Page 121 of Murder in the Family

BILL SERAFINI

Was Eric living here before he left for Lebanon or had he already moved away?

FRANK TAPPIN

Nah, he hadn’t lived here for a few years. Too small, I reckon. And not just the town.

BILL SERAFINI

How do you mean?

FRANK TAPPIN

Small town, small minds. I think Eric had gotten tired of that. Moved to New York I believe. I can’t vouch for the truth of that, but that’s what people said.

CUT TO: Bar, interior. Wood-panelled walls, beer posters and printed mirrors, a couple of good old boys at the counter. The woman at the table with Bill has white hair, deeply wrinkled tanned skin and withered hands, but she has a twinkle in her eye, all the same. Sub-captioned ‘Nancy Kozlowski, Former teacher, North Birmingham High’.

BILL SERAFINI

So, Nancy, why don’t you tell us how you fit into this story?

NANCY KOZLOWSKI

I was Eric’s 11th Grade teacher. Class of ’82.

BILL SERAFINI

But you took more than just a teacher’s interest in him, right?

NANCY KOZLOWSKI

I was fond of him, if that’s what you mean. Poor boy needed some motherin’. Don’t get me wrong, his mom was a real nice lady but she was a little ditsy. Sortaabsent, shall we say. And as for his daddy, well, Jim was a hard nut. A decent, hard-working man, yes – no arguin’ with that, but he hated weakness, especially in his boys. The other two, he approved of, but Eric was different.

BILL SERAFINI

How so?

NANCY KOZLOWSKI

You have to remember this was the 1980s, and it was – andis– the South. Attitudes take their time to change here, and some never do. Eric wasn’t like the other kids, and I can tell you now, it frightened him. Children hate to stand out, whether it’s red hair, or being the tallest, or the only one with no dad. And this was a-ways more than that.

BILL SERAFINI

By which you mean—?

NANCY KOZLOWSKI

Eric knew from a young age that he didn’t like girls. But he also knew, without needin’ no tellin’, that this was not somethin’ he could go round talkin’ about. Andespeciallynot to his father.

BILL SERAFINI

So he confided in you?

NANCY KOZLOWSKI

Well, he didn’t come right out and say it, no, it wasn’t nothin’ like that. I could just sense, that last year, that somethin’ was eatin’ away at him and I could make a pretty good guess at what it might be. But he had to come to it in his own good time. But then one day I found him cryin’ out back. Some of the other boys had been callin’ hima faggot and I don’t know what else. Kids can be so cruel.

BILL SERAFINI