A letter to the Jem and Scout many years later when Boo Radley is about to die.

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A letter to the Jem and Scout many years later when Boo Radley is about to die.

                                                                                                           

                                                                                          17TH October 1962

                                                                                          The Radley House

                                                                                          Maycomb,

                                                                                          Alabama.

Dear Mr. Jem Finch and Ms Jean Louise Finch,

        You may not remember me as it’s a long time ago. Though no one can forget a monster like me from his or her childhood. I am sure both of you have grown up to be fine people like your father and have carried on his good work. Anyway, I have chosen to write to you because my life is almost over. Very soon, I shall be gone and no one will remember me, so I am writing this so my whole life wouldn’t be a waste. It is all about missed opportunities, so I am going to use this opportunity and tell you about my life. I want you to keep everything I say a secret because once I die, the curse of Radleys would be over and if people start to show emotion towards me, I shall still live.

I was born on the 7th of August of1894. I never did the things other children did. I never played outside with other children. I never went to school.  I never went to church like other people. I never did anything. My father didn’t like me having friends as he said you could never trust anyone. He told me that if you don’t mix with other people, they wouldn’t meddle with your business. I always wondered what he had against other people. My mother always told me that he didn’t have the problem and that it was other people that had treated him badly. So I grew up knowing nothing about the world and became very naïve.

My naivety got the better of me and I got involved with the wrong people. There were the only people who looked at me and saw a friend. Other people never talked to me but they gossiped about me when I went post. I could hear Miss Stephanie Crawford whispering to Miss Maudie ”there goes a funny one” and Miss Maudie telling her to mind her own business. The Cunninghams were very good to me. We always did things together and I was never excluded from them. A looked of people looked at us with disgust although we never did much. I guess I felt I was very similar to them as people never cared about us and just excluded us from society. So we decided to live up to the expectations people had of us, and I made the biggest mistake of my life.

That night we were drunk because we had gone to Dew-Drop inn and Stuart Cunningham gave us real whisky. We all got a bit tipsy very quickly and we were in an hyper-active but dangerous mood. We decided to stay around the square. We must have been very loud for Mr Conner to hear us. So Mr. Conner came and wanted to get us arrested but Julian Cunningham pushed him in the bin. We all laughed and joined in the pushing and cussing. Then we all searched him for his keys and locked him in the court-house. It seemed funny at the time, but many years later I wondered, if we hadn’t laughed for a night, my whole life might have been better.

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When Mr. Conner charged us for our crimes, my father was ashamed of me. He always used to say, “I told you but you wouldn’t listen. Don’t mix with other people and you’ll die a happy man.” My father blamed it on the Cunninghams for letting their sons run wild. He said that the Cunninghams have been shamed long before their sons were born and it didn’t matter to them if they were disgraced once again, but that he wouldn’t let me disgrace the Radleys. When it was time to face the Judge, my father begged the judge to ...

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