Journal #2 - Chapters 4-7 - Perspective: Dill

Well, I am riding back to Maycomb on a train by myself for the summer. I can’t wait to see Scout and Jem again. That is something to look forward to because this train ride is not very fun. The seat hurts my back and I get weird look from people because I keep quibbling to myself. The train does not seem perfectly safe either. It teetered back and forth for a while.

After I got off the train I met with Auntie Rachel and we took the only cab in town to go eat at the diner, and I told her about the twins that were attached together. After we were done with dinner we took the cab back to Auntie Rachel’s house. Then I met up with Scout and Jem. We decided to play with a big tire, and scout went first. Jem was still annoyed with her for contradicting him about the malignant hot steam, so he pushed as hard as he can, but then he realized what was gonna happen so he tried to chase the tire. Scout and the tire finally fell over and scout was thrown right in front of the Radley’s house. Jem was yelling at her to grab the tire and run out but she was to confused and left the tire, so Jem had to go back and get it. Once we were safe in their yard Jem thought of a game that we could play about the Radley’s. I would be Mr. Radley, Scout would be Mrs. Radley and Jem would be Boo Radley. Over the course of the summer the game became more perfected.

I spent a lot of my time with Jem, so scout spent most of her time with Miss Maudie. One day scout came out to the backyard and we tried to kick her out but she wouldn’t go, so we included her in our plan to give Boo Radley a letter through one of the side windows. Sometimes that girl could be a chameleon with all her attitude changes. I would be at the front looking out, scout in the back, and Jem would try to throw the note on a fishing pole through the window. It was going fine for a little bit, but then Atticus came along and discovered what we were doing. He wasn’t too happy.

On my last night Jem and I decided that we wanted to see if we could see Boo Radley. We allowed scout to help us if she kept quiet, and we all had to. When I was telling scout all this I had a sudden surge of tyranny. I could tell scout didn’t like it very much, but she would just have to deal with it. We tried the side first, but you could only see curtains, so we went around the back. Jem went up the steps, but there was the shadow of a man. We started to run and then we heard a shotgun fire. Jem got stuck in the fence and had to pull off his pants to get through. When we walked around the front there was neighbors surrounding the Radley’s yard and Mr. Radley was holding a shot gun. They didn’t know what we had done so we walked up and asked what had happened. Everyone noticed that Jem wasn’t wearing any pants, so we had to make up a lie that we were playing strip poker. Auntie Rachel wasn’t happy about that. Once we walked back to the house we said our goodbyes and I went inside. Then, I remembered that I was engaged to Scout, so I ran back out and kissed her right in front of Jem. I liked it, and I think she did too.