America 1982

In the early morning, the old-fashioned electronic alarm clock beside the bed tried hard to play a bright tune after the last second of six fifty-nine.

It's just that maybe because the battery is about to run out, the ringtone becomes distorted and weird. It doesn't sound like an energetic wake-up call, but more like the vague requiem of an old priest.

Tommy Hawke opened his eyes, reached out to turn off the button of the electronic alarm clock, then jumped up from the bed, walked to the simple clothes hanger next to him, took out the T-shirt from it, sniffed it, and put it on after making sure it could still be worn for a day. .

The landlord, Aunt Melonie, has gotten up early and gone out to make money. As a substitute teacher who is still looking for a stable teaching job, today she is going to provide paid substitute teaching for a primary school 40 kilometers away.

On the coffee table in the living room was a cup of warm espresso and a croissant, and next to it was a half-pack of Kimberly cigarettes that Melonie had left for him.

After going to the bathroom to quickly wash up, Tommy sat on the sofa and lit a cigarette, lost in thought.

He is a time traveler. I don’t know why, but Hawke, a 27-year-old Chinese student studying at Boston University’s business school in 2022, traveled to the United States in 1982 two months ago and became the man he is today named Tommy Hawke. Gram's seventeen-year-old American high school student.

Hawke only remembered that when he was shopping with his girlfriend near Chinatown in Boston that day, he happened to encounter two robbers robbing a nearby convenience store. He was arrested by the police who rushed there. Nothing happened, but Hawke was shot by a stray bullet.

Then, as soon as he closed and opened his eyes, he changed from Hawke, a rich second-generation Chinese international student, to Tommy Hawke, an American high school student today.

Now, he combines the memories and emotions of two people, and has to face the bleak reality.

That was his life now, poor and desperate.

He lives in Rhode Island, the smallest state in the United States, specifically located in Warwick, Kent County, Rhode Island. It is a city with a population of 80,000 and is the second largest city in the state, but its scale is only a bustling town compared to his hometown in China. Looks slightly larger.

Riding a bicycle can take you around the city in one hour, and you can still have enough time to cycle to Providence, the state capital 17 kilometers away.

Moreover, the timing of his time travel was unlucky. His family had just gone from having no worries about food and clothing to a mess because of his father's unemployment.

This prevented him from enjoying the generous life of blue-collar workers under capitalism, and only saw the misery of the lower class people in the United States.

Tommy Hawke's father, Colin Hawke, is of German descent. He previously worked at GM's parts factory in Rhode Island. He lost his job five months ago when GM cut its production line. He is currently doing some work in small shipbreaking yards and shipyards. They work part-time to earn a living.

Her mother, Alida, was of Italian origin and died in a car accident in 1981. A pair of young white trash who were high on marijuana drove a stolen family car down the street and were hit and killed while they were opening their mailbox on the street. She was responsible for the family bills. They were a pair of poor people. In the end, there was no compensation or apology. They were prosecuted for hit-and-run death and manslaughter. According to state law, they should have been in jail for four years, but because this pair of white trash were of Irish descent. , and Irish Americans account for 70% of the total population of Rhode Island. Based on the consideration of race and votes, the Rhode Island court finally sentenced the two people to six months in prison and three years of probation. As for the two people, they totaled five years. Thinking about it, they knew it would be impossible for them to get the compensation of one thousand US dollars.

Brother Tony Leon, one year older than Tommy, was originally supposed to be called Tony Hawk, but Italy issued a bill in 1980 that allowed children to take their mother's surname. Although the mother was a third-generation Italian immigrant born in the United States and had never been there before Italy, but the affirmative action has been popular in the northern states of the United States in recent years. In order to respond to the Italian bill and to show support for the affirmative movement, my mother and my father discussed and changed the name of my brother Tony Hawk to Tony Leon. This is typical. A white boy from a small town dropped out of high school decisively after his father lost his job. He tried to become a man and earn money to support his family. He is currently working as an apprentice in a car repair shop with a weekly salary of 80 yuan. It is said that he will soon graduate and may earn more by then. some.

