother went to solve some external situation or take a look at the house that was locked up all day. But that morning, something had been planned for both of them and the time had come when mother and son should let go of their hands and he would learn to walk alone through the labyrinths of his existence.

Because a greater power decided to separate them much sooner than were expected. The narrow street that cut the fair almost forced the cars to bump into the stalls and run over those who traveled there, many trucks also circulated through the tight spot. They transported everything from fruits and vegetables to flammable products like butane gas, it was a real hell the movement there all day and the unexpected would happen.

Lucia ordered her son to go to the fruit stand across the narrow street to ask John for change for a high note because he was missing from the register. The boy was careless and paid little attention to the intense movement, crossing without looking closely both ways as his mother had warned him to do.

After only a few seconds when Pedro stepped away from his mother, the terrifying cry of one of the stallholders is heard for the boy to retreat in the face of the imminent danger that was approaching. The woman, in a jump, got up from the small wooden bench where she sat and in a matter of seconds she was already in the middle of the narrow road with her son in her arms.

Her protective mother reflex prevented the high-speed garbage truck from hitting the child, but the impact of the crash was directly on her fragile body, hurling them both towards the sidewalk. The boy suffered some abrasions on his arms and legs, Lucia was already passed out and bleeding a lot.

After being properly rescued and taken to the emergency room, they were all assistants and by the friend the diagnosis was made by the doctors about his state of health, which was very serious, as he had broken both legs and one of his arms, lost blood in extreme and his condition was critical.

After the terrible accident, Lucia remained in the intensive care unit in critical condition for at least a month, during which time her son was taken care of by the neighbors, mainly João, who did not spare any effort for the brief recovery of his beloved. But, unfortunately, the boy's mother ended up not resisting his injuries and died.

That spring morning, when the scent of flowers on the trees was confused by that of the many roses and jasmines placed on the coffin where the inert body of that battling woman who gave her all to raise her only child alone and without the help of more, was found. no one, a boy of just eleven years of age.

 Was preparing to continue his new journey without having his protector nearby. Pedro would have to be strong, follow his mother's example and not bow his head in the face of life's obstacles.

 Never back down when confronted with what would seem impossible, because she gave him the example of being persistent and never failing. After the funeral João took the boy, now under his responsibility, to stay at his home and he stayed there for a few days.

 But he ended up not adapting to the new stay and insisted on wanting to return home. Lucia had prepared the boy to survive without alone, she knew that something unexpected could happen to her suddenly and she trained him perfectly.

Despite his young age, he knew how to do all the chores in the house. He cooked very well, washed his clothes and was a good janitor. In agreement with John he returned home and there he lived with his new friend Pingo, a dog that he received as a gift from Mr. Bethe, a very old woman who lived next door.

It was she who kept an eye on the orphan and took care of everything while he studied in the morning and in the afternoon he worked in the market, where before the accident he worked alongside his mother. It was she who kept an eye on the orphan and took care of everything while he studied in the morning and in the afternoon he worked in the market.

 Where before the accident he worked alongside his mother. Pedro's life could have been the same as many other boys his age, but unfortunately it was not so. The other boys from the neighborhood and the school made fun of him

— Look, guys, that poor devil from the slum! This wretch was abandoned by his father and now neither mother has more!

— It is a mangy dog. Lives like a dog eating the leftover that falls from the table of others — Commented the other kids of the school where he studied

Silence was what he gave them in response to their affront. He remembered what his mother said to him while he was by his side, that we must fight back the offenses with a lot of work so that one day we will grow up and become so high that our enemies have to raise their heads to see us.

Sometimes the affront was so severe that it ended in violence, the other boys beat him up and Elisabeth, one of the girls who walked in the middle of the crowd that used to scoff at him, was the one who took the pain and went to defend him from the aggressions. She was one of the most beautiful girls in high school, but in the face of such persecution Peter did not even notice this detail in his defender.

— Wow, but because you like to oppress this poor guy, leave him alone!

— Come on, you little white girl, stop messing around where you're not being called!

— Bunch of animals, I wanted to see if he had a father to defend him if they would treat him that way

— Yeah, but it turns out he has no one, he is a dog without an owner! — Answer one of them

— Yeah, he's an orphan! — Add another

— Flock of filthy pigs, I don't know why I'm still with you! — replied the teenager, then left after helping the boy to get up

Due to being scorned by his colleagues for his financial and family condition, the boy became a reserved and lonely boy, without real friendships and intimidated by criticism, he cut himself off from everyone.

Sometimes Elisabeth tried to comfort him during recess breaks, accompanied him to his house on the outskirts and on one occasion he even met João who liked the teenager with a pale face and full of freckles, but polite and kind. Besides showing a lot of affection for the boy, which already counted a lot.

During the absence of his only friend, he had only the support of João and the inseparable friend Pingo, the dog that he received as a gift from his stepfather and who did not let go of his foot for even a minute, until he went to school he waited for him in the vicinity and followed him closely on the way home. He was the only one who seemed to understand his loneliness.

