Born Different (31 page)

“Yes, agreed.
Her mother is a monster!” said Grace’s father like he had a bad
taste in his mouth.

“Shut up for a
minute! How can
you
call anyone else a monster let alone the
mother of your own children? They are ill and it looks like you are
not making them any better, which you don’t even so much as have a
shimmer of guilt about. What does that make you? You are the
monster, worse than a wild animal. You do not even possess the
basic animal instinct to protect your own family, quite the
opposite in fact!”

“I’m assuming
you haven’t seen my house then. No wild animal could make something
like that boy.” Grace’s father’s face was now puce to purple with
anger and alcohol abuse.

“You could have
all the money in the world and you still wouldn’t care. All the
things you say you want for Grace but the way you act, the way you
treat her, how is she supposed to even stand a chance of getting
anywhere? You show no respect to her. Do you want her bruised and
beaten up, what is that all about? Hitting a woman, hitting your
own beautiful daughter! One thing is for sure, that is not love!
That is not good parenting. You may be top of the pyramid for
business, you may have satisfied the Gods of power and money, but
you failed in all the places that really matter. Failed. Being a
decent human being, being a decent caring husband, being a loving
father!”

Gabe felt now
like he had said what he had wanted to say. He felt the release of
the anger by expressing his truth. He was calm now, surprisingly
calm. There was only one thing left to say and Gabe was surprised
with himself for feeling compassion for this man.

“Do you not, in
moments of peace or in your dreams, want true love? Do you want
that? Do you actually want the things that money cannot buy? How
much do you have if you take away all the money? Who would still be
stood there holding your hand and loving you then? You know nothing
of things that make you feel it’s good to be alive somewhere so
deep down inside of you that you feel blessed.” Gabe was finished
now. He looked Grace’s father in the eye and saw him for what he
was, a confused power hungry little man.

Grace and
Nathaniel looked at their father, adult children with tear stained
faces.

Grace’s father
bowed his head, as if in shame. As if he knew the truth. It was, in
a way, a relief. He had been living a lie, he had started something
that had given him power, esteem, respect and it had got out of
control. He saw the faces of his wife and children and he
remembered what it had been like, in the old days. Before the
success, before the money; another lifetime ago when it was just
them, the four of them against the rest of the world.

The innocence
in his children’s eyes had now been replaced with a deep agonising
pain and for the first time, he recognised a small glimmer of the
responsibility that was his. He had come close to seeing it before
but he had thought that he would have had an immediate breakdown if
he had admitted it to himself. That if he even so much as gave a
thought to where he might be at fault that the flood gates would
open. Grace’s father felt like he had lost control and that had
always been his greatest fear. But when it came down to it, it was
a relief. A huge relief.

Gabe, who had
always bitten his tongue and kept his ideas and opinions to
himself, saw that sometimes you had to say something; to defend
yourself, to defend your family, your loved ones. He had done it
and Grace’s father had not killed him. He was not thrown out of the
hospital. He had not been struck by lightning. If anything, Gabe
felt that much better about himself. In respecting himself, his mum
and his girlfriend, his true inner self-respect had grown.

Something
changed in that room that night, something clicked, something was
revealed that had been hidden before. Looking back, it was a night
of crossroads and paths were chosen and made. It was a day and
night of awakening.

Gina told
everyone that came to the house that Gabe, ‘The Man with Wings’,
was out of town after the furore of the day before.

“What are you
going to do Gabe? It doesn’t look like people are going to give up
interest in a hurry.”

“I’m still
thinking about it. Grace texted me to say she is feeling better,
she wants to get out of the hospital.”

“Today? Is that
alright? Well you know what I think about hospitals Gabe but the
medical profession do a have their place.”

“We need to get
away mum.”

