Child of the Gryphon

by David Lugsden

  ‘G-g-growths...? Oh God. Is it...? I mean, do you think it’s... is it... I mean, will he...?’ Nancy stammered, tears blurring her vision.

  ‘Please, Mrs Millar, I don’t want you to panic. An x-ray has revealed that these “growths” are actually formed from bone. The symmetry of them really is quite astonishing however. Why, if I weren’t a medical professional I’d almost be tempted to say that they look like the beginnings of- well, never mind. The point is-’

  Alan interrupted, ‘Sorry, Doctor, but the beginnings of what?’

  ‘Well...’ Doctor Warner hesitated, ‘well, one might believe that they are the beginnings of a pair of wings... but obviously that is utterly preposterous!’

  ‘Wings...?’ Nancy said half disbelievingly, half relieved, ‘You mean like... an angel? Oh, Alan! Our little Gabriel really is a gift from the heavens!’

  ‘Mrs Millar, if I may continue? As I was trying to say, whilst these growths appear in no way harmful to your son, you can appreciate that with the peculiar circumstances surrounding Gabriel’s arrival at the hospital, we would like to continue to monitor his condition. We are simply taking precautions at this time that’s all. In the meantime, we have the hospital’s top orthopaedists on the case and will keep you updated on our progress. Obviously being so young, we are hesitant to undergo any notions of surgery on him just yet, but believe that in a few months Gabriel should be fit and healthy enough to have the growths removed with no adverse side effects.’

  ‘So, when can we take him home?’ Alan asked.

  ‘Well, we would like you to bring him in for regular check-ups, but these growths aside, overall Gabriel’s health appears to be fine. From a medical point of view, we see no reason as to why you shouldn’t be able to take Gabriel home today. If you would like to take my card, don’t hesitate to call me day or night should you have any further questions or concerns.’

  ‘Really? We can? Oh, thank you so much Doctor Warner!’ Alan and Nancy exclaimed, overcome with delight.

  ‘Just a moment,’ Mrs. Hansen spoke up for the first time.

  ‘Y-y-yes?’ Alan and Nancy said.

  ‘There are a few things we need to go over in terms of your adoption of Gabriel, before things proceed any further.’

  ‘Absolutely,’ Alan said. ‘We will do whatever is needed.’

  ‘I am sure you would,’ Mrs. Hansen replied, ‘however, as Doctor Warner has touched upon, and as I mentioned to your wife over the phone, Gabriel’s case is rather unique.’

  ‘In what way?’ Alan asked.

  Mrs. Hansen paused for a moment and looked around the room, as though searching for the right words. ‘What I am about to tell you cannot leave the security of this office. Is that clear?’

  Alan and Nancy nodded.

  ‘In all my years I can honestly say I’ve never seen another case like it. I’ve heard of difficult cases before from colleagues around the country, but this is something else entirely. We’re not quite sure what happened to the boy’s biological mother, but Doctor Warner has informed me that she was in a terrible state when she arrived at the hospital.’

  Nancy welled up with tears again.

  Mrs. Hansen continued, ‘Unfortunately she passed away before her identity could be ascertained.’

  ‘Indeed,’ Doctor Warner added, ‘and there appears to be no record of her whatsoever, be it medical or otherwise. The same is true of Gabriel.’

  ‘How can that be?’ Nancy asked.

  ‘We have no idea,’ Mrs. Hansen said. ‘That is what adds to the mystery of this whole situation. Officially neither the boy nor his mother even exist! Obviously we need to rectify that in order for Gabriel to have any sort of future. However, after much discussion with Doctor Warner, we believe it best that for his own safety and wellbeing, Gabriel grows up believing that he is your child.’

  ‘Well, of course he will be-’

  ‘No,’ Mrs. Hansen interrupted, ‘I mean, he should grow up believing that he is your biological son.’

  ‘You want us to lie to our own child?’ Alan said.

  ‘Mr Millar, I realise that this is a big responsibility and I will completely understand if you do not want to be a part of it. In order to protect Gabriel, for the rest of your lives you will not only have to uphold this pretence with him, but with everyone else around you.’

