 Gabriel Orion
Currently unhoused
Gabriel hadn't slept that night, he had spent some time talking to Norah about everything that was happening, and the rest of the night he had stayed up with Max, who was beginning to get sick, which he hated to see but he knew it was a part of growing up. Running his hand through his son's hair, he watched as he had finally gotten to sleep not too long ago, and he was hoping that he would be able to sleep through the rest of the morning, only because the child needed his sleep. Letting out a sigh, he stood up and walked out of the room and headed towards the living room, only to walk through it and go into the laundry room, switching what was in the washer and tossing it into the dryer. Once that was finished he plopped down on the couch and ran his hands over his eyes, letting out a deep breath he looked at the wall opposite him. It had been a long time since he was able to be his old self, the boy who wandered around sleeping in parks in Seattle for four months before he found an apartment to stay in and a job at a local tattoo parlor, those days were long gone now. Looking over at his computer, he stood up and walked into the kitchen, grabbing a cup of coffee before he sat down, deciding that maybe it was a good time for reflection over the years that he has lived, it had been nine years since those days in Seattle, and the man who was here now was not the boy that was there....
The Los Angeles Journals
December 2nd, 2007
It's about four thirty in the morning and I can't sleep, mostly because Max couldn't sleep either, he got sick a few hours ago and I've been up taking care of him for the majority of the night, he finally wore himself out and fell asleep about twenty minutes ago. I don't know what caused it really, I'm not talking about my son being sick, it's probably a small bout with the flu or a cold or something, if he worsens, I'll bring him to the doctor, but what I mean is that looking at myself now, and looking at myself nine years ago when I first left New York and started to travel and find myself in different parts of the country. I was nineteen when I got kicked out of NYU, I was there for about a year, and my GPA dropped so low that my BAC was higher then that, I don't know, I guess art appreciation didn't really suit me, so during that last semester I started getting into tattooing, and I ended up being an apprentice at a shop in New York. I was there for a few months, got licensed, and when my mom found out about this, she blew her shit, about two months later the shop had a falling out, the owner left, all the artists split up and went to different places, I went out west. About a week later I found myself in Seattle, this was the first time I found myself on the west coast, and it seemed like a great idea, except for the fact that I had little money and no place to stay. I ended up sleeping in a park for a few months, and I won't go into detail about my life then because it wasn't that great, being poor and on your own, having nowhere to stay, it wasn't pretty.
About four months I'm going to guess after I moved to Seattle, I ended up getting a job at a tattoo parlor called Beauty is Pain, it's where I met probably one of my best friends, guy's name was Josh, Josh Sparta, and I still hear from him to this day. Shortly after I ended up moving in with an aquiantance from the shop, that lasted till I got a call from one of my old neighbors who somehow tracked me down, my mom had been mugged and beaten and I needed to go home, she wanted to see me. That was the first time I went back to New York, and I ended up staying in the hospital for a week, talking with my mother, I didn't want to leave her side, not even when she fell asleep, it was shortly after that she died, apparently her injuries were more severe then anyone thought. I left Seattle completely, I felt bad because I had a girlfriend back then, but she understood why I had to go, I stayed in New York for a few months, opened a shop of my own out on the Island, and I was happy, though at the same time, I wasn't. I kept thinking about them, and the longer I stayed in my parents house, the more I was unhappy, the more I was haunted by their memory, because I had their things the insurance money from dad's death, the inhertiance from my mom's parents but I didn't have them. I packed a bag that night, gave managing control of my shop to one of the guys who I trusted, and I took the only thing that made me happy about being in New York, my dad's fully restored '67 Shelby, and I left.
I traveled, I worked in shops, I opened a few of my own, I saw the country and everything in it, and I kept tabs of where I went and what I did, the people I met, the relationships I've formed, the lives I've changed and how they began to change my own. Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Houston, Phoenix, Tombstone, Des Moines, Salt Lake City, Boston, St Petersburg, Atlanta, the car that my father and I rebuilt stood the test of time and the miles that the road had beaten into it, and finally I showed up in Miami, and enter the blast from the past. Lily, the woman I dated in Seattle when I was nineteen was there, and she was more beautiful that I remembered, but she had changed considerably since our days in Seattle, mostly because she had adopted two children. Max and Lilah, two angels who seemed shy at first to meet me, but both of whom had warmed up to my character and my personality, who enjoyed the time they spent with me, and only after two months of being back together, Lily and I got married. Lily and I were able to have the children adopted under both of our names, I was their legal guardian, and for the first time in my life, I was a father for the first time in my life, and the children looked up to me, though I know at that time of my life they shouldn't have.
I was a drinker back then, I was still in my semi-early twenties, and at the right time of year I would disappear and find myself on Long Island, passed out at the gravestone of my father, my car sitting in idle in the parking lot, and when I drove back to Florida I'd have to explain myself to my wife and two children. A lot of things happened then, but it spelled divorce, and the judge ruled in favor of Lily having custody of Max and Lilah, I was heart broken, and once again I closed my shop in Miami and I ran, I just started driving and I didn't look back. Savannah, Knoxville, Nashville, Richmond, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, until I found myself in the same place I always seem to find myself, back on the Island. Only this time I decided if I was going to stay in New York, I wasn't going to stay on the Island, I was going to move into the city, and that's when everything really seemed to change for me. I opened a shop in the Bronx, I was able to get a building not too far from Yankee stadium, and I was happy, and in those days I wasn't quite the man I was back in Seattle, I was still drinking, but I was slowly learning more responsibility, thanks to being the sole owner of a tattooing enterprise that was one of the biggest chains in tattooing history. I felt I was a better man, and I was able to carry myself with some form of pride and dignity, and at least back then in those days, I didn't have to confess my secrets and my failures.
