Journal #7- Chapter 20-24

Calpurnia

Mr. Finches case had been goin' on for a couple of hours now. I was tryin' not to think about what was goin' to happen but I just couldn't help myself. I just knew that Tom was goin' to lose, and it killed me to think of what they would to him if he did. Mr. Finch'l probably be closin' up the case by now. I was just thinkin' when I heard Mrs. Alexandra walk into the room.
"Where are the children?" She asked.
I thought for a minute and realized I hadn't heard them in a while. This predicament upset me.
"I bet those children went to the court house, you better an' go get them, their not supposed to be over there."
I couldn't believe they had left, they were told not to go anywhere! I quickly wrote a note to give to Mr. Finch and I ran to the court house. When I got there I walked inside, I was apparent that the final statements had just been made. I walked right through the middle of the court and handed to note to Mr. Finch. He looked up at the balcony and said "come down here Jem" They came down and Jem pleaded to stay and watch the rest. I was so mad that they had left when they knew not to that I wouldn't have let them ever come back. But Mr. Finch sad to let it be, they had already seen most of it. I took them home for dinner. Miss. Rachel came, she had been worried sick about Dill all day. I gave them my best lecture on why they shouldn't have gone. Kids their shouldn't be listenin' to the facts of cases like those! It was improbable that they even listened to a word I said.
After they went back to the court house I was left again to wonder what the jury had come up with even thought I had an idea. After about an hour I saw Mr. Finch walking towards the house with the children behind him. He had no expression on his face but the children looked like they were in pain. I knew just by looking at them what had happened...
When they were inside Jem was cryin' and Atticus still had no expression. He said everything would be better tomorrow. The next day was a sad one. The kids went to talk to Miss. Maudie and Atticus went out to the post office. A while later I heard that Mr Ewell had spit in Mr. Finches face and threatened him. Poor Mr. Finch, people will never get over this one, it's inevitable.
A couple of days later Miss. Alexandra had one of her get-togethers. Jean Lousie got all dressed up for it cus' Dill and Jem weren't with her. They talked for a while while I served them until something strange happened, Atticus came home and it was the middle of the day. This filled me with apprehension, something must be wrong. He called me and Mrs. Alexandra aside. He asked if I would come over to Helen Robinsons house with him, he said that Tom was dead. Shot. He tryed to escape but they just shot him without givin' him a chance. Poor, poor Robinson family.
A couple of days later

Journal #6- Chapters 17, 18 and19

Mayella Ewell

's court day. Father helped me with what I'm goin' to say. We went over the story many times so that I would get everythin' right 'n court. As I was lookin' out the window I saw loads of people comin' into town. I hoped they weren't all comin' to see the case. I tried washing my face but nuthin' would come off of it, so I gave up. Father told me that if I cried on the stand tha' I would make the jury feel bad for me.
We walked up to the court house the back way so no one saw us, then we sat an' waited for the people to come inside. I saw that nigger sitting on the other end of the court room wisperin' to Atticus. I couldn't even look at Atticus I knew all the questions he had planed were goin' to be hard for me to answer. Everyone filled in the court room, more people then I had ever seen. It looked to me that Judge Taylor was falling asleep. The court was brought to order and the first person brought to the stand was Heck Tate. He was bein' asked questions 'bout when he came to our house after I was attacked, the same story that I had heard over and over again. After the cross-examination father was asked to come to the stand. They asked him to say what happened in his own words the night I was raped. He said the story that we went over, he looked in the window and saw Tom hitting me. He ran inside and Tom ran away, I was beat up and it had been that nigger that had done it. I knew that it wasn't all the way true, it's true that I was with Tom but that is not the real story. I knew tat I would be called to the stand next, I thought about the story and got ready to start crying.
"Mayella Violet Ewell!" It was time for me to go up. I looked around at everyone watching me. Mr. Gilmer asked me easy questions, about where I was and what had happened, I told him what I had to. But after a few of the questions I didn't want to answer anymore. I looked down and I started to cry, louder and louder. Judge Taylor finally said I needed to stop my crying, and he asked me what I was scared of. I looked at Atticus and gave him the biggest glare that I could
"Him!" I shouted. They asked me why I was scared of Atticus and I said that he was going to ask me questions that would make me look like I had done somethin' wrong. They took a minute for me to stop and then Atticus needed to stated my questionin'. He went about callin' me "Miss Mayella" like I was lower then him, like I was nothin'! I told him that he needed to stop makin' fun of me if he wanted me to answer his questions. He told me he wasn't tryin' to scare me but I knew that wasn't true. " He just wanted me to tell the truth" But he just went along treatin' me like dirt. He asked me if I loved my dad and he kept repeating the questions to try and get a different answer out of me. He kept this up and after a while I just stopped asking the questions. But then he asked me if it was tom or my own dad that abused me. I couldn't answer that, he was making me mad. So I told him I had one last thing to say I told him everything we had been over and then I stopped talking. They took me off the stand.
Next Atticus called up Tom. He asked the same kinds of questions but all of his answers were different, His were the truth.

