Killing Mr. Griffin

Mark’s uncle and aunt, his adoptive parents, wonder aloud about why Mark never spends time with them. They took him in when Mark was 13 years old, after his father died and his mother had a nervous breakdown. Mark witnessed his house burn down with his father inside, and his own mother told him to his face she didn’t want to see him again. Mark’s uncle says he thinks Mark is weird and compares him to his own children, commenting that his children were sociable as teenagers, and he saw them more than he ever sees Mark. Mark’s aunt reasons that the tragic events Mark went through as a child had a traumatic effect. Mark’s uncle wonders aloud where Mark goes to at night and whether he’s involved with drugs.

Meanwhile, Dave snaps at his grandmother, worried that her bad memory will ruin his alibi from the night before. His grandmother says that Dave rode around with his friends after school the day before and didn’t come home until after dinnertime. Dave slams his cup down at the breakfast table, frustrated and lies that he sat with his grandmother and watched TV while she ate her Jell-O.