A/N: translations will be provided in the bottom for those who don't know Spanish. I was going to do a Percy Jackson story I promise and started it and everything but Gabe was there and I didn't know much about him so I googled him and well… his story just came to life. I don't think he was born a scum from the beginning but his environment made him like that. I had two reasons for making this a) my own entertainment and b) because I hoped I had improved in my writing enough that I gave you the feels and gave Gabe a decent sympathetic audience. This is before the wet foot and dry foot policy. Athena plays a minor role here...what else? Being a Cuban is a big deal here in south Florida because well they have a bad reputation for being evil. Im not Cuban but am constantly surrounded by them in school... some are alright others are just plain annoying but then again some americans are nice and others are mean. Don't you just love it when inspiration hits and the story just clicks.
The half-finished dinghy was the saddest thing Gabe had seen since yesterday where he had to drag his sleeping father home from the bar. He dumped him on the hard dusty floor as soon as they made it home. He wasn't cruel enough to just leave him there with the flies hovering above him. Silent as a thief or alley cat he sneaked into his parent's room and bundled up a white dirty sheet that needed to be washed into his arms. Concern suffocated him like it always did when he entered the dark room and couldn't hear breathing. Quickly he sought out his depressed mother buried under the heavy blanket and only relaxed when he saw the rising of her chest. His hand reached out for the silver bell, something he bought by stealing money from his father in case she by some miracle happened to be hungry or needed anything.
He shut the wooden door and covered his father sprawled on the floor and placed a cup of water near him just in case he woke up with a headache. Hopefully his father wouldn't be in a bad mood and take it out on him because Gabe knew no superman would come to save him. In any case he left the haunted house that held captive his drunken father and his dejected sleeping mother. He went to find his long term friend's house hoping to smoke some tobacco to ease his worries and saw him just as Ricky was leaving.
"Hoye loco donde vas?" he shouted. Ricky tensed and looked nervous for a second before he gave Gabe a friendly smile.
"A la calle tonto!" Gabe was trying to catch up and match Ricky's pace but his friend's panicked face made him falter for a second.
"Queres compania?" he asked. Ricky fidgeted and stared at Gabe's shoulder blade.
"Tengo que ser un mandado…" that was the Latino way of coming up with an excuse that didn't leave space for others to pry for more info without feeling nosy.
"Oh... y luego?"
"El dia despues de manana estoy libre . Iremos jugar football." Ricky promised and made a dash to the corner leaving Gabe alone.
Gabe was very curious about his friend's suspicious behavior and mentally noted to investigate about it tomorrow. He bought a pack of cigarettes from another one of his friends and together they smoked and played cards, snacking on sliced pieces of mango. A good afternoon overall and his father only shoved him into the wall once before completely ignoring him for the rest of the day. He made his mom a tortilla with eggs but there wasn't any salt so he put a bit of ketchup for flavor; he'd have to steal some money and go shopping later. Satisfaction ran through him when he picked up the plate later and saw it was half empty. For a second he imagined a world where his mother had enough energy to hug him or even spare him a loving glance but dismissed the idea a second later bitterly laughing underneath his breath.
Gabe went outside and made him-self comfortable on his deteriorating hammock. The stars as always were lucid vibrant, offering the world its light and was a welcoming sight. He asked them if there was an omniscient, aloof, all-powerful being out there (yes his name is Rick Riordan XD) that didn't care how miserable Gabe was; he wasn't expecting a response and he didn't get one. He heard his father leave never jaded of alcohol; his heavy departing steps were Gabe's lullaby. His eyes were closing when he thought he heard faint whispering or perhaps it was just his imagination and the wind. It whispered to him that history and life kept going and that these forces were indifferent to him, that he was a miniscule lowly life form of a person hardly capable of being defined as an individual as long as he stayed on that island.
"You have two choices: stay here and live a barely decent long but boring life or travel to New York and play a role to something bigger." It said in perfect Spanish. Gabe thought he mumbled a reply.
"Who are you?" His voice slurred, sleep was entering him.