Word had spread
about The Exhibition and Gabe and the small matter of him having
wings. It was the talk of the city. Everyone who bumped into anyone
else let them know what they knew about ‘The Man with Wings’.
Neighbours that didn’t even like or know each other even mentioned
it. Someone was knocking on their front door every couple of
minutes and their phones didn’t stop ringing.

Gina could see
that Gabe was itching to get to Grace but they were trapped in the
house by everyone who had decided to turn up on the off chance of
getting a glimpse of the wings.

“Hang on a
minute love, I’ve got a plan.” Gina went to the front door and
shouted over at the growing gathering. They momentarily stopped,
like statues, with the door they had been waiting to open all
morning, finally actually opening.

“Just had
message from Gabriel, he’s back at the school and they’re doing a
re-filming of The Exhibition, for Sky TV or something. He’s there
now!”

The crowd
rapidly dispersed.

“Thanks mum,
you really are the best. You know, today feels like a good day for
flying.” Gabe kissed his mum on the cheek and held her tight before
disappearing out of the back door.

Gina’s phone
went off again but this time she didn’t ignore it. It was a text,
from Gabe’s father, she had seen him at The Exhibition. Gina
replied and told him what she thought she knew, she thought that it
was the right thing to do. He had abandoned her but she understood
better than anyone how that may have seemed like the only option.
She forgave him. She was so proud of Gabe, she couldn’t hate the
man who she had adored so much anymore and besides, Gina needed a
lift and she hoped that Cassiel still had that motorbike.

As they drove
up into the moors and headed towards the coast, Gabe realised that
they were being followed. First by a scooter or two, then by a few
cars and then by people carriers, vans and 4x4’s carrying half a
dozen people. Not one car over took them, they all stayed back,
behind their car. They were definitely being followed, en mass.

Gabe had told
his friends and his mum of their intentions. Grace had told her mum
and dad and Nathaniel; the rest had heard through rumour, gossip
and here say.

Word had got
around. It had spread around the kids that they had been at school
with and everyone that they knew. Around the pubs, clubs, shops and
streets of houses of the city and beyond. And in a flash, it was as
if everyone knew and everyone wanted to go and see. So people came
from all over packed in to cars, camper vans, on mopeds and on
motorbikes. Some people packed tents and gas stoves and sleeping
bags. Some hitched and some waited for the rare buses. It was as if
almost everyone in the city was now heading out towards the sea, on
what was the most glorious sunny day.

Gabe and Grace
had reached their special place and they stood at the top of the
cliff, holding hands. They looked out towards the distance, to the
horizon to where the sea met the sky. They looked all around
themselves at the beauty and wonders of Mother Nature. The sea
below was rough and angry, the wind snapped around them, yet they
felt so calm. Like standing in the eye of the storm.

They looked at
each other from time to time and they smiled through their tears.
Tears of joy and of pain released. But mostly, they let the
elements and their thoughts hit their bodies and minds relentlessly
until they could no longer feel or think of anything anymore.

It was just the
two of them together in this world, alive and living, in love and
free to be themselves. The past was gone and the future was going
to have to be brighter, but all they had was this moment, the
present. Stood here together there was nowhere else that they would
rather be. For the world and life, in all its miracle and
wonderment, for all the human kindness and compassion, they seemed
to have come up against so many difficulties, so many harsh people,
so much judgement and unfairness and struggle, that it had seemed
like there was no way out.

They must have
been standing there for about an hour but it felt like a life time
and Grace was getting tired now. She couldn’t cry anymore, she
still felt weak and she just wanted to get on with it now, just do
it. End what they had started, so that they could start all over
again, afresh.

Grace let
herself drink up the last feelings and thoughts of everything that
had happened for the last time and she gave Gabe’s hand a squeeze.
She was ready.

Gabe looked at
Grace. He knew it was time too.

“You sure you
want to do this?” Grace spoke through the wind.

“I am as sure
as I have ever been sure about anything in my whole life. Without
you I am nothing. Without you I am nothing at all.”

