Chapter 28 Chapter Twenty Eight

It was the last day of October and it was so warm we didn't even need coats.The wind was blowing harder and Jem said it might rain before we got home.There was no moon in the sky that night. The corner lamps cast sharp shadows on the Radley house.I heard Jem chuckle and say, "I bet no one bothered them tonight." Jem helped me carry my ham-shaped costume, which got in the way a little because it really wasn't. easy to take.I think it's very generous of Jem to do that. "It's a scary house, don't you think?" I asked him. "The weirdos don't mean to hurt anybody, but I'm glad you're there."

"You know, Atticus won't let you go to school alone," said Jem. "I don't see why it has to be accompanied. It's just around the corner and across the playground." "A little girl walks across the playground in the middle of the night, and that's a long way," quipped Jem. "Aren't you afraid of ghosts?" We both laughed.Ghosts, thermal currents, spells, secret symbols, as we grow older, these shadows disappear like morning fog in the sun's rays. "How's that mantra?" said Jem, "'Angel of light, live and die; get out of my way, don't breathe in me.'"

"Shut up." I stopped him hastily, as we were walking in front of the Radley house. Jem said, "The Boo isn't home. Listen." High above our heads a lone robin was singing his repertoire endlessly in the dark, so happy and sweet that he forgot he was standing on someone's tree.It first made a sharp "cheep" of a sunflower bird, then changed to a violent "quack" of a blue jay, and then sang the lament of the nightjar sadly: "Purwell, Puwell Well, Powell." Turning the corner, I tripped over a bulging tree root, and Jem scrambled to help me up, dropping my costume on the floor.Fortunately, I didn't fall, and the two of them immediately started to move forward again.

We got off the road and turned into the school playground, only to see it was pitch black inside. "Jem, how do you know where we are?" I asked after taking a few steps. "I know we're under the big oak because we're going through a shady place. Be careful and don't trip again." We both slowed down and groped forward carefully so as not to bump into a tree.It was a lonely old oak tree with a trunk so thick that two children could not hug each other.The tree was quite far from the teacher and his spies, and his curious neighbors, rather close to the Radleys, but the Radleys never minded their own business.There was a small area under the trees, the ground was well-trodden from countless fights and furtive dice-throwings.

The high school auditorium was brightly lit, and the distance was bright and bright, dazzled our eyes. "Don't look straight ahead, Scout," said Jem, "watch your feet so you don't fall." "Jem, you should have brought the flashlight." "I didn't expect the sky to become so dark. It doesn't look like it will be so dark this evening. It's all because the sky is very cloudy. But it won't rain for a while." Suddenly someone rushed towards us. "My God!" exclaimed Jem. A halo of light hit our faces, and Cecil jumped out from behind, giggling. "Ha-ha-ha, frightening you!" he screamed. "I guess you'll go this way!"

"What are you doing out here all alone, boy? Aren't you afraid of Boo Radley?" It turned out that Cecil arrived at the auditorium by car with his parents first. He didn't see us, so he bravely ran such a long way to wait alone, because he thought we would definitely go this way.Only, he thought Atticus would accompany us to the auditorium. "Well, it's not far, it's just around the corner," said Jem. "Is there any coward who can't even turn the corner?" Then again, we have to admit, Cecil Hui really had the upper hand.He gave us such a shock that he could be bragging all over the school tomorrow—he had the privilege.

"Hey," I said, "you're going to be the cow tonight? Where's your costume?" "It's backstage," he replied. "Mrs. Merriweather says we'll have to wait a while. Scout, you can put your costumes backstage, too, with mine. Together, so we can hang out with other people." Jem thought it was a great idea.He also thought it would be great to have Cecil with me to play with, so he could get out and hang out with his peers. We went into the Great Hall to find almost everyone in town present except Atticus and the ladies who were exhausted from a day of decorating the set.Of course, those who have been traditionally excluded or isolated from others are not included.Most of the county seemed to be there, too: the corridors were packed with well-groomed country folk.The corridor on the first floor of the high school building is very wide, with stalls on both sides, and people crowded around in a mess.

