Born Different (24 page)

Gabe felt his
shoulders relax and he realised that they had been tight up against
his ears.

“So you’re not
too freaked out?”

“Well yeah I’m
freaked out Gabe but in a good way. I can’t believe it! Why were
you hiding these? Everyone would think you were some kind of God or
Superhero if they knew.”

“Exactly! Or a
freak Grace. And I should make it clear too that I am no God or
Superhero!”

“Ha, well you
are my hero!”

“So you don’t
mind?”

“Hey shut up! I
love them. Can you fly?”

“Well maybe,
I’m not really sure anymore. I could a bit when I was younger but I
haven’t tried in a while. Not had much need to really and I didn’t
want to get shot down or anything.”

“Gabe you could
be famous for these.”

“Erm, somehow I
don’t think I want to be famous for these. Famous for something
else perhaps, some great art work or saving lives or souls but not
as a freak of nature Grace.”

“Yes, I see
what you’re saying, jeez man. I was prepared for the worst but I
never even imagined…” Grace had walked all the way around him,
touching him again as she walked. She came back to face him and she
smiled. Her eyes lit up and she kissed him.

“Let’s go to
bed Gabe, it’s been a long day.”

That night,
Grace and Gabe made love. They made love to the music that held the
rhythm for them in their actions. They felt the songs in them,
directing them and at some points they wondered if it was in fact
them creating and directing the music. They made love all night
between sleeping. Gabe worked a little on the sculpture and when
Grace woke she joined him in creating his masterpiece, naked they
worked on it together for as long as they could without falling
into each other again. They didn’t need or want for anything. The
whole world seemed to revolve around them.

There were no
inhibitions, no embarrassments left and it seemed like the most
natural thing in the world. There were no books to tell you how to
do this, or words sufficient enough in which to describe how it
felt exactly, as it could only be achieved between the magical
combinations of the chemistry of two people.

There was
something deeply meaningful and instinctual, spiritual and
all-knowing occurring. Making love took them to a different place,
a place where they felt more alive and more at one with the
universe. And they wondered why ‘this’ was not spoken about
more.

‘This’ was not
the sex that they had heard about or been taught about. This was
nothing like pornography, copulation, baby making or fucking or any
of the other ways they had been sold sex. Was this a secret? This
felt clean and magical, not dirty, diseased or debauched. Gabe and
Grace felt high, with each orgasm, they felt bliss.

The truth was,
they both said it, when they made love to each other, when they let
go of themselves into each other, they felt like they were
flying.

Gabe and Grace
could not keep the smiles off their faces, they were in a world of
their own, high on pheromones and endorphins and love.

Gina could
obviously see that Gabe was not wearing his bandages under his
shirt this morning and she could see his wings. Gina knew that
Grace must now know too and although this had been a big event for
Gabe, in its own way it is just as big a deal for Gina. All the
years that she had shielded him from people and bandaged him from
teachers and other kids and other parents. All the worry and
fretting about her actions and then Gabe carrying it on, carrying
his secret alone, when he got too old for her to do it for him
anymore. And now, here he was with a girl and not just any girl,
with Grace. And everything seemed ok, more than ok, great in
fact.

Gina realised
that she had been brave for Gabe and for herself and for her
clients for so long that she had forgotten and lost sight of who
she actually was. Gina had taken double her medication today so she
felt like she was a bit out of it but she had a lot to be happy
about. She had to keep an eye on herself, she knew that she could
get manic as well as down and it was hard to tell sometimes, if
being ecstatically joyful was a high or just joy; real life joy of
living when things finally seemed to be going well. Or was it just
the medication kicking in? Did it matter? Did you have to have lows
in order to feel the highs, was there a payback for everything or
was possible to be happy most if not all of the time? Especially if
good things happened.

Gina had a day
full of clients, the ones she’d had to cancel yesterday wanting
next available spaces as soon as possible, on top of the people she
already had booked in today. People to help, people to feel
compassion for, people that others thought had perfect lives on the
outside who were suffering terrible things. Gina realised that she
had been doing this job every day now for years and there were
still people coming, it was a never ending well, a black hole of
broken hearts that wanted more love to heal.

Yet Gina felt
that she couldn’t talk about herself to anyone. Lately, she often
wondered if this really was the job for her, being the ear for all
this information and the shoulder for all this emotional pain.
Maybe she couldn’t take it anymore, the gift and gratitude for
being able to help people was now being outweighed. Maybe, she
thought, she was even sicker than they were. What if what she
offered never helped anyone, that however much she tried, at the
end of the day, it was always up to the individual to get
themselves better. To make the changes. Perhaps she was doing
nothing more than putting a sticky plaster on a far greater wound
that needed the person inflicted to stop the cause, the root
problem, usually the one thing that they never mentioned. Gina
needed to get away. The economies of the world had gone into free
fall and she thought that hackers were probably coming to take over
the world and she hoped that this was for a force for good. She
didn’t know anything anymore and wondered if she ever had. She
could either let that send her mad or accept that this might be
true. You could play by the rules and do all the right things and
still end up in a bad place wondering why you just didn’t follow
your heart in the first instance. Gina had dreamed of a life as
different to this one as it was possible but it wasn’t too late was
it? To go chasing dreams. Chasing rainbows. Gina was realising that
there was as much to lose by doing the right thing, as there was by
doing what your real passions were.

“Hey mum, you
look a million miles away.”

“Just day
dreaming Gabe, just dancing with my wild imagination.”

“Hmm, sounds
familiar. Sounds to me like you need to meditate.”

Gina laughed as
that was what she always said to Gabe.

Gabe knew he
had to be out of the house all day today and that it was going to
be a scorcher but he knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to take
Grace to the seaside.

