VIII POLITICS

what they want is to have respect from the other kids respect means for instance when they board the schoolbus they get to sit in front by the driver because that’s the most comfortable place to sit and all the others have to be packed into the back of the bus and if they say anything it’s forbidden for you to disagree or contradict even though they get things wrong and say utter nonsense but if anybody contradicts them it can turn ugly fast you can get into a fistfight but the problem is it can be dangerous to trade punches with them because in Aversa you can have a fight with them and you’re fighting alone when you get back home to the town they are always surrounded by those young men I mentioned earlier the muschilli older boys working for their parents whose job includes keeping an eye on the bosses’ sons and so without any warning you could be attacked on the street insulted freely and provoked in a way that if you dare to react you’ll be beaten bloody the only thing you can do with these people is make it clear that you aren’t looking for any trouble and you don’t want to cause them any trouble so you don’t interact you pay no attention to them at all you just don’t talk to them

when I was in middle school only once did I have anything to do with one of the Bardellino boys once in a café we were playing videogames on the machines where you put in a coin a hundred lire coin so we were playing against each other each of us would take a turn you put in a hundred lire for each turn then you play and whoever gets the higher scores wins we’d been playing for about half an hour but then I ran out of money because a thousand lire goes pretty fast at a hundred lire a turn and he said come on let’s keep playing and see who wins and I said no I’m out of money and he said if you’re out of money here he pulls a hundred thousand lire note out of his pocket and says to me here go get change and you can play all night long if you want I looked him in the eye and turned on my heel and left and since then I haven’t had anything to do with those people but the other boys like this Gianni for instance like to hang out with these Bardellino boys because no matter what they’re fascinated by the money and the Bardellino boys use money to win friends because it’s not enough to be powerful they want people to like them so for example if they’re having something in a café they always treat everybody else it’s a demonstration of their power and wealth and so there are lots of kids who want to hang out with them