TKAM Scout's Journal #4

Atticus is getting’ old. Comparin’ him with the other fathers in school, Jem ‘n’ my view on Atticus changed as time wore on. We began to think that Atticus have nothing of great competence ‘cept sittin’ in an office- that thought lasted ‘til today.

Today as we strolled down the street to Miss Stephaine Crawford’s house for Miss Maudie, we spotted the ol’Tim Johnson leapin’ up on the opposite side of the street like a mad dog. Without wastin’ a second, we ran back to the house and told Capurnia with deep disbelief that Tim Johnson had caught somethin’. As Calpurnia checked through the door we were reassured that ol’Tim Johnson did ctach somethin’ wrong ‘n’ hence we found Calpurnia bombardin’ Mr. Heck Tate’s phone like crazy.  Minutes later Mr. Tate, surrounded by his bullets ‘n’ shotgun, along with Atticus arrived beside our front door. After a brief inquisition of what is goin’ on here, Atticus ‘n’ Mr. Tate decided to wait; wait ‘til Tim Johnson gets to us instead of us goin’ to Tim Johnson.  With ten minutes of waitin’, ol’Tim Johnson stumbled into the scene and me ‘n’ Jem ran up stair to find a better view. We saw Atticus ‘n’ Mr. Heck Tate began discussing as ol’Tim Johnson reached the Radley front gate. Then we saw Mr. Tate just naturally handed the gun to Atticus as if Atticus was the real sheriff of the town. After much argument as to who will have the gun, Atticus finally took it over and walked into the middle of the road. Moments later, as Jem ‘n’ I were rubbin’ our eyes out of shear surprise, we found Atticus rasin’ the gun ike Robin hood with his silver bow, so swiftly ‘n’ coordinated. Atticus aimed from the barrel. Just as we were wonderin’ if he can hit it, with a deafening crack, the barrel spit fire and Tim Johnson collapsed on the ground (bet he’s as surprised as we were). We watched the whole thing without blinkin’ our eyes, not one bit.  I pinched my skin to check if I was sucked into a fairy tale. We were both verbally impaired for a whole ten minutes. When we finally were ourselves again, Atticus was long gone with Mr. Tate. Later with Miss Maudie we found out that Atticus was the “Ol’One-shot” back in the Landing in his days ‘n’ it is because us that he put down his gun and focused on his family…

Atticus is not just a lawyer, he’s a great, responsible gentleman.