Journal #5 13,14, and 15

Aunt Alexandra

Atticus asked me at Christmas if I would be willing to come to his house at watch his kids for a while because he was going to be busy with the case he was working on. I told him I really didn't want to watch his uncontrollable kids but I would because he is my brother. I came that summer and no one was home. I sat down on their porch and waited. About 5 minutes later I saw those kids wearing fancy clothes, walking with that nanny of theirs. It was the first time I had seen Jean Louise in proper clothing for a girl. I said hello as nice as I could, and I tried to make conversation with Jean and she gave me short answers. I told them that I would be staying with them for a while. Both of the kids looked confused as to why I was staying and Calpurnia had a pensive look on her face.
It was very awkward being with the kids, no one really talked until Atticus got back. I was talking about family members at dinner and Jem asked about one of them. This shocked me. Atticus should be teaching his kids about this family and the reputation that we have here in Maycomb. I let Atticus know this and he said he would talk to the kids, I hope he kept his word. Those kids have so much to learn about being proper and living up to the expectations we have for this family. The next day me and Atticus had an argument about their "nanny" Calpurnia. I just don't think that Jem and Jean Louise needed an nanny at this age. I mean Jean wanted to go over to that woman's house! They have just grown to attached to her and Atticus has let it go on to long. We also talked about how Scout needs to learn more about being a lady, she can't run around outside all the time playing with a bunch of boys. He is just oblivious to the fact that his children are out of control. Later that night Jem and Scout had a fight, I didn't care what it was about it was just so immature of them. Atticus broke it up. When the kids Finally go to bed, what do you know, I can hear them again and this time there is someone else there too. I hear Atticus walk into their room, then he goes back to the kitchen to get some food. I asked him what had happened. He told me that one of the kids friends had come for a visit he said amiably.
Other then the children's antagonizing arguments and behaveior I loved Maycomb. I would have people over to the house for tea very often and I loved to listen to all the latest gossip. Everyone seemed to like me very much. One night Atticus went out. The kids looked upset but I thought I could trust them to stay and wait. I guess I was wrong, those kids snuck out and followed Atticus. They are just awful, they have a infallible sense of what will make me mad.

