"Sholly Fisch - Gen13" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fisch Sholly)

with him personally. Those kids had spent their young lives in the same
filthy
slum he had. In all likelihood, they made his life a living hell just to help
them feel better about their own.
Not that it changed his feelings, of course. With each new humiliation,
Cheswick's loathing for the children around him had grown, day by day. But
the
clincher came in one particular incident that, even fortv-five years later
still
caused him to fight down a shudder when he thought of it.




Page 1
Cheswick had taken to experimenting with different ways to leave school at
the
end of the day, and alternate routes to walk home. He hoped that the
roundabout
paths would keep him from running into his tormentors. If he could stay out
of
their sight long enough, then maybe, over time, they'd forget all about him.
Or,
at least, maybe they'd find a new victim to take his place.
Lately, Cheswick had been ducking down the school's back stairs to slip out a
basement exit. He'd circle around the blank wall at the side of the school
and
head down the alley behind the diner, the tattoo parlor, and the bail
bondsman.
Once he made it to that point, there was no way to avoid having to come out
into
the open, but it was only a short sprint across the street before he could
squeeze past the fence by the grocery store to reach the back yard of his
apartment building and the safety of home.
The route had been working pretty well for the better part of a weekтАФwell
enough
to make him a little too carelessтАФwhen it happened. Cheswick was halfway down
the alley, right between the diner and the tattoo parlor, when he found
himself
surrounded by the very gang of kids that he'd tried so hard to avoid. (Even
as
an adult, their smug, mocking voices still echoed in Cheswick's memory.)
Despite
their cruel smiles, they weren't happy about the tubby kid who thought he
could
outsmart them. They decided to teach him a lesson.
He was garbage, they said. And there was just one place that garbage
belonged.
He struggled pointlessly as the bigger kids grabbed him, lifted him up, and
physically threw him into the half-full dumpster behind the diner. Before he