  ‘Is this even legal?’ Alan said.

  ‘Honestly? No, it is not. Although as parents in normal situations, it is your own prerogative to inform your adopted child whether or not they are adopted. That is not an option here. In the case of Doctor Warner and I, what we must partake in, in forging Gabriel’s paperwork, is not legal in the slightest. If either of us were to be discovered, at best it would mean a swift end to our careers.’

  Doctor Warner nodded solemnly.

  Mrs. Hansen said, ‘With all of this in mind, are you still willing to take on the responsibility of raising this child?’

  Alan and Nancy turned to look at one another, already knowing the answer.

  ‘We will do whatever it takes,’ Alan said.

  CHAPTER TWO

  AN UNWELCOME OBSERVER

  Almost fourteen years had passed since the Millars took Gabriel home from the hospital and how their lives had changed since that day. True to his word, Alan Millar quit his job of nearly ten years at Colossal Incorporated and had been carrying out freelance work throughout Upper Blessingford ever since. As it was such a small community, everyone knew the goings-on of everyone else and so Alan never struggled to find work as people knew they could trust him. Upholding their secret in such a tightknit community had been another matter entirely.

  Nancy had immediately resigned from her job as head nurse and had gone virtually into hiding for the next several months, claiming a challenging pregnancy was the cause. They both hated having to lie to their friends, but knew that it was best for the protection of their son.

  From the very start Alan and Nancy worshipped their son and their home at number seven Rosewood Close had become a virtual shrine to him. Every room was adorned with pictures of Gabriel throughout his childhood. Upon seeing such a home, one could be fooled into thinking that this was the dwelling of a most spoiled child indeed, far from it, however. Although his parents doted on him, they set in place strict rules and boundaries for him to adhere to.

  Despite repeated tests, doctors and orthopaedists alike had failed to diagnose Gabriel’s condition and deduce its cause. It had finally been declared a rare birth abnormality and referred to as such ever since. True to his word, four months after being released from the hospital, Doctor Warner had re-admitted baby Gabriel for surgery and his wings were clipped, so to speak. Despite their lack of understanding of the condition, his surgeons had successfully removed both bone growths and after several more months of monitoring his progress, had finally fully discharged him from their care. All that now remained were two small, identical scars across each of his shoulder blades.

  Nevertheless, as a young child, Gabriel had been a meek and sickly boy, falling victim to every common illness and virus that one could name. Even common colds would hit him hard and he would fall dreadfully ill because of them. His poor health was even reflected in his outwardly appearance, his mousy brown hair flopped limply over his face. His grey eyes looked terribly melancholic and at times almost lifeless. Doctors attributed his poor immunity to his condition, although were baffled as to just how and why bone growths could have had any effect on his body’s natural defences.

  However as Gabriel aged, he had grown stronger and stronger and bigger and bigger. In the last year or so Gabriel had grown almost a full twelve inches in height. He had almost doubled in muscular size and was showing no signs of slowing down. His previously flaccid mop of hair had become a lustrous, golden-brown mane. Even his eyes had changed colour to a vivid amber. This astounding growth spurt as much as it astonished Gabriel’s physicians and parents (Alan Millar would often jokingly moan that he would go bankrupt through forever having
to buy Gabriel new clothes) had also not gone unnoticed by his peers.

  Gabriel attended the local secondary school, Upper Blessingford Comprehensive School with most other boys and girls his own age from the village. As is the case with every school, most students were pleasant enough and went about their own business. Unfortunately there was a small band of students that lived to cause trouble and make the lives of everyone else around them as miserable as possible. It was these same individuals that used Gabriel’s growth spurt as ammunition for their hounding of him. In addition to calling Gabriel derogatory nicknames and hurling insults directly at him, the bullies derived just as sick a pleasure from spreading a series of hurtful rumours about him. These insults and rumours hinted at a variety of reasons for Gabriel’s dramatic increase in size, ranging from plastic surgery to muscle-enhancing drugs and everything in between.