"Oh, Jem, I forgot to bring my money." I sighed when I saw this. "Atticus didn't forget," said Jem. "Here's the trio, and you can play six games. See you later." "Okay." I agreed wholeheartedly.With the three cents and the company of Cecil, I was very happy.Cecil and I walked to the front of the auditorium, through a side door, and into the backstage.As soon as I dropped the ham costume, I ran away, because Mrs. Merriweather was standing on the pulpit in front of the first row of seats, making frantic last-minute revisions to the script. "How much did you bring?" I asked Cecil.He also has three cents, so we're even.We started by wasting a nickel each on the "House of Horror" because it wasn't scary at all: We walked into a dark seventh-grade classroom with a makeshift ghoul in it, and we were in the ghoul's room. He walked around under the leadership, and touched a few so-called human organs as instructed. "Here's the eyes." At these words, we touched two peeled grapes in a saucer. "This is the heart."—but it feels like raw pork liver. "These are intestines." - our hands in a plate of cold greasy spaghetti.

Cecil and I visited several stalls and each bought a bag of homemade marshmallows by Judge Taylor's wife.I wanted to play "apple in mouth," but Cecil said it was unhygienic.According to his mother, so many people had soaked their heads in the same water basin back and forth, and they might catch some disease. "I never heard that there is an infectious disease in the town now." I was unwilling.But Cecil insisted, his mother said, that it was unhygienic to chew on someone else's apple.I later asked Aunt Alexandra her opinion, and she said that those who hold this view are generally those who are determined to climb up and enter the upper class.

We were about to pay for a taffy when Mrs. Merriweather's orderly descended from the sky and ordered us to hurry backstage and get ready for the show.People poured into the auditorium one after another, and the Maycomb High School band had already assembled just below the stage. The footlights on the stage were lit, and people were running around in a hurry behind the red velvet curtain. Ripples, rolling up and down waves for a while. Cecil and I went backstage and found the narrow aisle packed with people: grown-ups wearing hats ranging from homemade cocked hats to Confederate caps to Spanish-American War caps and World Wars. period helmet.Children disguised as various agricultural products crowded together in front of a small window.

