TKAM post #2

Perspective: Jem
Chapter 6

I was very grateful when Atticus said that we could go to Ms. Rachel's fishpool for our last night with Dill before the school year began and he had to go home. We watched as Mr. Avery sat on his porch and sneezed. Dill was making a cigarette out of newspaper and string, and I warned him not to light it, cause he'd stink up the whole side of town. We decided to go on a walk, or at least Dill and I did. Scout was protesting, until I told her that she was being a girl and to stop being so frightened. She must have known us to well to know that we'd be going no where but the Radley place, and she knew very well why we had waited until the end of summer that night to do it. We snuck into the backyard from the schoolyard. It was hard and we had to spit on the gate to get it open without it creaking. We aproached the house slowly, careful to not make any noise. We walked to the first window, and I lifted Dill to the windowsil. He said that there were blinds in the way, and that he couldn't see much besides a light in the distance. I went on the porch, and the first stair squeaked. I launched myself onto the deck with all my might, and made not a sound when I came down. It was only then that Nathan Radley came and checked on the back porch. Scout and Dill must have seen him coming, but not dared say anything as to give me away. I noticed him as he walked past me about a foot, and then walked back the way he came. I bolted from the back porch, shooed Dill and Scout through the back gate and into the two rows of collards. Scout tripped and the sound of a shotgun erupted through the night. I could feel the wind ripple behind me as the round tore through the air. Dill and I dove to the ground, I told Scout that we needed to go to the fence by the school yard. We were running faster than ever before, in a desperate attempt to make an escape. I lifted the bottom wire so the two of them squeezed through, I tried to fit through, but I was stuck, and I watched they ran away without me. I squeezed and squirmed, and they turned around after noticing that I wasn't with them. I was desperate, I felt like I could hear Nathan Radley, walking up behind me, or was it my ears ringing from the shotgun shot? I wasn't taking any chances. I wriggled out of my pants and ran home in my shorts. When we got there, we saw that the neighborhood had gathered around the Radley house. I asked my dad what all the comotion was, and he told me that Mr. Nathan had shot a nigger, but missed, and said that if he heard anything move on his lawn again, he had the second shell ready, no matter what it was. He then noticed my lack of pants. I was only saved by Dill's clever idea to tell him that we were playing strip poker by Ms. Rachel's fishpool. I fallowed up to tell him that we were playing it with matches, becuase there would have been serious trouble if it was with cards. He told us to go and get my pants from Dill's place. I was very grateful that Dill had been so quick to that, and we said our goodbyes, and he kissed Scout on the cheek, they were engaged after all. It was hard to sleep that night, so I decided that I would go get my pants, just to clear all the evidence. Scout told me that she would tell Atticus, I told her that if she did I'd kill her. She also warned me that getting a few licks would be better than getting shot by Nathan Radley, who said that he would be waiting for the next noise that came from his back yard. I ran swiftly through the night, and retrieved my pants from the fence. I ran home as fast as I could and shivered on my cot, for the journey was frightening, until I fell asleep.