We had to frequently pass the property of Mrs. Dubose, though we were not willing to. Mrs Dubose was vicious. If I didn’t say hey to her when passing her property, she would call me ugly girl and blame me. She often said disrespectful words about us and our father. But our father said whatever she said to us, it was our job not to let her make us mad.
But one day, we heard insults aimed at Atticus from an adult not the children from school, Jem was provoked and lost his cool. He cut the tops off every camellia bush which Mrs. Dubose owned with my baton he bought me with his birthday money. Atticus knew it and asked Jem to have a talk with Mrs. Dubose. Back he came. Jem brought the news that he would read for her for a month. I went to Mrs. Dubose’s house together with Jem. It was so nasty. I saw Mrs. Dubose have fits or something when Jem was reading for her. So nasty. Every time we were waiting for the alarm clock going off and we would be released.
That Sunday, Atticus left us alone, so Calpurnia took us to the church. Lulu, a nigger said we couldn’t worship with them because we were white chillun. Later, Zeebo, the garbage collector let us worship with them. Reverend Sykes made every effort to collect ten dollars for Tom Robinson during the church. We talked about Tom with Calpurnia. When I asked Cal why she talked nigger-talk to her folks when she knew it was not right, Cal told me that she was black and it was not necessary to tell all you know because folks didn’t like to have somebody around knowing more than they did.
Aunt Alexandra would live with us for years and she wanted us to behave like a little lady and gentleman.
I told Atticus about the church that day with Calpurnia and asked Atticus whether I could do it again. It was heard and refused by Aunty. I said something impolite to her and Atticus got angry. After I apologized to Aunty and left, I heard Atticus and Aunty were quarrelling with each other about Calpurnia.
Dill appeared in my room unexpectedly. He said he left home alone without telling his mother. Atticus told Miss Rachel about it and let Dill sleep in our house that night.
One day, a crowd was around Atticus, Jem said Atticus was in danger. But Atticus said they were not mobs but friends. The next night, Jem, Dill and I went out to look for Atticus secretly. Until Jem found Atticus was in his office, he didn’t worry. But we heard there were other people with my father and we felt the danger. We appeared before the crowd, the new crowd, but I saw Mr. Cunningham who I knew and tried to talk to him to show my friendliness. Then they went away.
The court was about to begin before we got into the room but we lost the seats. Luckily, Reverend Sykes took us to the balcony. The first witness was Mr. Tate. He said that night Mr. Ewell fetched him and he saw Mayella was banged up on the right side of her face and there were definite finger marks all around her neck, but they didn’t call a doctor. Mr. Robert Ewell, Mayella’s father, the second witness said when he got into the house, he saw Tom just run out ahead of him but he didn’t run after him because of Mayella. When Mr. Ewell was asked to write his own name, we found that he was ambidextrous.
The witness Mayella accused Tom of hitting her, grabbing her around neck, choking he and taking advantage of her. But from Atticus’s cross-examination, the jury learned that Mayella’s father always drank up and came back sick. And Mayella didn’t stay in school because she said Papa needed them at home. Furthermore, when Tom stood up, he looked oddly off balance and we saw his left him was shorter than the right one and the left hand was no use.
It was Tom’s turn. According to him, we knew that Mayella always asked Tom to come inside her fence and help her do some chores. Tom was glad to help the lonely person. One day, Mayella sent the chillun away with money for ice-cream and she asked Tom come in as usual. She jumped on Tom and kissed him. Tom were scared to try to pass her, when Mr. Ewell came in and called her whore angrily.
But when Mr. Gilmer asked him questions, Tom’s answers were obviously not liked by other people. This was as much as I heard of Mr. Gilmer’s cross-examination, because I should take Dill who was crying loudly away. Dill said he couldn’t stand the way of Mr. Gilmer’s cross-examination.
When we went back to he court house, it was time for court reporter. Atticus didn’t do the thing as usual. He had a long talk about people were born equally in spite of white or black. But actually the black were looked down by the white and they were treated differently.