— Come Pingo, come on!

The dog did not exchange his company for anything and often listened to him very carefully, turning his muzzle and ears as if he really understood his words.

— I can't understand why people are so bad, Pingo

They hurt us just out of pure evil. Is being an orphan so terrible that they treat me with so much contempt? — the animal moved its pointy ears as if it gave him some positive confirmation answer — hell, if my father had not left, he would fix them! Ah, my little friend, even worse than now even mom left me, I'm alone for good

His conversations with the dog were constant, he knew how to vent his frustrations with the animal more than other human beings, nor did João manage to make him open up about his dissatisfactions in life. Elisabeth has been revealing to the elderly about the constant cases of mockery that the boy went through with other schoolmates and that worried him a lot.

Despite the repeated insistence that he share his concerns with his stepfather, Pedro preferred to talk to Pingo, his dog, perhaps because he remained all the time, without interfering in his many confessions. That afternoon, under a tree he once again shared his sadness with his friend.

— Mom was the best person in the world, because she always listened to me. She was just like you, Pingo, she knew how to listen and gave me advice. You know how to listen to my conversations, but you can't give me advice because you can't speak.

The wind was blowing strong and the drops of water started to fall, it was the time of the traditional three-hour rain that in the North is never late.

— Come Pingo, let's look for a place to shelter, because it will rain heavily! — made the invitation to the dog that even if he had not been invited would have accompanied him — Let's stay here and wait for the storm!

In a few minutes the storm falls over the whole city and from the narrow window of the small deposit that the stepfather built to store tools he observed. Lucy used it frequently while she was alive, there she put her stuff. That weekend Peter and his dog used the place to shelter from the rain. He was just a boy, but he was not afraid to live alone in that place, with only the company of his animal.

On the right side lived Mrs. Maria, whose daughter sometimes came to her house to touch her sex. Since she was young, she already showed she didn't have much character and when she turned fifteen she gave it to anyone who was interested.

At the age of eleven he was an overweight type and she loved to stroke his limb that stretched like an elastic band. He did everything he wanted and hooked the kid who wanted to play every day. As he was a shy and repressed kid, the mothers around him never suspected what really happened inside the house and this greatly facilitated the pranks of the two teenagers. In this way, the neighbor's daughter was the one who initiated the sexual life of little Peter, motherless and abandoned by his father whom he never met.

In the following days, the boy continued to be disturbed by his schoolmates despite Elisabeth's many interventions, which led the little boy to be absent for several weeks from classes and the teachers decided to intervene in the situation. He missed classes, but none of the neighbors noticed.

He dressed as usual and went towards the school, but went out of the way, always going in other directions always in the company of his dog, so the neighborhood believed he was participating regularly in his studies. In the afternoon he returned and after preparing something to eat he went to the fair to help João with sales at the fruit stand.

However, Elisabeth decided to interfere and that morning she went to her house and encouraged him to expose everything to her stepfather. So they went to meet the elderly and the girl reported to the elderly what had been happening to the boy at school, requesting that some action be taken about.

The next day, the elderly man went to the board of directors to report the facts to the director of the institution, who promised to notify the parents of the students in question about their children's behavior against the little orphan, as they acted in a prejudiced manner. For a time he had peace, the aggressions stopped and he was able to be treated with more dignity, though too late. Because of the difficult life and the many persecutions suffered by the other boys.

 The prejudice and the lonely life the teenager started to want to look for new directions and made wrong friendships. At thirteen he mixed with bad elements that addicted him to drugs and alcohol. Despite the many attempts by those closest to him who wanted to help him, nothing stopped him.

Several times he was caught stealing nearby in the company of criminals and was taken to Institute child's house, where he received guidance from psychologists and then released as ordered by the Statute of Minors and Adolescents. By the age of fifteen, he had already become the terror of the neighborhood and the most dangerous minor offender in the entire periphery where he commanded the drug trade and a strong gang of bandits.

The old house where he lived with his mother became his headquarters and his reputation for evil has gone so far that not even the local police dared to invade his territory. However, on one occasion a delegate of the Federal Police of extreme boldness decided to face the criminal child and put an end to that disappointing situation in which the authorities found themselves until then.

— It is not possible that we, as representatives of the society that elected us to defend it, would be at the mercy of such a trickster and bow our heads in the face of its violent and threatening dictates. Therefore, I received permission from the highest command to form a task force to invade that nest of fleas and exterminate once and for all with such boldness on the part of those infamous. I order that ten teams of twenty men each be created and arm themselves to the teeth with the best weaponry available and start the mission immediately!

— Yes ma'am! — Responded promptly one of the commanded

— I want only the best in this mission, no beginners or anyone who has no experience in the subject!

— Leave it, delegate!

Angelina Flores was a dynamic woman in her commitments as a police officer, dynamic, courageous to the fullest and her tenacity commanded respect before her subordinates and professional colleagues. That Monday morning.

