Taormina Boat Cruise with Gabriel
We arrived in between two small rocky island cliffs among crystal clear yet harshly blue water. The young boy working on our boat ran from the bow to the stern where we were all relaxing to throw in the anchor not too far off the shore of Taormina, Sicily. He politely asked me to move, with little to no English or words at all for that matter. I got the gist of what he was saying from his bright smile and hand gesture to move to the side.
My 5 girlfriends and I took up half of the boat as the other half consisted of 3 sets of couples that were definitely annoyed with our constant picture-taking, horrendous dancing, and clamorous laughter. The prosecco given on board was starting to form a buzz in all of us as we got ready to jump in the water.
But first, of course, we needed a group picture. I gathered the girls up to the front of the boat where we could take a photo among the beaming sun and vibrant blue background. By this time, the young boy was on the bow, staying out of the way of people organizing their clothes they had taken off in preparation for a swim.
He awkwardly avoided eye contact with me as I stepped with imbalance due to the rocking of the boat. I smiled and gestured my phone to him and asked, “would you mind taking a photo of us?” I included a lot of hand gestures in case he was unfamiliar with English, but as it turned out he was quite good.
He came off quite shy as if he was confused that I was talking to him. “Oh photo, photo, yes!” he replied with a soft smile.
Of course, a group of dysfunctional and minorly intoxicated girls were not ready when I had asked him to take our photo so as he walked back and held up the phone, I asked him to wait.
Holding on to the railing, he looked around and was wondering what he did wrong.
“Just one second if you can, just waiting for those two, they’re so slow,” I laughed. He smiled and leaned on the seats at the front of the boat.
He lowered my phone to the side of him and looked around at the beach about 200 yards from where we were docked. I made conversation with him to end the uncomfortableness of waiting in silence. Keeping my balance on the bow, I asked him,“What is your name?”
“Gabriel,” he said with a soft smile and a shift in his standing position.
“How old are you,” I asked after we “aw”-ed at his name. His innocent voice and polite mannerisms had us all wanting to give him a big hug.
He pauses and looks up each time I ask him a question to the point where I can see the translation gears turning in his head. He responded with “uhh 12 years.
The prosecco took over us when we all scrunched our faces in response to how adorable he was. Growing up with a younger brother I knew that boys at that age do not want to be called cute anymore so we had to try to not show that we wanted to pinch his cheeks.
Gesturing to the two older men working the boat, “Is one of them your dad or your uncle? How’d you get to work here?”
He looked back at them preparing a plate of strawberries for the passengers and smiled, “No, they are just my friends, they let me work here!”
Starting to warm up to us, we laughed, “That is so awesome, you have the best job in the world!”
He laughed, nodded in agreement, then smiled to the floor. He then nervously stepped out of the way for our last two friends to make it to the front of the boat.
“Okay, ready!” His face lights up as we’re smiling and laughing. It seemed like he was excited but quite nervous to be in front of six 21 year old girls. But quite entertained by the fact that we clearly were loving the prosecco.
“Grazie, thank you, you are the best Gabriel!” I said as I wobbly walked over to him to get my phone while trying to keep my balance on the rocking boat.
He laughed and started to blush, gave my phone back and made his way to the tip of the bow to put the ladder down.
“Okay now you jump!” He smiled and pointed to the edge of the boat.