"… Some call me fate or the universe or god or everything and nothing. I am energy and am divided into different matter. Some containers are permanent and carry a bigger quantity of me, others live and die in a blink of an eye and transform my energy into other matter. I cannot be created or destroyed. I am nobody and I am everybody. I am also you." It summed up; Gabe was too tired to ask further.
He arose at dawn and quickly made a tortilla and black beans for his mom before running to Ricky's house, the event from the night before, a dream he concluded, evaporated into thin air. He didn't know why and he couldn't explain it but he felt irresistibly compelled to follow Ricky. Ricky left his house early and made it pretty obvious he was checking nobody was outside. Gabe followed him from a distance and was on his tail even when Ricky entered the thickly green forest. He followed a trail for some time and stopped, inspecting a palm tree before turning right. Hounds of mosquitos ate at Gabe and he had to constantly duck behind a bush or a tree.
They made it to a wooden shed hidden in the woods and Ricky went in. Gabe waited for a minute or two before tip toeing inside and that's what he was looking at now; a sad poorly developed half-finished dinghy with a tire beneath it. He knew what this meant and couldn't believe it. Castro was bad and his spies and policies were bad as well but Gabe never thought of abandoning his home. Ricky stood up a second later, a tools box in his arms but dropped it and it clanged loudly on the ground when he spotted Gabe. They stood frozen there, the two friends wide-eyed.
(I'm just going to write in English translating is too much work -.-)
"Gabe what—please don't tell anybody I'll get in trouble they'll put me in prison." Ricky pleaded grasping Gabe by the shoulders.
"Of course I'm not going to tell anybody but are you crazy!"
"There's this place near Cuba called Florida a state in the United States. We're going there it's only a few miles away." Gabe shook his head astonished.
"This is insane." He kept repeating but something ate at him, he felt he had to go. He heard the U.S was the land of the free and dreams. Here he was burdened by his family and poverty. "Let me go with you." He said. Ricky only blinked confused.
"What?" thinking he had misheard.
"I'm going with you." Ricky understood now. If he said no Gabe might go tell someone.
"Fine okay are you sure? It's going to be cramped."
"Yeah I'm sure." Ricky told his uncle when he came and his uncle cursed loudly but didn't harm Gabe but told him to be ready in a moment's notice. Days passed with the same old pattern: cook for his mom, clean and shop, go to school, help out Ricky and his uncle. So many days passed when they finished that it was more like a fun little project for Gabe. That's why when Ricky broke into his house in the dead of the night and vigorously shook him awake Gabe felt unprepared.
"Get up and hurry." Gabe's heart has never gone so fast. Like ninjas they hid in dark corners avoiding people and cars. They didn't go right went they reached the tree Ricky kept on going straight. Gabe didn't have a chance to say goodbye but he doubted his mom would respond anyways. He could hear the beach now and on the shore was the dinghy and Ricky's uncle muttering about how Castro's spies found out, a woman holding a baby saying she needed food for her baby and how long they would be in sea and a young man probably in his late teens with his arms around her.
"Who are they?" he whispered to Ricky.
"They're my uncle's friend. They gave him money to join us and he's expecting you to pay him back once we reach Miami… if we reach Miami." Ricky muttered.
They left as soon as Ricky's uncle saw him and it was a tight fit but they managed. They pedaled furiously to reach open sea and Ricky's uncle gripped tightly the compass and map. Worried faces were plastered on all of them but also determined faces ready to take up the challenge for the new world they sacrificed their old worlds for; a new beginning.
It felt like weeks they've been stuck on this little refuge boat. The sun glared relentlessly and the ocean waves would jump into their cramped boat and make them panic. They were all cracked, starving and dehydrated. The cries of the baby only made Gabe and Ricky's uncle petulant. Another day passed and the baby was silent but alive. Gabe prayed that no storm would hit them and that they were going the right direction. Poseidon must've been in a real bad mood because instead of favorable winds they got a shark.
Nobody noticed at first the murky figure approaching them until a splash was heard and a sharp cry. Gabe couldn't believe it when Ricky arm was torn right off and he fell into the water. Gabe was moving to him before his shocked uncle could and his arms went under trying to grab him. A small pool of red formed where his arms were searching and he felt hair. He dug his fingers into it and then grabbed Ricky's ears and chin. He prayed to himself that he wouldn't pull only a head. He didn't and Ricky gasped in air eyes' searching dumbly everywhere for help but Gabe couldn't pull him out by himself Ricky was too heavy. Ricky uncle came to the rescue grabbing his clothes and together they pulled him inside the boat. Ricky's uncle removed his shirt and tied it to Ricky's missing limb. The shark was still circling them.