Tommy also has a younger sister, Bethea, who has just turned seven this year. At the beginning of the year, the Child Protection Bureau used the reason that domestic abuse triggered the protection mechanism and forced her to temporarily live in a foster home. The reason was just because her father was busy working as a temporary worker after losing his job. Working to make money, Bethea was noticed by her teacher when she wore dirty clothes to school for several days in a row. When the teacher came to visit her home, she happened to find several "Penthouse" magazines within Bethea's reach. This made Bethea just The Rhode Island State Child Protection Agency, which has received the newly introduced "Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act" as a sword, is so lucky that it finally has the opportunity to test its edge. Now Bethea is fostered in Providence, the state capital. A middle-class family with a comfortable life. The father's biggest obsession is to bring his daughter home, but it is easy to be taken away and difficult to bring back. Even if Bethea agrees, the foster family agrees, but the cold provisions of the bill do not agree. That is, according to the provisions of the bill, the child must have a large enough independent bedroom, the family's minimum monthly income reaches 850 US dollars, the monthly expenditure on the child's growth and education must be no less than 70 US dollars, and the child After strict conditions such as the approval of the foster family and confirmation by the protection agency, the court can make a decision to return the child to the family.

If Tommy's father had not lost his job, it would have been easy to meet the conditions for getting back custody. However, because RB cars quickly seized the U.S. market, local car factories have eliminated production lines, leaving a large number of people who could easily raise their families with a weekly salary of two to three hundred dollars. Blue-collar workers quickly became the bottom class of society. For example, my father’s weekly salary at Ford’s factory could reach US$275. Now he is paid hourly at the shipbreaking yard, which is less than US$4 per hour, working eight hours a day, five days a week, and he can only earn The cost is about 170 US dollars, and because the shipbreaking yard is a high-intensity physical labor, basically at the end of the day, there is no energy to work part-time in other jobs, and 170 US dollars is enough for a family's water and electricity bills, car loans, various insurance expenses and daily expenses. In terms of sales, it can only be said that I can barely rely on credit cards to support myself, so I won't starve to death, but I can't even think of saving a penny.

When Tommy traveled through time, his father and brother were trying to persuade him to drop out of school and find a job, so that he could meet the income requirements as soon as possible and bring Bethea home. Anyway, in the eyes of his family, there was no difference between graduating from high school and dropping out of school halfway. The entrance to college was never Doesn't show up in family options.

But Tommy, who came from time travel, knew that getting into college was the only chance to change his destiny. If he didn't get into college, he would have lived the same life as his father, finding a factory to work in Rhode Island, or working in a leather goods shop or an auto repair shop. An apprentice, and then spend the rest of his life in such a small frontier town on the northeastern coast of the United States, marry a woman of similar background, have children, and raise a family until death.

If you want to change this fate, the only chance for a breakthrough is to be admitted to a good enough university. Until then, you may have a chance to barely come into contact with another completely different America.

Because Tony lent his home to his friends from time to time to hold parties and earn some small money, Tommy, who had traveled back in time and wanted to go to college, was unbearable and chose to move out of his home and rent an old British-style apartment in Warwick Harbor District. Tommy studied hard in his bedroom. His landlord, Melonie, was a distant cousin of his mother's who had an unknown family relationship. She was moved by Tommy's attitude of studying hard and offered her a small bedroom in the apartment she lived in for thirty dollars a week. The price was rented to him.

In the month since he moved out, he has worked hard to take AP courses and prepare for the STA exam while working part-time for four hours to earn money. Unfortunately, because of his family, Tommy has not been able to save a single coin so far.

If you want to concentrate on studying, you must first solve the money problem. Tommy Hawke finished smoking the cigarette, picked up the cup of extremely bitter espresso, drank it in one sip, then put away the cigarette on the table, stood up, and walked out the door. Go.

In the corridor outside the door, a white office worker wearing a felt hat and suit was holding a briefcase in his left hand and today's newspaper in his right hand, reading as he walked.

The front page of the Boston Globe in his hand has a photo of President Ronald Reagan and a blackened news headline:

"President Reagan: Facing the Soviet Union, we need to do whatever it takes and break all the rules!"

"It's a good sign. I finally have a reason to convince myself to make some money. If I want to blame it, blame our president. He told me that we need to break all the rules." Tommy Hawke glanced at the newspaper in the other person's hand. Cover, smacked his lips, and said softly:

"play hard."