Darnell Moore (DM) and Brian Epps (BE)

DM: At thirteen I was a nerd. I took such great pride at wearing dress pants and button up shirts, unfortunate white socks like I was a preacher. And my grandmother would send us to the store, and I hated going to the store because I know somebody between my grandmama’s house and the store would be somebody wanting to pick on me for some reason.So at the time I was coming from the store. It was broad daylight, and I see a group of boys walking towards me and I, I knew something was going to happen. As they approached me they called me names faggot, sissy, and they had a milk carton. I didn’t know what it was filled with but it spilled a bit. It was gasoline.My next-door neighbor was one of the young men. And he emptied the gasoline on me. I recall him attempting to light a match and it just wouldn’t light. That happened about three times. And by the time he tried to light the match again my aunt had came outside.

I just remember my aunt dragging me to the local hospital with gasoline in my eyes. The gasoline just stank so bad and I smelled like that for twenty-four hours.

I was never really angry. I just was embarrassed. You know I was picked on in front of teachers in front of adults on streets so I was used to it. And I don’t know why it took me until adulthood to actually get in my head that that was literally somebody trying to end my life.

BE: Do you know where they are now?

DM: I don’t. Actually I tried to search for the one neighbor who poured the gasoline on me. And it’s so funny, in recalling the story, even while the other guys were punching me, I was only focused on him because I think I always wanted his friendship. I just never imagined that a kid that knows your name who lives in the same neighborhood as you would want to do something like that.

I wish I could have asked, ”Why’d you do that? Why would you want to light me on fire? What did I do to him to make him want to do that?”