then there was the episode when Gianni was insulted at the bus stop over the question of just who was really the mayor of our town first I have to provide a brief explanation at this point in the rise of the Bardellino clan which was acquiring more and more power during the gang war against Cutolo they realized that they needed to get their hands on the levers of political power in order to get even more money they needed to get control over public contracts and public works so they decided to have Ernesto Bardellino elected mayor of our town at the next elections and they succeeded of course he was elected at the head of the Socialist list of candidates and so for the first time in history a town had one brother as mayor and another brother as the capo of a clan but for a certain period of time Ernesto Bardellino was suspended from office because there were criminal proceedings against him and so he was replaced temporarily by the candidate immediately beneath him in the Socialist list which was none other than an architect the father of Gianni and so one day Professoressa Minimo asked who was the mayor of our town and Gianni stood up and said my father is the mayor

but another kid from our school bus who we all called Sciaquarone which means the Big Flush hurried over to tell the Bardellino boys who are in different classes what he’d said he did it to make them like him and also because he couldn’t stand Gianni because Gianni was the one who gave him that nickname of Sciaquarone it meant that his clothes were always too big on him and it was a nickname that stuck so Sciaquarone immediately went to tell the Bardellino brothers and while we were at the busstop waiting for the school bus the Bardellinos surrounded Gianni and in front of all the other boys and girls they insulted him and mortified him they told him loud and clear that he had to stop going around saying what he’d said to the teacher in class because his father isn’t worth shit the only reason his father is mayor is because that’s what Ernesto Bardellino decided and if Ernesto Bardellino wants to go back and be mayor again he can do it whenever he pleases and that if it wasn’t for Ernesto Bardellino his father would be on a streetcorner begging for food and after they said all these insulting things Gianni didn’t react in the slightest