Gabe couldn't believe it even if he saw it happen twice but Ricky's uncle ripped the woman's baby from her and threw it at the shark. She screamed and the boy held her tightly glaring at Ricky's uncle with murder in his eyes. He glared right back. Gabe gaped in horror and Ricky was unconscious and bleeding. Nobody slept that night.
Changing P.O.V to Athena and Nike
"I wish we were here to enjoy the view." Athena sighed.
"We could have been doing that a long time ago if you hadn't forgotten where the fountain of youth was." Nike said smiling at the irony.
"Maybe the fountain of youth shouldn't randomly pop to different places every century and Poseidon shouldn't expect me to remember where all the important magical water related places are." Athena said back, "I mean he's the king of the dang ocean not me." Nike had stopped and held her arm out making Athena stop as well. "What?"
"Do you see that?" Nike said squinting at the horizon. Athena saw a dot but focused her enhanced sight a bit more and realized it was a boat.
"Refuges from Cuba." Athena said and Nike nodded summoning her phone.
"Better call the national coast guard."
"Yeah." Athena said agreeing with her and using her power made a powerful wave push the little boat to the shore faster.
"Ever have a Latino kid?" Nike asked.
"No, they're not my type; Hispanics are more interested in work than education." She was the ex-goddess of wisdom not the goddess of physical labor.
There were three adults and once they made it near enough they jumped out and pushed the boat to the sand. Athena and Nike saw a bleeding sleeping boy and another the same age about 12 sitting in a crashed position. Nike told the guard to bring an ambulance as well. Civilian mortals saw the commotion and ran to the boat.
"Hey are you okay?" Athena asked Gabe in Spanish. Gabe only takes a look at his friend and his eyes fills with tears.
"It's okay, you're safe now; nobody's going to hurt you, you're free." Nike's words reach Gabe's heart and he nods, even as he hears the rude comments of the approaching American citizens.
"Ah, more Cubans; Soon enough masses of fleets of reffs will come and take all our jobs!"
"They're good for nothing lazy, obnoxious, lying thieves who sue for every little thing."
"The government should do something! They shouldn't just let them come."
"This boy is bleeding so why don't you all shut up and help." Nike snaps at them narrowing her reddish brown eyes and to the mortals she seemed to grow ten ft. taller. Athena holds her back.
"They're not Americans but they are human beings like you guys and they have been living under dictatorship. Why don't you guys do, not what's the American thing to do but the right thing to do and help." The people were speechless and blushing in shame. The national guard got there and the ambulance and started checking them.
"What's your name?" someone asked Gabe.
"Gabe… Gabe Ugliano." Someone in the back laughed and they all stared at him to see if he was serious... he was.
"Your joking right? Your name is ugly?" someone said in english. Gabe had no idea what they said but guessed it wasn't anything good by the way Athena and Nike glared at the one who spoke.
"These people will take care of you and your friend don't worry." Nike said before she and Athena left.
"Hoye loco donde vas?"- hey crazy where you heading?
"A la calle tonto!"- to the streets idiot!
"Queres compania?"- want some company?
Tengo que ser un mandado- i have an errand to make
Oh... y luego?- oh and later?
El dia despues de manana estoy libre . Iremos jugar football.- Im free the day after tomorrow. we can go play soccer.
A/N: Liked it? Hated it? If you liked it please tell me how I can improve my writing. If you have someone you want me to write about tell me or I'll just do whatever. I already have Percy's story finished and will post it next Wednesday or Thursday...maybe, I don't really like it that much so I'll probably get hit by some other pjo character unless someone wants me to do their character. Sorry for any errors and if you hated it orz. Shout out to the Truth from fma brotherhood. oh and your supposed to say disclaimer right? I own nothing except my broken sad attempt of cuban slang orz. Im actually pleased at this one and hope you like it.
