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.