“Why would I be mad at you?” he whispered. “Maryanne, the lady who runs the drugs and alcohol meetings, assumed I’d got in a fight. I keep tellin’ her I don’t take drugs or really even drink, but I can see she don’t believe me. She thinks I’m good for nothing. I can see it in the way she looks at me. Same with the people on the bus. They see my beat-up face and assume I’m some troublemaker. But I don’t do nothin’ wrong. I try, every day, to be a good person. To help out and take care of Pops, ya know? I don’t ask for nothin’. I don’t have anything and I don’t blame the world for that. I don’t
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