He was always like that, like the guy in the library. Manuel López spent his whole childhood in his school's library, surrounded by bookshelves and dust. And by knowledge, of course. When he gave the SAT, nobody trusted he could achieve something better than some local university. Chile has good colleges, they said. It's an excellent place to study, people argued. Anyway, Manuel was sure he could do better, and he did. Rawlstone was one of the best ranked American universities.
Walking through the campus, Manuel was looking around, impressed. It was truly enormous. Huge. Colossal. Yards of yards of extension gave the sensation of something infinite. People walked around, talking in groups, dressing in different ways. Variety there was something evident.
Some elderly man with thick glasses was standing there, looking nowhere, or everywhere, Manuel couldn't notice. He looked like an insane person, but not that kind of insanity that didn't allow you to think properly. No, he looked like a genius, he thought. Like an outsider, who didn't care what the other people were thinking about him, or saying, or even if some strangers were pointing or staring at him. "Do I look like if I were crazy", the man should ask himself, "well, I don't give a damn. Screw you all, bastards, I'll do whatever I want to". Or at least, that was the picture he gave.
Manuel walked toward that stranger. He tried to smile at him, pretending to be nice. The old man didn't look at him at first, not until Manuel touched his shoulder. He was like out of a trance.
"Yes, kid?", he finally asked.
"Excuse me, sir. I'm looking for the AD 201 building."
The stranger's face shadowed.
"What are you looking at that building?"
"My room", Manuel answered.
"Your room is there? What a shame, kid, what a shame."
"Do you know where it is, tho?"
Manuel started thinking the old man was actually out of his mind. Anyway, he stayed standing there.
"It's far away from here".
"OK. I'll have to go, so..."
"No, no, wait, kid. It's also important to warn you".
Manuel started feeling a bit nervous. The man was obviously saying just nonsense. The old man wasn't even looking at him directly to the eyes.
"I'm sorry, sir, I really have to go".
"Yes, go away, but be careful. People had died there, and they will keep dying, you know, kid?".
Manuel agreed with his head and walked away. He could hear behind him the stranger shouting.
"You'll die if you don't notice! You all will die! And burn in hell!"
"Ok, that's ok", the young man thought. "Crazy people can also exist here, as anywhere. It's not a big deal".
Not a big deal.
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