Gabe Lombardo

The Archipelago
Gabe Lombardo

"The Legendary Gabe"

Gabe Lombardo looms large within the Lombardo family, his reputation glamorous, his power mythological, his final departure somewhat vague.  Is he dead? In hiding? Transformed?  How and why and what might have been his final failure, who knows. He is definitely gone.

Gabe was the only child of Don Lombardo and Ellen Westover who died in childbirth. He grew up with Camilla Lombardo, the very young sister of his father uncle Tony, in a relationship like siblings. His father struggled with distraction and depression, leaving much of the child-rearing to his brother Tony who had his own issues with his own marriage and his own son, Rafe. On top of that, Gabe and Rafe did not get along, and Gabe gleefully set him up more than once. 

Gabe and Camilla were inseparable. They traveled from place to place, explored things they should not have, dared dangerous territory, and mastered unusual skills. From childhood to the day he disappeared, Gabe considered Camilla the only friend he ever had, to the extent he talked about friends, or that ‘friend’ meant the same thing to him that it meant to other people. He had her back which was enough.

Intelligent, analytical, cool under pressure, witty and charismatic, Gabe could be dangerous to cross but also unexpectedly kind. He was a gambler and a hacker and a very accomplished thief. He was a lot of fun at parties. He would remember your birthday but might take your gifts. He absolutely could not be trusted with anything at all but yes, he was fun to be around. Invited to a party, he would share in a toast and make it a memorable evening. 

Good moments usually came with unpleasant consequences for Gabe though. When he rescued a runaway child on a dark beach (the daughter of someone famous but he didn't know that), the publicity revealed his location to people he was trying to avoid. He knew it would. In this case the child remembered him as the Prince who saved her life and gave her his sword (a pocket knife) to protect herself in the future if she stupidly (his word) ran away again. She never forgot him. He changed her whole life. He wasn’t around long enough to ask but he probably would have been surprised.

At the end Gabe knew things were going very bad very quickly. He didn’t confide in Camilla, and actually spent a good deal of time enjoying himself with the Diracs up at Cloud Lake. Leaving didn’t bother him as much as it bothered her. She probably knew that, or should have since she’d known him all her life. 

Considering his lifestyle, nobody wondered why Gabe disappeared.  Also considering his lifestyle, it was possible he escaped.  It all bolstered the legend.  If you were a Lombardo and didn’t consider him remarkable, it was a good idea to keep that to yourself.  He would have.