As Gabe and
Grace saw the sea coming into view on the horizon, they both
whooped for joy in excitement. The sun was on fire and it lit up
the car in a white halo glow, everything felt warm and glittery.
Time slowed down and it was like everything was brand new as the
colours were so bright and vivid.

They walked
down to the beach, hand in hand like lovers. They breathed in the
salt air and noticed all the different people packing out the
seafront; the old people on deck chairs, the little kids making
sand castles and the other teenagers surfing and flirting and
drinking cans of beer. There were lots of proper drunks too, chavs
and punks, bikers and travellers, and other ‘end of the land’
people. People that ran away from their lives and got as far as
they could go, till the vast oceans were all that stopped them
going any further. The mixture of people at the shores was the mix
of hope, of dreams in fruition and of despair where dreams no
longer dwelled.

The seaside
always made Gabe nervous and excited in equal measure and being
with Grace on top of these emotions, Gabe was buzzing.

They headed for
the promenade of arcades, fish and chip shops and candy floss
decorated stalls. They stopped at the first flashing red and yellow
light bulbs that framed the huge arcades and Grace disappeared deep
into the labyrinth of the mechanical game stations and got herself
a small plastic container of 2ps from the dispensing machine,
thrilled already with the sound of money crashing down, like she
had already won something. They both felt it, that they had won
something already, the jackpot.

Gabe wanted to
go and win Grace some teddies.

“You not going
to watch me?”

“Gabe, I am not
going to watch you like some silly little girl watching her
boyfriend. Oohing and aahing.” Grace gave him a wink and turned her
attention to the flashing strobes of colourful lights and the mixed
melodies of the chiming and ringing of the addictive arcade
games.

Her boyfriend,
she had said her boyfriend. Gabe was a boyfriend, Grace’s
boyfriend. It took all Gabe’s strength not to do a little dance of
joy.

Gabe won three
teddies and ran out of change so he went to find Grace. He couldn’t
find her, she wasn’t by the 2p machines or the 10p machines or even
by the over eighteen roped off section.

Gabe looked in
the next door arcade. There was no sign of Grace, she was nowhere.
He waited outside the ladies toilets while keeping an eye on the
gents. Ten minutes passed, nothing. Gabe was staring to get a
little bit panic stricken, where the fuck had she gone? Had she
left him? Had she been taken? Had she had second thoughts and run
away, got the train home?

Gabe ran out
onto the street and was about to shout her name when he caught
sight of her on the other side of the road by the entrance to the
beach. She was talking to a group of people. Gabe strained to see
who it was and his heart sank and his stomach rose to his throat to
form a lump as he realised it was her brother. It was Nathaniel and
with him were some guys from school. And then there he was,
unmistakable. It was Alistair.

Grace didn’t
look over. She was talking to them and moving her hands around a
lot. Then Nathaniel pushed her and Grace shook her head and patted
her pockets.

Should he go
over there?
But what the fuck to do
, thought Gabe.
Get
beaten up? Get Grace into trouble? Even more trouble!

Grace turned
and caught his eye and subtly signalled to him to cross the road up
ahead. Gabe walked up the road without taking his eyes off her and
crossed, jaywalking, dodging the cars that hooted at him but he
didn’t care. Gabe was getting so pumped full of adrenalin he felt
like he could lift the bloody cars off the road.

Gabe waited by
the railings, out of sight, until Nathaniel, Alistair and the rest
left. As they walked off, Nathaniel pushed Grace on his way past
and Gabe wanted to run over and whip the little tossers arse.
Instead, he waited for Grace to walk towards him and as she got
closer he could see that she was crying.

“You ok?”

“No, not
really.”

“What did he
want?”

“Money, same
old thing. Money. They were going on about some old box or
something. I don’t know Gabe. They were looking for your
friends.”

“I am so sorry
Grace. I didn’t know what to do.”

“It’s not your
fault Gabe.”

“But I think it
might be Grace.”

As Gabe looked
over his shoulder, to make sure he could see the back of the other
group disappearing up the road, Nathaniel turned around and locked
on at Gabe looking at him. Gabe, with one arm around Grace and the
other still holding all the teddies. Nathaniel shouted something
and all the other men with him, jumped around and clocked Gabe too.
Before he knew it, they had all started running towards him and
Grace, shouting.

“Grace
run!”

The gang behind
them were catching up fast. They were faster and they far
out-numbered the two of them.

Gabe could let
go of Grace’s hand and let her run up ahead and he could stand
there and face them. He could also run quicker if he took off some
of his clothes, hell he could fly. This was one of those moments
when having the ability to fly would have come in really handy. The
one time he could have the opportunity to act like a hero. But he
wasn’t. Gabe realised that he was just going to have to get beaten
up. He was going to have to take it. Hopefully they would keep him
clothed and keep it quick. Surely, with all these people about, the
beating wouldn’t last long. Surely someone would call 999 and ask
for the police or an ambulance and it would all be over. All those
men, against just him not offering any form of self defence, it
would be all over in less than a second.

So Gabe let go
of Graces hand.

“Run Grace! Get
out of here!” Gabe stopped running and he turned around to face the
impending storm that was heading towards him.

He took a quick
estimation that there were seven or eight of them, he didn’t stand
a chance. He had no money on him, he didn’t know where his friends
were, let alone the box. He had nothing to barter with. So Gabe
just stood there tall and still and he opened his arms out wide, as
if to say, “Here I am, just do what you have to do!”

Gabe closed his
eyes and waited for the inevitable.

But nothing
happened. Gabe was thinking it had all gone a bit too quiet. Had
the onslaught been so quick and efficient that although he was
lying somewhere unconscious, his mind still thought it was
waiting?

Gabe opened his
eyes to see the threatening gang before him but at his sides were
none other than Dave, Frank and Johnny.