"Someone crushed my costume." I yelled in frustration.Mrs. Merriweather came running at once, helped me reshape the barbed wire, and enclosed me. "Are you all right in there, Scout?" Cecil asked. "Your voice sounds so far away, like a mountain away." "You sound the same," I said. The band played the national anthem, we heard the audience rise, and then the bass drum came on.Mrs. Merriweather, standing behind the pulpit next to the orchestra, gave the title of the program in Latin first.The bass drum thumped again. "It means," Mrs. Merriweather translated for some ignorant people in the audience, "that the rough road leads to the stars." She added: "This is a stage play." I think this sentence is unnecessary. "I think if she doesn't explain, everyone won't know what it means." Cecil lowered his voice and just finished speaking, and immediately drew a "shh". "There is no one in the town who doesn't know." I replied softly. "But the country folks are coming too," said Cecil. "Behind you, be quiet," someone ordered, and we both fell silent. Every time Mrs. Merriweather said a word, the bass drum thumped and thumped.She narrated in a melancholy tone that Maycomb County was older than Alabama, that it was once part of the Mississippi Territory and the Alabama Territory, that it was the first person to set foot on this land. The White Man of the Wild Woods was a great-uncle out of five suits by the probate judge, who was then lost to obscurity, and then came the gallant and fearless Colonel of Maycomb, from whom Maycomb County was born. famous. Colonel Andrew Jackson sent Colonel Maycomb to rule the area, but his self-confidence and poor sense of direction made it a disaster for all the soldiers who went to the battlefield with him to fight the Creek Indians.Colonel Maycomb fought tirelessly to bring democracy to the land, yet his first battle was also his last.An Indian herald close to the whites brought him orders from his superiors to march south.Colonel Maycomb determined the way forward by observing the moss on the trunk, so despite the desperate efforts of his subordinates, he resolutely embarked on the journey, trying to defeat the enemy in one fell swoop.It turned out to be the opposite. His large group was trapped in the virgin forest in the northwest, and was finally rescued by the settlers who developed the interior. Mrs. Merriweather spoke for thirty minutes of Colonel Maycomb's exploits.I found that if I bent my knees and huddled under my costume, I could barely sit down.I just sat down, hearing Mrs. Merriweather's buzzing voice and the thud of the bass drum in my ears, and fell asleep in a daze after a while. They told me afterward that Mrs. Merriweather had done her best to make the last scene special.Seeing "Pine Tree" and "Butter Bean" appear on the stage as soon as they heard the prompt, she immediately gained confidence, so she called out in a soft tone: "Pig-meat." After waiting for a few seconds, she called out again She asked again: "Pig—meat?" Seeing that no one showed up, she couldn't help shouting: "Pork!" I must have heard her shouting in my sleep, or the band was playing the tune and woke me up, but when I decided to go on stage, I saw Mrs. Merriweather strumming onto the stage with the state flag high .Saying "decided to play" is a bit of a misnomer, and all I could think at the time was: I'd better hurry up and get on with everyone. They told me later that Judge Taylor ran to the back of the auditorium and stood there beating his knees and laughing so hard he couldn't stop.Mrs. Taylor had to bring him a glass of water and let him take a few pills. Mrs. Merriweather seemed to have a big hit and stole the show, because everyone was cheering, and then she grabbed me backstage and said I'd screwed up the show, which made me feel so bad.Jem looked sympathetic when he came to fetch me.He said he couldn't see my costume at all from where he was sitting.I really don't understand, how can he see that I am downcast through the costume?He reassured me that I acted very well, but that I was a little late and it was not a big deal.Jem has become almost as understanding as Atticus now, always making you feel better when things go wrong.I said "almost"—at this moment not even Jem could persuade me to blend in with the crowd, so he agreed to stay with me backstage until the audience had dispersed. "Do you want to take this thing off, Scout?" he asked. "No, I want to wear it." I said.At least this outfit can hide the shame on my face. "Do you want a ride home?" someone asked. "No, thank you, sir," said Jem. "We've only got a short way." "Beware of the ghosts," the voice teased, "and more importantly, warn the ghosts to beware of Scout." "Not many people now," said Jem, "let's go." We walked through the auditorium into the hallway and down the steps.It was still dark outside, and the few cars that hadn't left were parked on the other side of the building, so the lights didn't help us. "If somebody's going the same way as us, we'll see the way," said Jem. "Come here, Scout, and let me hold you--a big ham. Don't you lose your balance and fall over. " "I can see the road." "Okay, but you