 As he began preparing a platoon to fight one of the most feared drug dealers in the peripheral area of ​​the city of Belem, located in the northern region of the country, he knew that this would not be a task easy, however, her wit did not let her falter.

While the attack plan was being elaborated inside the Federal Police's premises in the capital of Pará in the favela, Pedro, now a feared drug dealer, was notified by his team of informants that he intelligently infiltrated into the various areas of police action in order to always be aware of the news against him and his criminal kingdom, he became aware of everything the authorities planned.

— ... And they intend to invade the area on Friday at dawn. While still many sleep, intending to take us by surprise

— Bunch of imbeciles, and since when do crime scouts sleep?

— They are some suckers — added one of the bandits.

— Well, thanks for the information, Leandro, now go back and continue there quietly, be sure to let us know of any change in their plans and be careful, do not come here in person, write us through the message application as we had agreed, because may be being followed

— Okay, boss, it was bad! We'll be prepared to face that shitty delegate!

— It's not him, boss, it's her!

— How come, you're telling me that who dared to dismantle my drug trade here in the favela is a fucking pussy?

— That's right, boss!

— But what a daring of this bitch, I will have the greatest pleasure of taking this dirty bitch alive and turning her inside out until she learns to respect me!

— This is screwed! — Added another of the criminals for knowing the drug dealer's reputation for harshly punishing his opponents.

— Now let's act, guys, get all our people together and let them know what's coming. Pass on the information to scouts throughout the lowlands and also to those active in the distribution of drugs throughout the city. Don't leave anyone unaware

— Leave it, I'll take care of that personally — Says the manager Cristiano.

He was the traffic manager in the entire periphery and in the four corners of the city, his malice was so great that Peter put him as his right arm in charge of his criminal empire. After that conversation, all the members of the largest gang of criminals in the state were ready for any movement by the police who until that moment believed they could take them by surprise.

The Federal Police delegate, Angelina Flores, was mistaken when she thought that because she was facing a teenager she would have the ability to surprise him at home. Even at a young age, Peter became an agile crime leader after he killed the cripple, the largest and most feared drug dealer in the region whose command power covered the entire State of Pará.

His death came after a huge confrontation against the teenagers' men, who added up to twice those who protected the then commander of the drug trade, leading those left and other faction leaders to respect him and follow his orders. After being informed by the intelligence of the PF about who in fact was that boy whom he intended to confront in combat the police officer sweated cold.

And for the first time felt a chill that started in the trunk of his spine and went to the last strand of his hair. in the head. Especially when he heard, from the person who read all the criminal's file, all the details of his many crimes committed against his enemies. The most terrible was the one that led him to burn six of his opponents alive, after torturing them until they regretted the boldness of confronting him.

According to the information obtained by the intelligence of the PF, “The Red Skull”, as he became known for his violent and merciless practices, would have plucked in cold blood all the nails and feet of the poor devils, using pliers.

Then he cut his ears with a knife, marked his buttocks with a red-hot iron, placing the initials "T.R.S." who made reference to their codename in the crime and finally ordered them to be tied to a wooden post, then burned them alive.

— My goodness, what human being would do that to his fellow men?

— The Red Skull did, lady

— This evil element needs to be stopped as soon as possible! — Added the deputy delegate

— And it will be, Ricardo, you can be sure of that! From now on this will be my highest priority as a delegate

— I would like to inform you that we are already with the teams all ready to execute the mission, we await your orders

— Perfectly, then this weekend we will invade that den of criminals as planned

— Yes, ma'am

The week seemed to go by slowly and during all the time Angelina was anxious to imagine the immense challenge that awaited her. The six men tortured and burned alive by the bandit were all Federal Police agents who infiltrated his faction in order to obtain information about their actions and pass them on to their superiors, so that in this way they could outline an invasion plan in command trafficking and arrest the criminal.

She wondered about the possibilities of succeeding in that almost impossible mission, since her opponent seemed to have unlimited power over all other drug lords across the state and the number of his men was five times greater than those of the PF. It was night and the deputy was talking to her assistant on her cell phone about the difficult task they were going to face.

— It won't be easy, Ricardo, this element is not just any bad guy

— Certainly not, Delegate, this one will be hard work

— But we, too, don't use these badges for nothing!

— I fully agree with you, we will not chicken out!

— In two days we will see who's who after the confrontation

— As I told you, all the teams are already ready

— Great, now it's just waiting for time to act

— Have we received the command's release yet?

— Yes, everything is in order

— Okay, ma'am, so we just have to wait for the time to start the action

— That's right, Ricardo, good night

— Sleep well delegated

Despite what his friend and assistant wanted, it was impossible for him to have a peaceful sleep that night in the face of such expectation. Angelina feared not only for her own life, but also for her followers. Two hundred agents, among well-trained and armed men and women to the teeth, would accompany her on that suicide mission, she felt the chill take over her body every time she thought about it.