the land called morning
...as only five minutes walk to the mill and the rent was less than the money I had been spending on my mother’s alcohol. I asked him if he would accept me. I thought that he would reject because I was nothing but a thirteen years old kid; though he said to me: “If you can afford the rent, why not?” I went home after work to pick up my stuff. I told my mom that I was moving away. She was pissed on her bed with a stranger at that time, my twin sisters were sleeping on the couch, she has heard me for sure but didn’t stop me. I guess I should have been happy for her that she found such a well paid “ universal language” job. Bob was more like a brother to me than a friend. The following week I got fired because I got into a fight with a fifteen year old guy. He was taller and more muscled than me. I got 2 hard punches, one in the nose and the other one on my right eye, though I knew that I could kick his ass. I made a punch on his chin, then another one on his nose. His nose started bleeding. He was in shock, so were everyone. I shouldn’t have given him a second to think. I started punching his face unconsciously. He felt down; I could hear that everybody was cheering for me, except my boss. That black guy, James, had fired me. I tried to persuade him that I was not the one who started fighting. I was not dumb to start fighting with a guy taller and more muscled than I was. I came home early. After couple of hours Bob came. He told me that everyone was talking about me. He gave me a card; “Jason McDonnell” written on it. He was the uncle of a guy working in the mill; more than that he was the couch of the best boxing club in the town. I remember hardly anything from the first day in the club, except the plaque on which written with capital letters: “No pain, no gain”. These words have been scraped into my brain since then....