might lose your balance." I felt a slight tension in my head and guessed that Jem had got hold of the top of the ham. "You got me?" "Oh, um." We started walking across the dark playground, keeping our eyes peeled as hard as we could. "Jem," I said suddenly, "I forgot my shoes backstage." "Okay, let's go back and get it." But as soon as we turned around, the lights in the auditorium went out. "You can come get it tomorrow," said Jem. "But it's Sunday tomorrow," I muttered unhappily, as Jem turned me toward home. "You can ask the guard to let you in...Scout?" "Ok?" "nothing." Jem had been hesitant to say this for a long time.I couldn't figure out what he was thinking.He'll tell if he wants to, and maybe he's going to tell me when he gets home.I feel his fingers are pressing my costume tightly, the force seems a little too much.I shook my head. "Jem, you don't have to..." "Be quiet for a minute, Scout." He squeezed me. We walked for a while in silence. "It's a minute," I said. "What are you thinking?" I turned to look at him, but I couldn't even make out his outline. "I seem to hear something," he said, "stop for a while." We stopped. "Did you hear anything?" he asked. "No." We hadn't gone five paces before he stopped me again. "Jem, are you scaring me? You know I'm grown..." "Shut up," he said.I could tell he wasn't joking. The night was strangely quiet.I could clearly hear Jem's breathing from all around me.Occasionally, a small gust of wind would pass by and blow on my bare legs, but this was just a small tail thrown off by the windy night mentioned in the forecast.This is the silence before the storm.We hold our breath. "There was an old dog just now," I said. "Not that," answered Jem. "It's there when we walk, and it's gone when we stop." "That's my costume rustling. Oh, it's Halloween that made you..." I said this more to reassure myself than to persuade Jem, for I heard his rustle as soon as we started walking.It was clearly not from my costume. "It's old Cecil," said Jem quickly, "and he's not going to frighten us this time. Don't make him think we're hurrying on." We slowed down very slowly, almost as if we were crawling.I asked Jem how Cecil could follow us in such a dark night, I thought he was going to run straight up from behind. "Scout, I can see you," said Jem. "How come? I can't see you." "The thick stripes on your costume are shining. Mrs. Crenshaw has put a luminescent paint on them so that the stripes show up in the footlights. I reckon you can see that well, and I presume Cecil can too." Saw you so he could keep us at a distance." I'll let Cecil know that we've spotted him following and are ready to deal with him. "Cecile is a big-fat-hen-chicken!" I yelled as I turned around abruptly. We stopped, only to hear the lingering sound of the word "hen-chicken", bouncing back tremblingly from the wall of the school building in the distance, but no one answered. "Look at me," yelled Jem, "H-yee!" Hey-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hey-the walls of the school building answered again.This is not Cecil's style, he should have been unable to hold back.Once this guy starts teasing people, he will play it over and over again.If it was really him, he would have rushed towards us long ago.Jem motioned for me to stop again. He asked softly, "Scout, can you take this thing off?" "I think it should, but I don't have much clothes on inside." "I have your clothes here." "It's so dark, I can't wear it." "Okay," he said, "forget it." "Jem, are you scared?" "No. I guess we're near that tree. From there we'll be on the road a few more steps, and then we'll see the streetlight." Jem didn't panic at all, and his tone was flat and calm.I don't know how long he's going to keep this fictional Cecil with us. "Jem, do you think we're singing a song?" "No. Scout, try not to make a sound." We're not picking up the pace.Jem and I both knew pretty well that if we went too fast we'd knock our toes and trip over rocks or something, and I was barefoot.Maybe it's just the wind rustling the leaves.However, there was no wind at this time, and there were no other trees around except the big oak tree. The fellow traveler dragged his feet and followed us slowly, as if wearing a pair of heavy shoes.This unidentified guy was wearing thick cotton trousers. I thought it was the sound of wind blowing leaves, but it was actually the sound of cotton rubbing against each other, rustling, rustling, rustling, every step. I felt the sand under my feet cool, and I knew I was close to the big oak tree.Jem patted my head, and we stopped, our ears pricked up. The footsteps of Jula did not stop with us this time.The cotton trousers continued to make a slight rustle.Suddenly, the sound stopped.The man was running, coming straight at us.It was clearly not the footsteps of children. "Run, Scout! Run! Run!" screamed Jem. As soon as I took a big step, I staggered, because I couldn't use my arms at all, and I couldn't keep my balance in the dark. "Jem, Jem, help me, Jem!" Something was hitting and squeezing the barbed wire around me, metal on metal tearing at each other, I fell to the ground all of a sudden, trying to