I am Scout
Finch. I live with my brother Jem, my father and our cook Calpurnia on the main
residential street in Maycomb, Alabama.
My brother
Jem is 4 years older than me. Jem broke his arm when he was 13 so his left arm
was shorter than his right. My father is a lawyer. My mom died when I was
two, Jem often miss her. We have an old local family. Finch’s landing make our
living from cotton. Simon Finch is one of our ancestors, he is a fur-trapping
apothecary from Cornwall. Simon died rich, because of his industry, my father
was related by blood or marriage to nearly every family in our town.
Maycomb is an
old town. Sometimes, people have no money to pay, they simply pay what they
have. The weather here is really hot. People move slowly in this town.
Calpurnia is our cook, she also helps my father to discipline me. People said that
there is a malevolent phantom called Boo in the Radley Place where three doors
from us to the south. All the people in the town are afraid of him, we all stay
away from the Radley Place.
We met Dill
in a summer. He was from Meridian, Mississippi. We soon became good friends. He
made a bet with my brother of making Boo Radley come out. We ran away after Jem
slapped the house. And this is all what I remembered in that summer.
My brother
takes me to school the first day. My teacher is Miss Caroline. She doesn’t
trust me that I learnt reading by myself. I explain for my classmate Walter but
she still doesn’t trust my words. She is angry with me. She hauls me up to the
front of the room and pats my hand with a ruler. Teachers are very strict with students.
Yes, as you
can see, this is my life so far.
