Born Different by Faye Aitken-Smith Page A

were blinded to the obvious.
    Rarely was it a
complete obvious weirdo. That is why it made such big news when it
was, and this is what ‘they’ wanted everyone to believe; that there
were monsters, and bogey men and strange folk hiding in the
shadows, ready to pounce on you if you strayed from the flock. If
you didn’t follow the rules. Stay in the boundaries. Play the
game.
    But in reality
it was here, among The Middles, where the evil hid and they hid
well.
    It always
shocked and amazed Gabe that the real truth of it all was, that for
all the world’s problems, it was far more likely that you would be
killed, hurt, maimed, raped, used and abused by someone that you
already knew, usually more often than not, by someone that you
actually loved . By someone that was supposed to love you.
Now how messed up was that? Friends and family members, your
nearest and dearest.
    Gabe thought
the majority of The Middles probably did nothing wrong and there
were probably some good, kind intelligent and creative ones among
them but they too disappeared in the wave of them all, the sea of
them. They were tricked so as not to appear very outstanding at
all. That was what The Middles had done to themselves, banished
competition and made everyone the same so even their brilliant
could not shine. They gave credence and celebrity to the ordinary,
to the talentless. Real talent and perhaps even genius had been
ignored and had to go and get a job on the till at Tesco or serve
happy meals at the McDonalds on the ring road for minimum wage and
forced to deal with middle management. All that middle management
created by and for The Middles. All those name tags to pin on
themselves so that they could pretend that they weren’t really just
a number.
    Gabe got even
more despondent thinking about how many potential great scientists,
talented artists and free thinkers of the twenty-first century had
been overlooked, drugged and trodden down in a misguided attempt to
make none of the really average to weak among The Middles feel bad
about themselves. They had invented normal and average to wrap
themselves up warm in, a one size that fits all, but it was a false
blanket, a false crutch. They had bitten off their noses to spite
their faces in the grandest of senses.
    Gabe and his
gang didn’t like anyone really and mostly, despite all of their
justifications; it was simply because nobody liked them. And that
was how these things worked.
    I’ll like you
if you like me. I won’t like you if you don’t like me. I will hate
you if you hate me. Do you love me? Well then I might just love you
back. But then again I might not as love rarely follows any kind of
rules.
    Gabe had
realised something that he thought was almost as near to being a
truth as it was possible.
    Gabe had made
up his mind. If no one liked him then, sod the lot of them.
    “Are we ready
to rock and roll then?” Johnny the natural born leader.
    “Yeah let’s do
it.”
     
     
     

Chapter 8
     
    The van was
hidden in Dave’s garage. Dave’s mum knew better than to ask them
what they were up to. She had lived through this sort of activity
for so many years that she was an expert at turning a blind eye and
a deaf ear. The least she knew the better, even if she always knew
perfectly well what was going on. She just noted the time on the
clock, just in case an alibi was needed, and she just carried on
with what she was doing. Another round of washing to go put on the
line before she could have a break and stop for a minute for a cup
of tea and some biscuits. She kept her mind busy with looking
forward to her Alanon meeting later, where she would have a chance
to hear the sound of her own voice.
    “Where the fuck
did you get this?” Franks eyes nearly popped out.
    “Does it
matter? Friend of a friend and all that. I got papers, you want to
see ‘em?” Dave shot back, eyebrows raised.
    “No, no. Don’t
worry Dave.” Gabe realised that they were better off not
knowing.
    There was