The word from the street
TONY
“You remember that aura that visited me when my friend died a while back? Well he came visiting me again.”
PHILIP
“Where was this?”
TONY
“You know the place where I’ve been sleeping the last few nights? It was the middle of the night and I was under all my clothes and covers, and all of a sudden the place was lit up like there was a fire, but I knew it was that aura. I don’t know what he wants this time but I’m for sure doing what he says.”
PHILIP
“Tell me about school.”
TONY
“When I was 13, I tried to burn the school down. I was at Palmerston Public School, and I didn’t want to go to school that day. So I told my mom but she said I was going to school anyway, and I didn’t get any breakfast. We didn’t have a lot of money. So I went to school and we were having some sort of exam I think, and I asked Mr. Hoffman my teacher, if I could go to the bathroom and he said ‘no’. I figure he thought I was trying to cheat.”
PHILIP
“Were you?”
TONY
“No. He finally let me go anyway but I was really pissed. so I tried to I set fire to the school. You see, I was smoking since I was pretty young so I had lots of lighter fluid, and I just sprayed it all on the bulletin board in the hallway and lit it up. Then I kind of ‘woke up’ and I went back to the classroom to tell him their was a fire in the hallway. So they got everyone out of the school and then Mr. Hoffman asked me if I knew how the fire happened. I told him and he sent me down to the principal’s office. I got the strap and then they kicked me out of school. They sent me to Parkway Vocational and I learned more there in the shop class than I ever learned at school.”
Homeless Man Speaks 