Journal #4- Chapter 10,11, and 12

Mrs. Dubose

Today I heard lots of yelling about a " mad dog" I don't know what that is at all but everyone said to stay in the house. I didn't care about some ol' mad dog, I wanted to stay on my porch but Jessie said I should come inside. I looked out my window and the only person I saw in the street was that nigger-lover with a gun, it was pointed at some poor old dog. Then he just shot the poor thing! No one bothered to tell me why he needed to shot the dog...
A few days later I was just sitting on my porch when those two ungrateful, improper Finch children walked by my house. They walked by everyday and I just couldn't stand it.
"Where are you two going at this time of day?" I just knew they were playing hooky
Those two nasty kids contradicted me, they said it was Saturday! Then they started lyin' to me bout' and I told the girl that she should be wearing overalls like a good girl not nasty overalls. Finally I told them a little bit about their father. I told them how he was a nigger-lover. I could see that the boy was gettin' mad so I kept going. Finally they left me alone.
I went back inside my house a little bit later but I sat at my window looking through. Bout' a half hour later those two kids come back with a baton. The boy stopped and looked at my house with what looked like madness in his eyes then he took the baton from the girl and ran up to my cameilla flowers and swiped the tops off of them. I couldn't believe this! What a terrible little monster! I called up the Finch's house and told Clapurnia what that child had done. She said Atticus would take care of it. I doubt that man can handle those kids at all. I waited and waited for someone to call or come over and apologize. Finally that boy came and mumbled in an inaudible tone that he was sorry. I told him that he should be and that I wanted him to clean up my yard. Then I thought that it would be nice if he would read to me after school. I told him to come by every day after school for two hours and on Saturdays. He looked like he was in peril when I told him this, he was so mad.
The next day he came with his brat of a sister. They sat down and I handed them the book. Before he started to read I made sure to tell them about their father again just in case they weren't clear the first time. I didn't really listen to the reading, after a while I would just blank out and forget what happened, and by the time I woke up they would be gone. It went like this for a month, everyday before he started to read I would insult them in some way. I didn't care. The next days passed quickly, I had freed myself and I knew that it was growing closer to my time. Atticus helped me with my will, I wrapped up a camellia flower and asked Atticus to give it to Jem, I hoped that he knew what it meant. My time has finally come. . .

Journal # 3- Chapters 8-9

Atticus

Poor Ms. Radley died this winter. I went over to see what had happened but it looked as if nothing had changed. I asked Mr. Radley how she died and he told me it was of natural causes. I came home that day and I could see that my kids had something to say. I could almost tell what they were thinking. I was almost sure they believed that Aurthur Radley had killed his own mother. Ever sense that night last summer when the gun went off at the Radley's I was suspicious about what had really gone on. I think that this town should just leave them alone and I am trying to teach my children that.

This has been the coldest winter we had had in a really long time. school was canceled and Scout and Jem decided to make a snowman. I was very busy with the case I was working on so I couldn't stay home and watch them, but they did show me once I got home. When I first looked at the snow man I didn't notice the resemblance but with the second look I could see that it was exactly like Mr. Avery. I was sure they did this on purpose and I must admit it did make me laugh some. I told them to get rid of some of the belly. That night was very cold. I had just checked on my children when I saw the sky outside turn reddish and cloudy, I looked outside and saw that Miss Maudie's beautiful garden was on fire and so was the first story of her house. I could see that the wind was blowing in our direction, so I knew we had to leave. I walked calmly into the hall accepting that there was a fire and I got Jem up. Then we walked into Scouts room. She looked so peaceful sleeping; I didn't want to wake her up. I did, and I could tell that she didn't realize it wasn't morning. We walked outside in the freezing cold, I told Scout and Jem to stand by the Radley's gate and wait for me while I helped. I felt bad about leaving them in the cold. We rescued some of Miss Maudie's furniture and the fire didn't quite reach our house. Miss Maudie didn't seem to shaken up so we went back to the house and made hot chocolate. We will be going to Finches landing soon...I hope Scout can get along with her cousin Francis.

I had recently told Scout to stop all of her fighting but I guess she just can't help it. It happened after Christmas dinner. Us adults were just sitting around talking when we heard Francis yelling that Scout had locked him in the old kitchen. We just left that be. But then about 5 minutes later we heard Francis yelling and crying. Then we all ran outside and Francis said that Scout called him a whore-lady then punched him in the face. This disappointed me very much, we just had a talk about all of her cussin'. I took her home after she shouted at uncle Jack that she hated him. Later Uncle Jack came to talk to her about it. I didn't know what they were talking about but Scout seemed like she felt better afterwards. Then me an' Jack had a talk about what had happened and about how people are going to start talking about me when the trail starts and how I wanted Scout to trust me and not listen to the folks in town. I knew that she was listening to us the whole time but I didn't let her know that.
"Jean Louise...go to bed" I hoped she understood everything that I had said.