Gabe and Grace
turned around and they looked behind, to where there seemed to be
hundreds of people standing, watching and waiting and still
gathering. Everyone that had felt compelled to come had come and
they were still coming from far and wide, to see with their own
eyes ‘The Man with Wings’.

Gabe and
Grace’s family members and friends had made it to the front of the
crowd and were ordering the others back as they encroached on the
couple standing now on the very edge of the steep cliff.

Frank, Dave and
Johnny sensing that Gabe was looking at them turned and held up
their left arms and made fists in the air, showing their tattoos
etched on to their wrists. The eye above lll inscribed on them
forever so that they would never forget. The tattoo that would
always be there to remind them, remind them of what they needed
reminding about, the only things that really mattered. This simple
act filled Gabe up with even more strength and conviction.

Gina was there
too and she had faith, she had faith in Gabe. She had often
wondered how it would all end for Gabe. How he would ever cope or
simply survive in this world? The pains he might suffer and what if
the worse were to happen? She had imagined in a million different
ways losing him but Gina had never imagined this. She knew now that
there was nothing more that she could do. She had to let him go. It
was time.

Gabe and Grace
now turned from the growing crowd of people they knew and plenty
more that they did not and they looked out from the cliff’s edge,
where they were standing, back out towards the far distant horizon.
Out to the vast sea, to the future, to the unknown.

They had been
pushed to the edge and now there was no other choice. Gabe saw
himself as Grace saw him, she had given him back himself. The self
he had always wanted and dreamed of being, just himself. He
believed now that life was full of possibilities. Infinite
possibilities. That you couldn’t hide away forever, not without
wilting and getting undernourished emotionally, physically,
mentally and spiritually.

With the sun
burning down on him, Gabe felt like he understood. He had to go
towards the light. He had made it there, to the end of the
tunnel.

“Gabe!” Gabe
turned to look at Grace and he stroked her hand one last time and
she opened her eyes wide and she mouthed the words to Gabe that she
had always wanted to but had not uttered out loud to anyone since
she was a child because she had lost all faith in them. The words
that Gabe feared he would never hear Grace say because they would
never be true.

“I love
you.”

“I LOVE YOU!”
Grace shouted so loudly that even the crowd heard.

“I love you
Gabe. I loved you that first night, you know that. I didn’t have to
tell you.”

Gabe and Grace
kept holding hands until the very last second and Gabe wanted to
just shut his eyes tight and not look but he didn’t, he knew that
he has to face his fears wide eyed. He had to right some wrongs,
here and now. He had to show them all.

He led Grace
back from the edge and he let go of her hand and kissed her face.
But as he turned his back on them all, Gabe felt his throat begin
to constrict as his lungs stalled. Even at the end, fear had come
to stop him.

Looking out to
the vast space of sky, Gabe faced his fears and took two fast
strides towards the very edge of the cliff and he jumped.

Gabe jumped
high up into the air, towards the sun and into the light, he spread
his arms and his wings out wide and he tensed every muscle in his
body and then, Gabe descended, out of sight of all the onlookers,
sharply down towards the water.

Everyone who
was watching from the safety of the rock solid ground, gasped in
shock and horror at what they had just witnessed. Every one of them
had their entire lives flash before their eyes as it hit them what
this man has just done; the obvious consequences. For a split
second, they all felt consumed by guilt as their weaknesses were
revealed to them. Their own cruelty. What had they done chasing a
young man up here? A young man who was so in love with this girl,
and she him. They had seen him with his wings and they had said bad
things but really, they realised, the wings had been really, really
beautiful. If anything, they had been jealous and worse. They saw
their own ugliness and then, their very own beauty. From the solid
footing they had on the soil of the earth, they all felt their
mortality and it felt like a gift to be just here and alive. The
potential presence of death so near had shook them to realise that
they were
alive. Really alive.
And it was a revelation. Like
an awakening from a long and deep slumber.