TKAM (Jems) #2

Because of the Dewy Decimal System, I could not wait for school to be over. Plus, because Scout got out of school 30 minutes before me, I was so jealous. One day, Scout came to me and told me that she found gum that she is chewing in some tinfoil sticking out of a knothole in one of the Radleys' oak trees. I was frightened that Scout would do something like this because even touching a tree over at the Radleys would get someone killed. Scout has much to learn because she still does not understand the dangers of germs and strangers. On the last day of school, I was so glad to be out. While we were walking by the Radleys place, we found old “Indian-head” pennies in the same knothole that Scout found her gum. Now that summer is here, me, Dill and Scout begin our fun. One of the first games we played was called the tire roll where we would roll ourselves inside an old tire. On Scouts turn, she rolled all the way to the Radleys steps. Scout was freaking out by the time she realized and so was I. Scout quickly rushed back to us and looked like she almost saw a ghost.

Because of the tire roll incident, this surprisingly gave me an idea for a new game. I called it “Boo Radley.” As the summer begins the age, we began to think of more complicated rules and parts to our Boo Radley game. Our game got so big that it eventually turned into a play about the Radleys. When it got the Boo’s scene, we would steal the scissors from the sewing drawer and use it as a prop. Every day we would play this and for hours at a time. We thought of new ideas all the time to keep the game alive. One day, dad saw us playing the game and realized that it had something to do with the Radleys. I knew at the point that I had to lie if we were going to get out of this alive. I don’t know if it is safe to play our game anymore after that.

After a while, I felt like I was bonding with Dill. We had the same interests and we could relate with each other. Once in a while I would think about Scout because she probably feels left out and lonely. Luckily, Scout found a friend. Her name is Miss Maudie Atkinson, Scout would spend her day baking and cooking with her. Meanwhile, Dill and me were planning on asking Boo out for some ice cream. We tried to give a note to Boo by sticking it through the window with a fishing pole but dad caught us and demanded the immediate stop of what we were doing and the Radley game.

We listened to dad for a while until the last day Dill was in Maycomb. Dill and I snuck over to the Radleys place and planned to look through a shutter. We looked through almost every single window and suddenly, we saw a man with a hat. Then out of nowhere, we hear a shotgun go off. We sprinted out and escaped from going under a fence by the schoolyard. My pants got caught on the fence and I had to kick them in order to free myself. When we came back, all the neighborhood adults were there talking about why Boo fired a shotgun. Dad then asks my where my pants were and Dill saved me by saying we were playing some strip poker. I later sneaked over to the Radleys to retrieve my pants. After the school year began again, Scout was complaining because it was as bad as 1st grade. We would check that knothole almost everyday and found presents a lot. We would wait a few days just incase it was not for us. On day there was two soap figures to resemble me and Scout which was freaky. One day, the knothole was filled with cement and dad told us that the tree was dying.