roll as far as I could, struggling desperately as I rolled, trying to get out of this wire cage.From somewhere not far away came the sound of fighting, kicking, and the grinding of shoes and flesh against dirt and roots.Somebody rolls over and hits me, and I reach out and it's Jem.He rolled over and jumped up, as fast as lightning, and dragged me from the ground by the way.But although my head and shoulders were free, I was still stuck in, so we couldn't get very far. When I was approaching the side of the road, I felt that Jem's hand suddenly let go, as if being pulled back suddenly, and fell to the ground.There was another scuffle, and with a muffled click, Jem let out a scream. I ran in the direction Jem was yelling and bumped into a man's limp belly.The man said "Ah yo" and tried to grab my arms, but my arms were tightly wrapped in the barbed wire.The man's belly was limp, but his arms were like iron. I was gradually strangled until I couldn't breathe, and I couldn't move at all.Suddenly, he was pulled violently from behind and fell to the ground with a plop, almost bringing me down too.Jem got up, I thought. Sometimes people are slow to respond.I just stood there dumbfounded.The sound of fighting slowly subsided, someone was panting, and the night returned to its previous silence. In the silence, I only heard the heavy breathing, and the heavy breathing was accompanied by staggering steps.I felt him walk up to the big tree and lean against the trunk.He let out a violent cough, a quick, piercing cough. "Jem?" No one answered, only the man's heavy breathing. "Jem?" Still Jem said nothing. The man started walking around, as if looking for something.I heard him groan and pull something heavy aside.I slowly realized that there were four people under the tree at this time. "Atticus..." The man walked towards the main road with heavy steps, his body was a little shaky. I groped towards where he had been, frantically poking my toes up and down the ground.After a while, my foot touched someone. "Jem?" My toes touched the pants, the belt buckle, the buttons and something I couldn't tell, then the collar, and then the face.The hard mustache on that face told me it wasn't Jem.I smell stale alcohol. I turned and walked down the road, not sure if I was going in the right direction because I was turned around so many times that I was confused.However, I still found my way and saw a street light not far away.A man was walking under a street lamp, staggering, looking as if he was overwhelmed.He turned the corner—Jem was in his arms.Jem had one arm drooping in front of him, swinging wildly to and fro. By the time I got to the corner, the man was walking across my front yard.For a brief moment, the light in the doorway reflected Atticus' figure.He ran down the steps quickly, and together with the man carried Jem into the house. When I got to the door, they were walking down the aisle.Aunt Alexandra came running to get me. "Call Dr. Reynolds!" Atticus called sharply from Jem's room. "Where's Scout?" "Here she is." Aunt Alexandra yelled back, pulling me up and walking towards the phone.She was so anxious that she kept dragging me forward. "I'm fine, Auntie," I said, "Call me quickly." She took off the receiver and said, "Ola May, get Dr. Reynolds, quick!" "Agnes, is your father home? Oh, my God, where is he? When he gets home, please ask him to come right away. Please, it's urgent!" Aunt Alexandra didn't need to identify herself; in Maycomb, people could hear each other's voices. Atticus came out of Jem's room.As soon as Aunt Alexandra hung up, Atticus grabbed the receiver.He rattled the phone, and as soon as he got through he said, "Ola May, the Sheriff, please." "Heck? I'm Atticus Finch. Two of my boys are being hunted. Jem's hurt. On the way home from school. I can't leave my son. Please run for me Go and see if he's still hanging around there. Guess he won't be found by now, but if you do find him, I'd like to see who it is. I have to hang up. Thank you, Herr gram." "Atticus, is Jem dead?" "No, Scout. Sister, you take care of her for me," Atticus called, and turned and walked into the hall. Aunt Alexandra pulled the cloth and barbed wire from me, and I noticed her fingers were shaking. "Honey, are you alright?" she asked over and over as she struggled to free me. When it finally came out, I breathed a sigh of relief, and my arm began to feel tingling. When I saw it, it was covered with hexagonal red marks.I rubbed it with my hands to feel better. "Auntie, is Jem dead?" "No--no, dear. He's just passed out. We won't know how badly he's hurt until Dr. Reynolds comes. Jean Louise, what happened?" "I have no idea." Aunt Alexandra didn't ask any further questions.She brought me clothes and asked me to put them on.She was a little distracted for a moment, but what she brought was a pair of overalls.If I thought about it at the time, I would remind her and let her remember this little episode forever. "Honey, put this on." She said, and handed me the most despised dress in her life. She hurried back to Jem's room, and presently came to see me in the hall again.She patted me bewilderedly, then turned and went