Journal #2-Chapter 4-7

Jem


Finally school is over. I can relax and I won't have to worry about evading my sister. me n' Scout made some new discoveries. I came home one day an' scout was chewing double mint gum, I asked her where she got it and she said that she found it. Gross, she found it, I bet she got it off the ground, I thought to myself. I told her that she can't just go around pickin' up gum and eating it. She said she found it stuck to the Radley's ol' tree in their yard, it had gum rappers around it. I thought this was a little strange.

The next day we were walking past the Radley's place and there was a shiny little box on the same knot-holes the gum. Scout shouted and I reached up to pick up the tin foil. It was one of those boxes that hold wedding rings and inside there were two Indian head pennies. They were nice and polished so it was obvious they belonged to someone, but who? This was our new mystery for the summer.

Dill was coming again for the summer. I liked it when Dill came, he made my summers more fun. We were very bored and too lazy to do anything the first day we were with Dill. Scout went to go and get the tire so she could roll in it. I pushed her so hard and she was going so fast the she ran right into the Radley's door steps. I kept yelling at her to get up but she was taking really long, finally when she got up she forgot to get the tire ans she told me to go get it. I ran as fast as I could to get it and ran back. Just then Calpurnia called to us that it was lemonade time, we finished our lemonade and I had a great idea for a game to play.

"I know what we are going to play, something new and different!"

"What?"

"Boo Radley"

I still hadn't exactly figured out what it was but I had a pretty good idea about how it was going to go. I was going to be Boo Radley, I figured this would be the most fun to play. Dill was Mr. Radley and Scout was Mrs. Radley. We played this game for most of the days, reenacting all of the Radley rumors and one day Atticus heard us playing, he saw me reenacting stabbing. He asked us what we are doing and I lied. Scout was afraid to play the game now, I didn't care so we kept it up. Scout told me she now knows for sure that someone is in the Radley's house cus' she heard someone laughing, and that's why she doesn't want to play. I think she just being a girl

Me an' Dill are planing things together without Scout, cus' she always ruins our plans or she act to much like a girl. Miss Maudie Atkinson made us the best cakes the other day. That lady is a chameleon, she does everything from gardenin' to bakin'. Her n' Scout talked for a long while about Boo Radley. Miss Maudie Atkinson believes that Boo just doesn't want to come out of his house. I think that he is crazy. The next day me an' Dill made a note for Boo. We was goin' to stuck it onto a fishin' pole and stick it in his window, Scout was scared but we told her she had to help us if she wanted to play with us. The note got stuck on the fishin' pole and I couldn't get it off, then Atticus came and he got made at us for tormenting and makin' fun of Mr. Radley. I was about to start quibbling with Atticus but I knew that wouldn't get me anywhere.

Dill had to leave the next day. Me n' him were really upset that we didn't get to see Boo Radley, so we planed on going at night so no one could see us. Unfortunately Scout was with us when we were going for our "walk" and we couldn't get rid of her so we had to tell her what we were up to. she whined and pleaded like a little girl and told us we were crazy. I told her she was becoming more and more of a girl and that made her shut up, she decided to come with us. We went through the back yard and saw it was even worse then the front. we walked as slowly and as quietly as we could. finally we got up to the window, mean' Scout lifted Dill up so her could see, but the curtains were drawn. I volunteered to go to the front porch and look. As I was standing there on the Radley's porch I teetered back and forth. Then I saw a shadow behind me, it was the shadow of a man with a hat on. My knees buckled and I suddenly couldn't move. The figure raised his arm and put it back down again, I could hear Dill an' scout runnin' so I bolted down the steps to follow them. I could see that scout had fallen and I was about to go and help her when I heard the gun shot. I yelled at Scout to hurry to the school yard. She got up and ran with Dill. I tried to got out of the fence after them but my pants got caught, I pulled them off as fast as I could, and then I ran.

