they's teasing me an all, an one day a boy hit me in the back with a stick wile they was chasin me
an it raised some fearsome welt. after that, she tole me not to play with them boys anymore. i
started tryin to play with the girls but that weren't much better, cause they all run away from me.
mama thought it would be good for me to go to the public school cause maybe it would hep
me to be like everbody else, but after i been there a little wile they come an told mama i ought'n
to be in there with everbody else. they let me finish out first grade tho. sometimes i'd set there
wile the teacher was talkin an i don't know what was going on in my mind, but i'd start lookin out
the winder at the birds an squirrels an things that was climbin an settin in a big ole oak tree
outside, an then the teacher'd come over an fuss at me. sometimes, i'd just get this real strange
thing come over me an start shoutin an all, an then she'd make me go out an set on a bench in the
hall. an the other kids, they'd never play with me or nothin, cept'n to chase me or get me to start
hollerin so's they could laugh at me all cept jenny curran, who at least didn't run away from me
an sometimes she'd let me walk nex to her goin home after class.
but the next year, they put me in another sort of school, an let me tell you, it was wierd. it
was like they'd gone aroun collectin all the funny fellers they coud find an put em all together,
rangin from my age an younger to big ole boys bout sixteen or seventeen. they was retards of all
kinds an spasmos an kids that couldn't even eat or go to the toilet by theyselfs. i was probly the
best of the lot.
they was one big fat boy, musta been fourteen or so, an he was afflicted with some kinda
thing made him shake like he's in the electric chair or somethin. miss margaret, our teacher, made
me go in the bathroom with him when he had to go, so's he wouldn't do nothin wierd. he done it
anyway, tho. i didn't know no way of stoppin him, so i'd just lock mysef in one of the stalls and
stay there till he's thru, an walk him back to the class.
i stayed in that school for about five or six years. it wadn't all bad tho. they'd let us paint
with our fingers an make little things, but mostly, it jus teachin us how to do stuff like tie up o
ur
shoes an not slobber food or get wild an yell an holler an thow shit aroun. they wadn't no book
learnin to speak of cept to show us how to read street signs an things like the difference between
the men's an the ladies' rooms. with all them serious nuts in there, it woulda been impossible to
conduct anythin more'n that anyway. also, i think it was for the purpose of keepin us out of
everbody else's hair. who the hell wants a bunch of retards runnin aroun loose? even i could
understand that.
when i got to be thirteen, some pretty unusual things begun to happen. first off, i started to
grow. i grew six inches in six months, an my mama was all the time havin to let out my pants.
also, i commenced to grow out. by the time i was sixteen i was six foot six an weighed two
hundrit forty-two pounds. i know that cause they took me in an weighed me. said they jus
couldn't believe it.
what happen nex caused a real change in my life. one day i'm strollin down the street on the