做梦的空间（上）(19)

另一天在食堂，我不小心撞上了一个胖男孩并踩到了他的脚，尽管我道歉了，他就是不肯放过我，我们互相之间的对骂很快就升级成了对打，鉴于我比他矮、没他那么孔武有力，两三分钟之内我就占了下风，他把我摔在地上，骑在我身上一边狠狠地揍我一边念念有词：“天才，我要打的你满地找牙！你是个天才，让我们看看你的天赋！我就喜欢找天才的茬！”令我寒心的是周围的所有人不仅没有站出来拉架，反而所有人都幸灾乐祸，当那个胖子用尽了力气后从我身上起来的时候，没有一个人对我说过一句安慰的话，或是对他有半点苛责，在绝望中，我开始意识到作为一个社会的弃儿，我失去了舆论的支持，所有人随时都可以欺负我。
When I returned home with a dirty look, I shut myself in the room and burst into tears. I was not a bad boy and never did anything wrong, why did everyone look down upon me? Why there was no one to become a companion and utter a single sympathetic word to me? Why wasn't I worth a cent in their eyes? Why was grade overwhelmingly important? Why God sent me to such a distorted environment? Why? Why? Why? I took out my favorite book The Secrets of The Universe, wished to tear it apart and broke myself off forever from scientific study. I asked myself over and over again: is there any need in it? What kind of genius am I? Have I been fooling myself? My crying soon attracted Linda's attention outside. As if had a power to read my mind, she pushed open the door and put a book titled the footsteps of great men on my desk, talked mildly into my case: "You needn't to be so upset. It's not your fault that you can't integrate into your surroundings. Everyone around you is mediocre. As an old Chinese saying goes: 'If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas', when people accept you as one of them, you must be as mediocre as they imagined. As if you are an alien, people around you have nothing in common with you and have no idea how to accept you as one of them. So, open the book, make friends with those giants and you will be one of them! Never mind how people treat you. You will make a difference."