Gabrielle and Saul / Fiction

The hidden laws of nature govern us all. To the geniuses, to the slow, to the fierce, to the meek, to those who look at the sky from a point of the earth and to those who can fly through it.

We also know that we are nonconformists. To some extent, we all want to become what we are not. What happens to everyone also happened to a seagull named Gabrielle.

Gabrielle was a different kind of seagull. She preferred walking to flying; while the other chicks flew very well at one week old, she was quite late. Her parents took care of her, giving her food in her mouth beyond the stipulated time, until they understood that she had to learn to fend for herself.

It is customary among gulls for their parents to expel them from the nest when they are four years old. Other seagulls, having reached that age, took flight over the immensity of the sea looking for new places to colonize. Gabriele watched them, imagining the long journeys that awaited them, but aware that she was not made to fly so far away.

After her infancy, our seagull was also expelled from the nest. But she refused to fly over the sea, preferring to remain making short flights between the seashore and the great perimeter avenue that separated the streets, full of buildings of different heights that separated the human habitats from the wide, golden beach.

Gabrielle had a reserved character. She chose, to live, the height of a highway lighting pole. She gathered some materials she found along the way and made a comfortable nest. From there she enjoyed a formidable view. With her right eye she could see the sea, the waves, the work of the seabirds to feed themselves each day and with her left eye the complex movement between the streets.

With time she focused her interest in understanding human traffic and learned to discern the movements of cars. When a car stopped, the seagull would fly to a place where it could observe the occupants at ease. She began to notice the way humans fed. One day she decided to approach a driver who had parked his truck to take his lunch while gazing out to sea.

First she landed on a bush. There the smell of food reached her. She already knew the intoxicating smell of bread. The man watched her as she perched on the branches and continued to eat his sandwich sitting on one end of the boulevard bench. Gabriele had seen her conspecifics position themselves near the humans. An intuition made her fly to the other end of the bench where the man was eating.

It was the hour when the sun's rays illuminated everything from above. The man turned to look at the beautiful seagull. Her yellow eyes, surrounded by the scarlet halo, were fixed on him, as she bowed her head, as if she wanted to offer the man a bow. It was a sympathetic image. A seagull presenting itself to a good man who glances at a bird while he eats. Behind him the frenzy of cars was still speeding by.

"Are you hungry?"

The man held out a piece of bread. The seagull took a step forward and stepped back. It raised its wings a little, as if announcing a flight, but lowered them again.

"Do you want to or don't you want to?"

The seagull repeated the same movements. The man understood that it would not approach.

"It is logical!We have just met. Take your bread, you deserve it!"

The man threw the bread to the corner of the bench. The seagull took flight, hovered in the air and looked at the man. Then it landed and took the piece of bread.

That was the first encounter between Gabrielle and Saul. Many more followed.

Saul drove a truck that carried dry goods to the city market. He would pass by every other day, stop to get his sandwich at the same place, and upon arrival would cast his eyes toward the bush where he first saw Gabrielle. Once they both established their routine Gabriel understood that she could approach him to take from his hand anything he wanted to offer her, pieces of meat, small fresh fish that Saul got for her at the market.

Saul, for his part, was a very special person who was only comfortable with routines. His friendship with Gabriele gave a different nuance to his life. At that time he began to draw seagulls. His family celebrated his new hobby, amazed that Saul was trying new things.

One day Saul arrived for his appointment with Gabrielle and couldn't find her. Two weeks went by, Saul arrived punctually for his appointment, but Gabrielle did not show up. In those days the young man came home sad and did not touch his brushes.

However, the young man was used to persisting. In the middle of the third week his friend appeared in a surprising way. She came walking. Saul watched her in silence. There was something different about her, although her lively and deep gaze remained the same.

"I thought I had lost you, my little friend!"

The young seagull tried, with no luck, to fly from the ground to the bench.

The young man carried the bird delicately and landed it on the seat. He opened the cardboard box containing his sandwich, took a piece of bread and waved it in the air in the initial gesture to launch it.

The bird flapped its wings as if announcing flight, just as it did whenever his friend fed it. Then Saul saw its wings and understood that it could not fly. Half of its right wing was missing a clump of feathers. The world can be a very dangerous place for a seagull that doesn't have a flock.

Saul came to the conclusion that he could not leave Gabrielle alone, injured, flightless, at the expense of stray animals. He decided that he would take her with him to cure her. This was the act that marked both of their lives. Upon arriving home, Saul introduced Gabrielle as a friend who needed help.

The whole family gathered around the seagull. They knew Saul's kindness and always supported him.

With the support of a bird specialist, Gabrielle healed her wing, but she was never interested in flying high again. Her short flights were enough for her to perch near her new family. She really enjoyed walking in the green spaces in Saul's company.

The young man, for his part, found in the bird's company feelings of euphoria and peace that he found very difficult to find in humans. With her as his model, he devoted himself full time to drawing seagulls. With the sale of his beautiful paintings Saul began to generate a good income for his family.

Seagulls, well cared for, can live for more than forty years. Gabrielle and Saul, being different, had a beautiful and promising future ahead of them.