Journal #3 - Chapters 8-9

From the perspective of Jem:

After Dill left and school was back in session, we still found things to do around the neighborhood. I figured it would get boring, but we kept busy. For the first few days we kept busy with the snow. I had heard about snow before. I always wanted to see it in person, experience it, but it was really rare, especially for Alabama. I had also heard about snowmen, so I decided to make one with Scout. You would think it took a short while to make, but it fortunately took up some of our time. It turned out looking like Mr. Avery which made me chuckle. I didn't think it was a bad thing to make it look like Mr. Avery, but Atticus thought it was. I guess were not allowed to impersonate anyone in the neighborhood in any way. At least it was fun.

The night we made the snowman, everyone was soundly sleeping. All of a sudden, I hear Atticus telling me to wake up. Groggily, I hear him say,”Jem you have to wake up, there is a fire nearby!” I was lying in bed, still half asleep, thinking how can there be a fire when the weather is below freezing? Well, Atticus—who I thought of as more of an acquaintance more than a father—had never lied to me before, so I just kept my mouth shut and went along with what he said. He told me not to tell Scout but to let her figure it out herself. I agreed, knowing that she might panic or think that our house was on fire.

When we made it outside in the frozen air, I found out that Atticus was indeed telling the truth. Miss Maudie's entire house was blazing. Atticus made us stand over by the Radley's house and watch from afar. I felt like I was old and brave enough to help put the fire out, but I knew I had to stay with Scout. She was so cold, and looked almost sick, it was a sad sight. I did the best I could to comfort her, but soon the fire would be out.

I knew Miss Maudie would not be happy about her house burning down. More important, she wouldn't be happy her garden burnt down. She would recover it and be in a good mood in no time, I knew. That's just the way Miss Maudie is.

When the flames were most of the way out and other houses were out of danger, Atticus, Scout and I went back inside. I looked at Scout to see if she was okay, and I noticed a strange, unfamiliar blanket on her shoulders. Atticus asked where she got it and she looked surprise to see it there. Then she looked at me even though I was just as surprised as she was. Hmm, it couldn't have been Scout or Atticus, and I knew it wasn't me...the only person it could be was Arthur Boo Radley. At first I thought there was no way it was him, but after thinking about it, it could have been. After all, he did give us several other things.

It was weird knowing that he was alive, and then knowing that he was a very nice person. It almost made me feel bad for being so afraid of him. I was still very afraid, but I don't think I would tease him and his house so much anymore. Knowing he was nice was just more of an incentive to get him to come out. I would have to find a way.

The next day was a normal school day again. After school, I overheard Scout talking to Atticus about some sort of a trial. This interested me because normally me and scout would stay out of his business. I debated between jumping into the conversation or not, and finally decided not to. Atticus would tell me when he was ready if I didn't hear someone talk about it otherwise.

Christmas came around the corner and I wasn't really excited. We went to Finch's Landing once again to no surprise. I liked the place, it was just getting repetitive after going there for so long Christmas after Christmas. This time was slightly more different. It seemed as though there was a lot more tension in our family than usual. Something else that was different was Scout's language, and how Atticus let her use it. Typically, Atticus was fanatical about fowl language. I'm sure there was some specific reason as to why he let her, even though I was perplexed about the whole situation. She'd probably get over it, and things might return to normal afterwards. In the meantime, I spent my Christmas most like other Christmas'. Nothing really exciting went on. I did see Scout isolated in the corner later that first day, however I thought nothing much of it. She was probably scolded for cursing. Other than that, the days went by without anything special happening.