To Kill A Mockingbird #1

Journal #1
Chapters 1-3
Perspective of Dill

I went to visit Aunt Rachels for the summer. When I first arrived, I found out that the neighbor had kids to play with. They were named Jem and Scout. When I told them I could read, they weren't impressed. Most folk would be ecstatic to find that I could read not them. They don't believe I seven. Them think I four and half. At first, they weren't nice, making fun of my name but once we started playing, it was better. I don't know if I irked them, but they got over it. They seemed like the indigenous Maycomb folk. Aunt Rachel told me they were nice and they had a clubhouse. We were only allowed to play two houses up and three houses down.

There was this house owned by The Radleys. Jem and Scout had said they had never seen Boo Radley before. They asked Miss Stephanie Crawford and she told them that he hung out with the wrong people when he was a teenager and had gotten in trouble. His dad didn't want him to stay in the basement of the courthouse so he promised that he would make sure that he wouldn't get into anymore trouble. She said that nobody saw him again for 15 years. I thought that was creepy but I wanted to see what he looked liked. I was fascinated by the Radley place so I dared Jem to go and get him out of the house. Scout told me that Boo Radley was a malevolent phantom. He was blamed for all the crimes in Maycomb which I think isn't far but in this town, everyone knows each other so I guess they have a reason to think that. Jem was to scared to complete his dare and kept saying that he wasn't doing it so he would be able to protect Scout. I thought it was a load of crap but anyway. He never did it so I compromised. I just dared him to touch the house. He did and thought he was really cool. We could have sworn that after Jem touched the house, that we saw the curtains pop open for a near second.

That was the most exciting thing that we did while I was visting Aunt Rachels. Every day, Scout Jem and I would play and have the time of our life's. When I finally realized that I was leaving soon, I started to feel very sad. Jem and Scout were very eccentric. I really didn't have any friends like Jem and Scout in Meridan. I was going to miss them, but I will go back every summer and when my mommy won't let me go back anymore, I'll still go back.