We got back to our house and saw that everyone had gathered around the Radley's place. We better go over there I thought. Me, Dill an' Scout went over there too. Miss Maudie Atkinson asked what had happened and we lied ans said we didn't know. Then she looked me up and down and asked "where are your pants Jem." I didn't know what I was supposed to say.
"I won them from him" Said Dill I blanked out on the rest of the conversation cus' I was still shaken up from what had happened. Then I heard Atticus tell me to go and get my pants from Dill so we walked to his house said our goodbyes and went home.

I couldn't sleep at all, nethier could Scout. I told her I needed to get my pants or else Atticus would find out what we had done. She begged me not to go said I was goin' to get myself killed. But I had to go. So I did.

School started up again. Scout wouldn't stop complaining 'bout how bad 2nd grade was. I was very quite sense that night and I had a secret that I hadn't told Scout yet. That night when I went to get my pants they were not in the same place I had left them. They were sewn up and folded by the gate, like someone knew i was comin' to get them. I was so scared that I couldn't tell Scout for weeks. After I told her we started finding things left in the knot-hole in the tree. First we found soap carvings of us, then gum, then a medal and one day the biggest surprise of them all. We got a watch with a chain and a knife. This was a little creepy but we were thankful so we wrote a note. We went to go and put it in the tree and saw that Mr. Radley had clsoed up the hole, he said the tree was dyin'. I cried all night.

Journal #1- Chapters 1-3

Sorry It's so late.
Dill
I was all alone, sitting in my Aunt Rachel's collard patch when I first met my two summer friends. As I was sitting there, thinking about what I was going to do in Maycomb Alabama for a whole summer I heard a noise at the fence. I looked up and saw a girl with short hair and freckles and a boy a bit taller then her.
"Hey" I said, excited to see some kids around my age.
"Hey yourself" they boy said. This boy's age and manor of speaking intimidated me just a little bit, but I knew that I would be needing some friends for the summer so I smiled and told him my name that I was so proud of. He told me his name was Jem and the girl was Scout. Then I told the both of them that I could read. Jem and Scout seemed to think that this couldn't be true, so I told them that I was goin' on seven years old. Back in my indigenous area called Meridian Mississippi everyone would question my age cus' I was so small, sometimes I wished I was just a little bit taller. Me and Jem and Scout talked about who we were and where we come from for a while and then Scout asked me about who my father was.
"You haven't said anything about him."
"I haven't got one"
This was something that I would always pronounce when I met new people. Everyone seemed to be confused by it but everything just made perfect sense to me.
Everyday for a long while we would see each other and play together but one day I finally asked the one question that I wanted to know. There was this house one the corner, I had never seen anyone go in or come out of it and it fascinated me. Jem and Scout warned me about it but that just made me more interested. Finally they told me the story. They say that a man lives in there but the story of why he never comes out has never been confirmed. It was called the Radley Place. Th Radley's all used to live there. One of the sons, who everyone called Boo Radley was in one of the first gangs in Maycomb. They were arested on many charges and Boo was supposed to be sent to an industrial school. Mr. Radley wouldn't have it so they kept Boo inside and he wasn't seen for fifteen years. This part of the story irked me, how could anyone stay inside for fifteen years. Anyway one day Boo was sitting g in a chair cutting up the news paper and suddenly he stabbed his father with the scissors. No one had the heart to put him in jail, so he stayed in the basement of the courthouse. the dad eventually died and he is said to be living with his older brother.
This story did scare me like it seemed to scare the rest of the town. So I proposed an idea. I dared Jem to go an touch the house.
"Lets try to make him come out" I said
I could see on Jem's face that he was scared cus' of all the rumors about Boo, but he said he ain't a sissy. So he ran up to the house as fast as he could touched and ran right back down to us. I laughed at how scared he looked.
The rest of our summer consisted of rumors and story telling about the Radley's and lots of lemonade. Right before I left me and Jem made a compromise, that next time I would have to touch the Radley's house, but I'm not planing on it.