  Luckily for Gabriel, although he was never one of the most popular kids, he had made two very good friends during his first year at school, Ashley Evans and Jessica Banks. The trio were as close as friends could be, looking out for each other and defending each other whenever the situation arose.

  Every weekday morning Gabriel would leave the house, to find Ashley waiting patiently at the end of the driveway, sat on the garden wall swinging his scrawny legs back and forth. Ashley’s appearance was always a touchy subject with him. Quite short for his age, his face was so densely covered with freckles that he appeared to have a blotchy and uneven, all-year-round suntan. His dishevelled, strawberry blonde hair did little to compliment his looks either and only added to the taunts directed at him by the school bullies. This was one of the reasons why Ashley enjoyed so much to be outside. Here he was at his happiest and couldn’t have been more contented had he been a million miles away from school. Even on rainy days, there he would perch under an umbrella, sat on his school bag to protect his school trousers from the damp garden wall, his waterproof jacket wrapped tightly around him. In the early days of their friendship Gabriel had told Ashley it was perfectly fine to come inside and wait for him, but had long since given up; he knew that Ashley instead preferred to cherish every moment he could outside before being imprisoned inside a stuffy classroom.

  From there the two boys would walk around the corner and stop at number twenty-two Kettering Avenue to call for Jessica. As they arrived Jessica would be in a frantic dash around the house trying to find her misplaced schoolbooks that she would need for the day. Jessica, the boys knew, was one of the most scatter-brained people imaginable, constantly misplacing and losing things, but she somehow always found them again just in the nick of time. How such a disorganised person could then perform so well in school was a complete mystery to them.

  By Wednesday morning of each week, the three friends’ spirits had begun to lift, the drudgery of Monday was awful and with the whole week facing them, the weekend couldn’t be further away. Tuesday was almost as bad as Monday, but Wednesday offered hope: by the end of the day they would be more than halfway through the week.

  And so it was one Wednesday morning in early June, the children were walking to school as usual. The morning sun was already high in the sky and feeling warm, a reminder that summer had arrived and the holidays were now only a few weeks away. This was the best time to be at school, most of the teachers had already begun switching into holiday mode. It was at this time of year when the most school trips took place, the end-of-year exams had finished the week before, so now less homework was given out and even lesson time felt a lot more relaxed than usual. For possibly the only time during the entire school year, it was fun to be a student.

  As they wove their way through the maze of streets that made up the housing estate they all lived on, Jessica was hurriedly finishing tying back her long, wavy, auburn hair. Ashley gazed around, inhaling deeply the many a sweet perfume flooding from the gardens that were in full bloom, as though he had never before seen or smelt anything quite so delightful. Gabriel too, was sauntering along, staring at nothing in particular when suddenly out of the corner of his eye he noticed something.

  It was gone in an instant and made him doubt whether he had seen anything at all, or whether his eyes had been playing tricks on him. But no, there had definitely been something, hadn’t there? It had been peeping out from behind the old, knobbly oak tree they had just passed on the other side of the road. What had it been? Gabriel was sure he had definitely seen a face, a human face... but then not quite human at the same time. How could that be? If it had been a person it would have to have been an incredibly small person. Smaller even than the world’s smallest man, what was his name again? – right now that doesn’t matter, Gabriel thought. That person, if it really had been a person, could have been no more than perhaps a foot in height? Was that even possible?

  Ashley and Jessica had walked on a few paces before realising Gabriel had stopped and was staring intently at the old tree.

  ‘Are you OK?’ called Ashley, breaking Gabriel’s concentration.

  ‘Did you see...? I mean, I thought I saw something,’ Gabriel uttered, still looking back at the trunk of the tree.

  ‘I didn’t see anything. What do you think you saw?’ Jessica asked.

  ‘I don’t know... it was like... a face, a really small face.’

  ‘What, you mean like a kid’s face?’ Jessica said.

  ‘No. No, it was more like, an elf, or a fairy – that kind of size.’

  ‘A fairy? You been sniffing your dad’s paint or somethin’ mate?’ Ashley teased.

  ‘Very funny. I didn’t say it was a fairy just that it fairy-sized!’ Gabriel said.

