Hell of a Book

by Jason Mott

“No, Kid. They’re going to treat you differently because of that skin of yours. You can’t tell me that you don’t already know something like that. A kid of your years? You’ve got to come into this game knowing what the rules are and knowing that you can’t ever win it. All you can ever do is try to break even and survive for a little longer than the next person who looks like you. That’s all you can expect. But the thing to know and remember is that you can never be something other than what you are, no matter how much you might want to. You can’t be them. You can only be you. And they’re going to always treat you differently than they treat themselves. They won’t ever know about it—at least, most of them won’t. Most of them will think that everything is okay and that you’re being treated well enough and that everything is beautiful. Because, I guess for them, all they can imagine is a world in which things are fair and beautiful because, after all, they’ve always been treated fairly and beautifully. History has always been kind to them.”