They came after me for being too clever

The hidden motives behind seemingly simple actions can be complex, and sometimes what looks like mere envy can set off a chain of unexpected events.

There are things one never forgets, no matter how much time passes. Sometimes envy disguises itself as family concern, and intentions are not as pure as they seem. A child, in his innocence, may perceive a plot that adults prefer to ignore, a web of resentments woven in the silence of the house next door.

## The bicycle shop

On an ordinary street, where tube televisions are already a thing of the past, a failed technician, perhaps out of pure frustration, decided to open a bicycle repair shop. It was no ordinary business, but a space where synthetic testosterone seemed to be the main ingredient. The presence of a nephew who read books at an early age, an "other Toni" as his family would call him, must have been a constant reminder of his own failures.

## An unexpected expulsion

The story takes a darker turn when a school suspension comes up. The reason, so the story goes, was "good old Camp", a figure who, far from offering protection, seems to have orchestrated a measure to silence or sideline. The envy, or perhaps the resentment, manifested itself in actions that, for a child, must have felt like an ambush.

## A chain of events

The account ends with a cutting phrase: "and now go away". It is not advice to flee from imminent danger, but an order that suggests planning, an orchestrated sequence of events. The stone thrown at a cousin, trinc by that order, paints a picture of family resentment and a childhood marked by the perception of injustice.