  ‘See a lot of fairies to know about stuff like that, do you?’

  ‘Oh shut up, Ash. Gabe it was probably just a squirrel or something and your mind was playing tricks on you,’ Jessica said.

  ‘For crying out loud! I didn’t say I saw a fairy! I know they don’t exist! I’m not mental! Look, let’s just forget it and get to school before Walters kills us.’

  Mr Walters was their form teacher at school and though he was quite a well-liked teacher within the school, it was a well-known fact that he drew a tough line when it came to tardiness. Even arriving a second after the bell had sounded resulted in a break time detention in which students would have to perform some arduous cleaning task of his classroom. This form of punishment had been so effective that many of the other teachers in the school had adopted the same tactic as well. The three friends picked up their pace so as not to be late. However, all the way to school Gabriel could not shake the idea that he had seen something and on several occasions even looked back over his shoulder in the hope of catching another glimpse of whatever it had been. Maybe, he thought, whatever it was had been looking at them and that was why it had vanished so quickly when he spotted it. Maybe it was now following them to school and it was just a case of glancing back at the right moment to get a better look at it...

  He looked again.

  Nothing.

  For the rest of way to school Gabriel didn’t even catch the remotest glimpse of anything that may have been watching or following them. By the time they had registered with Mr Walters and made their way to Maths, he had forgotten all about it.

  The remainder of day plodded along slowly. The warm summer sun beating down through the classroom windows made it very difficult for Gabriel and Ashley to concentrate. It was such a glorious day outside it was a travesty that they were shut up in stifling classrooms all day long. After all, the end-of-year exams had finished! Was there really any point in them even being there? In the boys’ view, the school should close for summer immediately after pencils had been set down at the end of the last exam. It wasn’t like what they were learning was of any use to them anyway. Who really needed to know about Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution, or that Christopher Columbus and his crew had claimed to see mermaids on their voyage to the New World. And why was it called a “new” world anyway? Had they travelled to a different planet or something? Surely that just
meant it was a new part of the same old world!

  That night Gabriel lay in bed, slowly drifting off to sleep, his mind replaying thoughts of new worlds, of fairies, mermaids and other strange creatures of myth and legend. Before he knew it, he was in the midst of an incredibly vivid dream. He found himself in a strange landscape with his friends. Except they weren’t his friends. Ashley and Jessica were nowhere to be seen. In fact, as he looked around he didn’t recognise anyone he was with, and yet he felt a strange affinity with them all. Suddenly like a startled Colony of birds, everyone around him leapt into the air and, with wings protruding out of the backs of their shoulders (that Gabriel had not noticed until that point) began to fly off into the distance. Several of his “friends” paused and beckoned to him to follow but he remained firmly rooted to the ground. He turned his head to figure out why his wings were refusing to obey his commands but instead of a pair of majestic, powerful wings saw only two identical scars cut into the backs of his shoulders. He turned back to call out for help and sat bolt upright in bed.

  The sun was streaming through the gap in the curtains. Downstairs he could hear his mother calling to him that breakfast was ready. He smelt the deliciously sweet scent of buttered toast and raspberry jam wafting up into his bedroom. Quickly Gabriel jumped out of bed, threw on some clothes and headed downstairs.

  ***

  Almost two weeks passed and in that time thoughts of fairies and other such nonsense had long since slipped out of Gabriel’s mind. The summer holidays were rapidly drawing nearer and the school had begun it’s preparations for the end of year Summer Fête which was held annually in mid-July. It was a huge event with school-organised fairground games and activities such as treasure hunts across the school grounds. There were also raffles, a tombola and a car-boot sale with parents and teachers alike selling their unwanted belongings. Every year the same people took part in the car-boot sale, arriving early to claim the same spot of the school field that they had done for the past several years. It seemed to Gabriel that these same people spent all year stocking up on things they didn’t want in order to sell them on again once summer rolled round. Each year the town mayor would open the Fête and after the school bands had performed, the village brass band would then play out the rest of the day. The day was one of the main highlights of the year in Upper Blessingford and students, parents and villagers alike would attend, sometimes simply to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the festivities.