back to Jem's room. A car stopped in front of my house.I knew Dr. Reynolds's footsteps as well as my father's.He was the one who brought Jem and me into this world, and he was the one who took us through all the ailments and misfortunes that a child is likely to experience, including the time Jem fell from the tree house, and he never Never lost our friendship.Dr. Reynolds said it might be different if we had scabies all the time, but we took him with a grain of salt. As soon as Dr. Reynolds came in, he called out, "For God's sake." As he walked towards me, he said, "Just as long as you can stand." Then he turned immediately.He knew every room in our house, and he knew that if I looked bad, Jem wasn't any better. It was a long, long time before Dr. Reynolds came out. "Is Jem dead?" I asked. "It's a long way from death," he said, crouching down in front of me. "He's got a lump on his head and a broken arm, just like you. Look here, Scout—no." , don't turn your head, roll your eyeballs. Now look over there again. Jem's got a broken bone, it looks bad, I think it's at the elbow. Looks like someone's trying to wring his arm off... Now look Follow me." "Then he is not dead?" "No—yes!" Dr. Reynolds stood up. "There's nothing we can do tonight," he said, "just try to make him as comfortable as possible. Tomorrow we'll take an X-ray of his arm—looks like he'll have to hang it up for a while. But don't worry, He's going to be completely fine. A boy his age, he recovers very quickly." Dr. Reynolds kept his eyes on me eagerly as he spoke, and gently stroked the bump on my forehead with his fingers. "You don't see any broken bones, do you?" His little joke amused me. "Then you don't think he's going to die, do you?" He put on his hat. "Of course, I can't be 100 per cent right, but I see he's alive and well, and everything says he's alive and well. Go and see him, and we'll discuss what to do when I come again. " Dr. Reynolds walked briskly, like a lively young man.Mr. Heck Tate was different.He stomped his leather boots on the front porch and opened the door awkwardly.The first thing he said when he entered the door was the same as Dr. Reynolds.He added: "Scout, are you all right?" "All right, sir. I'm going to see Jem. Atticus and they're all there." "I'll go with you," said Mr. Tate. Aunt Alexandra had covered Jem's lamp with a towel, and it was very dark in the room.Jem was lying on his back in bed with a glaring gash on one side of his face.His left arm was spread out on the outside of his body, the elbow was slightly bent, but the direction was wrong.He was frowning tightly. "Jem..." Atticus said, "He can't hear you, Scout. He fell asleep right away, and woke up a little while before Dr. Reynolds put him back to sleep." "Okay." I backed off.Jem's room was large and square.Aunt Alexandra was sitting in a rocking chair by the fire; the man who had brought Jem home was standing in a corner with his back against the wall.He looked like a country guy, and I never saw him.He was probably going to a show and was nearby when the accident happened.He must have heard our screams, so he ran over to find out. Atticus stood by Jem's bed. Mr. Heck Tate stood in the doorway, hat in hand, and a flashlight bulging in his trouser pocket.He was wearing work clothes. "Come on in, Huck," said Atticus. "Did you find anything? I can't imagine a man doing anything so dastardly. I hope you found him." Mr. Tate sniffed, shot a piercing look at the man standing in the corner, nodded to him, and looked around—at Jem, then at Alexandra Aunty, eyes finally fell on Atticus. "Sit down, Mr. Finch." There was kindness in his words. Atticus said, "Let's all sit down. Heck, you sit in this chair. I'll get another one in the living room." Mr. Tate sat down in the chair in front of Jem's desk and waited for Atticus to come back and settle down.It made me wonder why Atticus didn't move a chair for the man standing in the corner, but Atticus knew country habits better than I did, much more than I did.Atticus often met his country clients on the back steps with their long-eared horses tethered under the neem tree in the backyard when they came to talk.This one might be more comfortable in the corner right now. "Mr. Finch, let me tell you what I found," said Mr. Tate. "I found a little girl's dress—out there in my car. That's your dress, Scout. ?” "Yes, sir. If it's pink with ruffles, it's my dress," I replied.Mr. Tate was acting as if he were sitting on the witness stand.He likes to present the facts in his own way, without interference from the prosecution or the defense, which can sometimes take a while. "I also found some drab cloth pieces, which looked a bit strange..." "Mr. Tate, that's on my costume." Mr. Tate put his hands between his thighs, rubbed his left arm a moment later, studied the mantelpiece in Jem's room with interest, and then seemed to take an interest in the fireplace again.He ran his fingers back and forth over his long nose. "What's up, Huck?" Atticus asked. Mr. Tate hooked his hands around his neck and rubbed them. "Bob Ewell's lying there under the big tree with a kitchen knife in his side. He's dead, Mr. Finch."