She puts one folder aside and glances at another one. She indicates the pages within and then begins to speak:

But this is not about that … this is about this … and so that’s what we’ll do … we will talk about this and not that … not about lies and how much they may or may not weigh. And who knows? The truth … in the end, might surprise us all … even me. (Beat.) Yes, even me.

She rustles through a few more pages and then turns to us. Begins to tell her story:

… he was a good-looking boy but I don’t think that’s why he was the one I chose. I mean, it didn’t hurt anything, obviously, but … that was not the reason that I picked him … not just that, anyway. I’m not really a “looks” person … so … no. (Beat.) He walked into my office one afternoon … this was a Thursday, I think … might’ve been on a Friday, I usually did a half-day on Fridays but that winter semester I remember I was doing a few longer hours end of the week so I could build up my holidays … we were planning on taking a few extra days over the spring break and this was making that possible … Eric and I, that’s what we’d planned for our vacation. When you’re a teacher, it becomes important to just go with the flow … take your days off when everybody else does and to embrace the summertime because very quickly it’s August again and there you go, back to the classroom and starting over on whatever it is that your specialty is. I do English. Well, English and Drama, but what that means is I pick a play each year for the “thespians” to perform—in the Fall—and help out with the Spring Musical. Nothing musical on my part … I can barely whistle a note … but the dramatic or comedic bits. The acting. I would oversee those parts and then also all the settings, too … get my students involved in building the sets and that sort of thing … make-up and ticket sales, all the other aspects of production when the time came. That’s what I would do. (Beat.) He came to my office when I was in the process of picking the play for the coming year, in fact—I was also a counselor for grade twelve as well—and he was assigned to me after his usual counselor was out on her maternity leave … so … that’s how we ended up together, on that Thursday. Or Friday. Whichever it was. (Beat.) He had actually been a student of mine during his first year at school … my school, I mean. Jefferson High. 9th grade … but I don’t think he remembered it. We were doing Lord of the Flies and most kids can recall the year they read that, it’s one of those books that usually … well … it has the ability to leave some kind of mark on everybody who reads it … especially the boys, but Tommy was out a lot that year … I think his mom was getting a divorce—another one … from the sound of the gossip around school … or the teacher’s lounge, anyway … and that’s never easy for a kid … no matter what age you are or how many times you go through it … it’s just never easy. I know that part for a fact. (Beat.) And I think Tommy had gone through it a lot … a couple times already. Once or twice, at least. That’s what it said in his file, anyway, but that information is not always accurate and it’s not something you can just blurt right out and ask a student, first time you meet ’em. Or counsel them, anyway. He dropped plenty of hints, of course, small things … stuff that you wouldn’t actually be able to call him on if you needed to … things about his step-father and how much he hated the guy and that sort of thing … it felt like he was covering for his mom and he probably was. Kids do that. Cover. No matter what you do to them, no matter how horrible you act … kids love their moms … that is just a fact. (Beat.) Anyhow, Tommy’s mother had made yet another mistake in life and love and it was her son who was trying to make it all better—and I see that behavior every day of the week in this job, and I mean every damn day … (Beat.) I’m not someone who swears a lot, but occasionally this job gets to you … (Beat.) And that is an understatement. (Beat.) It ALWAYS gets to you … just sometimes more than others.