It was those days that I met Norah, I gave her her first tattoo on her lower back, and since then she hasn't let another artist touch her with a needle, save for one tattoo that she did show me, but that wasn't for a long time after this first one. We were friends at first, and as time wore on we started dating, and we realized just how much we meant to one another, and I knew that she was going to be it for me, but then the ghosts popped out of my closet and I couldn't quite get a good feel for anything anymore. I apologized, I left a manager in charage of my shop in the city, I left Muprhee with Norah, and I ran, I was scared, I was back to that nineteen year old piss ant who was sleeping in parks, I wasn't a man. I've wanted a family, it was the one thing that I knew I wanted more then anything else, but..I was scared, after my disasterous marriage to Lily, I couldn't force myself into that again, and I knew I wasn't ready, and I knew if I kept going, it would only lead down that path and it would only end in disaster, so I ran. Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, and somehow I was back in Miami, maybe I just needed to confront my demons, maybe...hell, I have no idea why I was there, but I was there.
I reopened the shop, I started to build myself back up, I started to date someone, but I wasn't happy until I saw her again, and I knew it wasn't her that I was happy to see, but the people who were with her. Lily moved back to Miami, and with her came our two children who I haven't seen since the divorce, Lilah had a look of contempt, but it was Max who saved me, when he got excited to see me, and he yelled out "Daddy" it was then that I honestly started to mold into a better person. Lily and I started to work something out, to where I was able to spend more time with Max, partially because she wanted Max to see his father, but mostly because Max wouldn't stop telling Lily how much he wanted to spend time with his father. He started to hang out with me at the shop, Max got interested in tattooing pretty quick after seeing what his old man does, he's had other intrests as well, baseball being one of them, but nothing intrigued him more then being an artist. Shortly after that I recieved my second shock since moving to Miami, and that was when one day someone was walking a dog that looked awfully familiar, I was having a smoke outside of my apartment, it was night time, and a dog ran up to me and started to lick my hand, the dog was familiar, and that's when I heard a voice call out for the dog, "MURPHEE" she called him, and I realized why the dog looked so familiar.
It had been a year since I had seen Norah, and it was good to see her again, but at the same time it wasn't the same as before, I know I had changed at that point into a better person, but still, it was odd to see her, and to talk to her, and I had so many things to apologize for to her. Soon we started working together, she worked as a receptionist at the shop and soon after she started apprenticing under me, and the more we worked together the more things seemed to start to work in our favor, and soon the cosmos pushed us back to being with one another. We were together for a long time, and like any couple we had our ups and our downs, we had threatened to break up a few times, but in the end we stayed strong for one another, our two dogs, and Max, who would stay with us from time to time despite his mother moving back to Seattle. One day I woke up to a surprise, Norah...her things packed and missing, her keys gone, and a note laying on the counter of the kitchen, confessing her weakness to not being able to say what she had to to my face, she had left to persue her dream of playing music professionally.
I left again, Orlando, Little Rock, Dallas, Albuquerque, back to Phoenix, San Diego, until most recently I landed myself here in Los Angeles, trying to rebuild my life and to try and finally plant root somewhere. I reopened the shop out here, started doing some consulting for movies, started making music with Robbie and Xander, and then somehow, someway, she walked into my life again, for the third time in four years, she came and she was there. We've talked a lot, we've spent time together, and we've fought, we've seen each other at our best and at our worse, and there's no one in this world who knows me better then Norah Cole. I'm pretty sure it's common knowledge at this point that Norah's pregnant, and yes, I'm the father, for the second time in my life I'll be a parent, only this time will be different, this child is not going to be adopted, this child will be born from a woman who I care about deeply. Unlike last time, I know I'll be ready for this branch of father hood, though...I know I'm scared, I have hopes and dreams, and I know it'll be up to Norah and I to raise this child the right way, a way that we could be proud of.
This child will have someone else around to help, I told Norah this the other day, that I had news, that I wouldn't have to go months at a time between seeing Max, that's becaues Lily has to take trips a lot more for her work, and while she could take Lilah with her, Max has school. We went through the court systems, and we were able to have Max's custody be transfered to me, Max is going to be living in the apartment with me until I can find a house that we can live in, so that way we don't ahve to be living over the shop. I got him enrolled in school, and I can tell that the kid's happy, well..except for right now since he's asleep and currently not feeling very well, but other then that, he's a happy kid. I honestly feel like I'm a part of a family again, unlike the last times that this honor has been bestowed upon me, I know I'm ready, I have the courage and the capacity to be there for my loved ones, every step of the way. I'll be there for my son, my unborn child and his or her mother, my friends who are like my brothers and sisters....
Gabriel took a sip of his coffee, looking at the update it seemed to be complete in midsentance, but that didn't really bother him too much, he looked at the hallway and he smiled, know that his son was fast asleep, and he only hoped that the child could sleep through the night. Standing up after he pressed the update button, he walked into his bedroom and sat down on his bed, running his hands through his hair, for the first time in more years then he could remember, he started to speak the words he once spoke every night, "God, grant me the serenity..."
( AIM )
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