Infested by Angel Luis Colón

Author:Angel Luis Colón
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: 2023-07-25T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

“YOU ARE FIGHTING?” MR. MUELLER SAID. “Seems to be a worthless endeavor.”

“That wasn’t really a fight,” I said.

“The other boy did not seem to share your sentiment,” Mueller said. “Around here, many your age behave like that.” He sniffed with disdain. “Are you trying to fit in? Letting yourself be corrupted?”

“What? No.” I shook my head. “No. These guys are just… They’ve singled me out because I’m not completely like them. I stood up for myself.”

Mueller nodded. “What did you stand up for?”

“They make fun of me. And now Frankie was accusing me of trying to get with Sasha. I don’t even like her like that.”

“Mistreatment.” He licked his lips and pulled the van over to park in front of the building. “I understand it must be hard to have peers treat you like a pariah, but I do not believe acting like them is the proper response. Can you not see that you are better than them? I am sure there is more that you can do to remove their presence from your daily routine.”

I stared ahead. “What? Should I call the cops? Tattle to my parents?”

“Those with authority would accomplish more than lowering yourself to a savage act,” Mueller said. “What good is it to act like an animal? What does it benefit? Do you feel good about fighting?”

“No,” I muttered.

“I cannot hear you.”

“No,” I said a little louder. “No, it doesn’t feel good, Mr. Mueller. But it… I don’t know what else I can do with all this.” I grabbed my chest. “I’ve got nowhere to put all this anger and stress. So, maybe it feels a little good when I do it, but after, no, I feel like garbage.”

Mueller eyed me with a smile. “One as young as you, perhaps your perspective is that life is very hard, no?”

I snorted. “Yeah, something like that.”

“I came to this place impoverished. I could not speak the language. Americans, they took every opportunity to remind me of that. They used the wars fought in Germany to label me something to hate.” He scratched at his hands. “It made me angry, but I learned to use that anger. To allow the fire to burn as I saw fit.”

“Did it help?”

“It did. At first. Unfortunately, there will be those who simply cannot live up to what your expectations are. I decided to stop caring about that and care about myself and my family. I made a loving home for them, and I worked extremely hard to maintain that, despite whatever savages I faced down. That boy, the one you wanted to fight. He does not deserve for you to stoop to his level. You are better than that.”

“Funny enough, he said my problem was I thought I was better than him and his friends.”

“Perhaps you are. Look at what your family is bringing here.” Mueller motioned to the building. “A new home for the people of this neighborhood. A blessing. Something stable and clean. Something unburdened by years of neglect. If there are those who would not be grateful for it, that is not your problem.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.