TKAM Blog Post # 3: Chapters 10-12

Jem

         My name is Jem and I am twelve years old. I have a younger sister named Scout, and my father's name is Atticus. My mother died when I was very young. I am very adventurous and I like to play outside with my best friend Dill, as well as with my sister. One day, me and Scout were walking when we saw a dog in the street. It looked really sick, and I wanted to tell Cal about it since I felt in peril. I went back to the house as quickly as possible, and we later found out that that dog, old Tim Johnson, was a mad dog. Cal called Atticus up and told him about it, and he raced back home with Mr. Heck Tate, the sheriff of Maycomb. The dog was coming closer and closer, and I saw that Mr. Tate was going to shoot the thing. Suddenly, he gave the gun to Atticus. I was in deep confusing at what was going on, I mean Atticus can't do anything?! He can't even manage to play keep away with me unlike my school contemporaries, so how in the world could he possibly shoot something? In that same moment I watched Atticus walk to the middle of the street then raise the gun. This was going to end badly; surely my father was going to miss. In a hot second it was over. I glanced over quickly to see the outcome of the situation. My head was spinning. I could not function because of my disbelief in what just happened. I wanted to say something, but it would of been inaudible. Scout pinched me back to reality. I could of never, ever guessed that Atticus was capable of doing that! It turns out my father is also known as "One-Shot Finch!" 


         Lately, I've been hearing a lot of down talking about my father, and how he is defending niggers. I've been pretty good about ignoring it all, but Mrs. Debose, the meanest  lady I know, is getting to me about it. Can she get any ruder about the topic? Yes, my father laws for negroes. Does it matter that he doesn't judge you based on your color, that he treats everyone equally? He's a great man. One day she said, "Your father's no better than the niggers and trash he works for!" I can't believe I heard that coming from an adult. How mature! I definitely contradicted her in that moment. I was not just going to let that go, she has to know that saying that about my father is not at all a good thing to do. She was going to pay. I grabbed Scout's baton I bought her with my birthday money and ran to Mrs. Dubose's front yard, cutting off the tops of every single camellia bush she had. I hope that the mess would be inconspicuous. I then snapped the baton in half and later kicked Scout, but I regretted it as soon as I did it. Later, Atticus saw what I did, and I apologized to Mrs. Dubose about it. I did not mean any word I said to her; she didn't deserve a apology for all the crap she has said to me and Scout. My punishment was reading to her every day after school and also on Saturday's for two hours. I had to do this for a month! What a cruel, and unfair punishment! I didn't deserve this, I was going to be tortured. Ugh.


         The month went by, though Atticus made me do an extra week upon Mrs. Debose's accidental request. The reading wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, though it still was pretty bad. Mrs. Dubose wasn't so rude and degrading as she was before the month of reading, and in a way I kind of liked her. A month after my punishment was over, Atticus got a call stating that Mrs. Dubose had just died. Apparently she was a morphine addict, and that is why she had her random fits; it was because she wasn't getting her "medicine." Too bad for her. I felt bad and in a way, I was going to miss her.