Born Different Read Online Free PDF Page A

spots.
    When Gabe was
finally content that he was completely, utterly and totally hidden,
only then did he feel safe enough to open up the curtains and tilt
the blinds to let in some light and reveal the new day.
    Gabe peered
through the gap in one of the slats so that he could see out to the
grey skies and beyond. Everything was still wet with the tail end
of last night’s storm that was still pissing it down; puddles of
water covered every surface and there was not an inch of sun in
sight. And Gabe thought that only he could gleam a little delight
out of this depressing scene of summer.
    Everyone else
was always hoping for sun and warmth so that they could throw their
clothes off and walk around half naked. One day, Gabe thought, he
would like a tan and be able to throw his clothes off with the same
carefree abandon like everyone else did. Without a care in the
world, walking around enjoying the good weather. It was all anyone
ever seemed to go on about. Sunny days, beach holidays, suntans,
nice sunny weather. It drove Gabe mad but at the same time he would
have given anything to do the simple things that most other people
took for granted.
    Gabe was so
often forced to go against the grain of what everyone else thought
was acceptable or enjoyable to do and not because he always wanted
to, even though that is what everyone else had to presume and
think. Gabe believed he couldn’t be more damned if he tried.
    Out in the
pouring rain it was a day like any other. Grid lock traffic, people
busy getting from A to B, living out their routines, their lives.
Day after day. The red brick houses topped with grey slated roofs
lined up, one after another. The cars, sat bumper to bumper,
belching out further plumes of grey. In all of its chaos, it looked
static. Day in day out, it looked as if nothing ever really
changed.
    Looking out of
the window, Gabe always had the urge to jump, to fly. If only he
could rip off his bandages and open his bedroom window and just fly
straight out, he thought. Give today a miss and just fly up high
above all this instead and see it all for what it really was,
insignificant in the grand scheme of things or all so vitally
important? He wasn’t sure.
    But Gabe
couldn’t fly, even if he wanted to. His wings were too weak. Gabe
was certain that if he just pulled up the blinds, opened the
window, stood on the ledge and jumped now, he would only go
straight down and hit the ground hard. Possibly breaking both his
legs and destroying his mum’s flowers in the process and no doubt
causing her to worry that he had finally lost the plot.
    But that didn’t
stop him wanting! Gabe really, really, just wanted to soar
up into the sky and be free. He wanted to glide around for a bit in
the space where there were no other humans, no shops, no cars, no
school, no exams. No money so therefore no lack of it. No stress
and hassle and pressure. Just the sky and limitless possibilities.
The sky, Gabe thought as he looked at the black clouds rolling
away, was the greatest canvas of them all. Ever changing, never the
same sky twice. The gateway that led on to the rest of the
universe, to far further than Gabe could possibly imagine and even
when he tried to imagine how far infinity might be, it blew his
mind away.
    And somewhere
inside him, even if he didn’t hear it, there was a knowing, deeper
whisper that left him yearning. It was telling him what he knew but
daren’t acknowledge; that he could be there, should be there even.
But he wasn’t!
    Gabe didn’t
much like his current reality. He seemed to be living in the wrong
one. One where he didn’t fit. He was square peg in a school of
round holes. He knew it was all a miracle; The Big Bang, The Solar
System, The World, Evolution, life and being born, being conscious.
From the centre of the earth to the very edge of the universe and
everything in between, Gabe thought was a miracle. He wanted to
know the answers to it all and try and figure some of it out. But
it blew