Mr. Gilmer called attention to the hot day by wiping his head with his hand.  “That’s all for the time being,” he said pleasantly, “but you stay there.  I expect big bad Mr. Finch has some questions to ask you.”

 “State will not prejudice the witness against counsel for the defense,” murmured Judge Taylor primly, “at least not this time”.  Atticus got up grinning but instead of walking to the witness stand, he opened his coat and hooked his thumbs in his vest, then turned…and strolled back to the witness stand.  From long years of experience, I could tell he was trying to come to a decision about something. 

“Miss Mayella,” he said smiling, “I won’t try to scare you for a while, not yet.  Let’s just get acquainted.  How old are you?”

“Said I was nineteen, said it to the judge yonder.” Mayella jerked her head resentfully at the bench.

“So you did, so you did ma’am.  You’ll have to bear with me, Miss Mayella, I’m getting along and can’t remember as well as I use to.  I might ask you things you’ve already said before, but you’ll give me an answer, won’t you? Good”.  I could see nothing in Mayella’s expression to justify Atticus’s assumption that he had secured her wholehearted cooperation.  She was looking at him furiously. 

“Won’t answer a word you say long as you keep on mockin’ me,” she said. 

“Ma’am?” asked Atticus startled. 

“Long’s you keep makin’ fun o’ me.”

Judge Taylor said, “Mr. Finch is not making fun of you.  What is the matter with you?”  Mayella looked from under lowered eyelids…, “Long’s he keeps on calling me ma’am an sayin’ Miss Mayella, I don’t hafta take his sass, I aint called upon to take it” (Pg. 242-243)

When it came to the day of Tom Robinson’s trial, Mayella had to get up and tell her side of what happened between her and Tom.  Mayella is trying to keep a lie to spare her life, but Atticus knows that she is lying and refuses to tell the truth.  In order to try to get her to tell the truth, Atticus tries to be more friendly towards her rather than interrogating her till she can’t bear it anymore.  Mayella already has a fixed mind and claims that Atticus is trying to insult her and mock her by calling her “ma’am” and “Miss Mayella”. This shows a perspective between both Mayella and Atticus.  Since Mayella is part of the Ewell family, everyone knows that they are very poor and don’t have very good living conditions.  Mayella has never gone to school so she doesn’t have any education which can explain why she thinks Atticus is mocking her.  She was never taught that saying ma’am and/or Miss is used to show respect towards neighbors and/or acquaintances.  Mayella also has a hard life because she has to take on the mother roll in the Ewell family and she can never get any time to get attention herself.

On the other hand, Atticus is the complete opposite of Mayella.  He isn’t wealthy, but he does have enough money to keep Jem, Scout, Calpurnia, and him alive and healthy.  Even though he has money, he isn’t greedy like most people are with money.  He knows not a lot of people in Maycomb have lots of money so if someone owes him but they don’t have any money to give him; he lets them pay in some other form.  For example when Walter Cunningham stopped by Atticus’s house to drop off some potatoes, Walter respected Atticus by not forcing him give money to him.  Atticus truly believes that if you respect someone else, then they will return the respect.  It shows how both Atticus and Mayella are in different spots on the social status in Maycomb.  Atticus establishes that being kind or respectful is the best thing to do when in doubt.

One of the differences between Atticus and Mayella is their social rank.  Mayella is low in the social rank so she doesn’t know a lot about integrity towards someone and because Atticus is higher in the social rank, she might seem a bit intimidated by Atticus.   That could also factor into why Mayella thought that Atticus was mocking  her.  The perspective between Atticus and Mayella are completely different because they have very different lives and different thoughts about everything.  The way they both live can alter what they think about different things.  For example, when it’s dinner time for Scout, Jem, and Atticus, they don’t have to worry about not having dinner because they know that they will always have something on their plates for them to eat.  For Mayella, dinner might be a worry from the way she lives.  Her father hunts animals outside of Maycomb, but there could be a day where he didn’t catch enough for everyone so she might have to skip dinner in order for someone else to get their dinner.  Everyone’s perspective can depend on what their living conditions and their relationships with other people are like.

“I knew I should have never stayed behind from the crowd. That was the biggest mistake I…” I heard thundering footsteps slowly coming towards me, they seemed more calm then worried.

“Hello? Please help me. Please help! I’m hungry, thirsty. Please!” I pleated to the footsteps.

I’ve been tied up for what it feels like weeks.

I can barely even remember eating at all, and I knew my body was weak. I tried to peak through the blindfold, but obviously it was wrapped around my eyes to well.  Whoever blindfolded me must have done it while I was unconscious.

I felt a figure bend down beside me.  It felt like a large figure, but I could be wrong.  I’ve been so drugged up, that I don’t even know if I’m asleep or awake right now.  I felt a slight breeze on my legs, and another figure bent down on my other side.  This figure felt the same way as the other one.  Nevertheless, this figure seemed like it was nervous and in a huge rush.  I suddenly felt very claustrophobic, and felt very uncomfortable.  They started to touch my face, as to say settle down, but their hands migrated to my legs.  They felt my legs very gently, and then they squeezed my legs as if they were seeing how strong I was.

I had a sudden rush of fear, and jerked at them squeezing my legs.  They flinched, and backed off.

“This girl is strong, tough.  She seems confident.  I like her” I heard one of the figures say. She had a slight Russian accent, but it didn’t seem like a thick accent.  She probably lived in Russia for a minimum 4 years, but moved.  She started to move back towards me.

She got even closer than she was before.  This was making me uncomfortable and very irritable.  She started to touch my stomach and slowly felt around to my back.  She jerked me forward onto my stomach, and felt around my back.

“Get the f*** away from me you bitch.” I tried to sound strong and intimidating.  However, what came out was weak and powerless.  I started to give up.  I gave up trying to please people, gave up on my family, why not give up on getting away from whatever mess I got into.

Both the figures laughed at my pitiful attempt of scaring them. The Russian girl stopped touching my back and sat me back up.  I could feel her breath on my face.  It was somewhat refreshing, but at the same time repulsing.  I’ve been down in a hot room for however long, and her cool breath just made me relax.

“How long have you been here girl?” The Russian girl demanded.  I jerked out of my relaxed state, and hesitated to answer her.

“Answer her, now.” I was flabbergasted at the other figures voice.  They were both girls, but this figure seemed like she was much younger than the Russian girl was.  She seemed like she was from the U.S., but something was slight off in her voice.

I was so fixated on figuring out whom these girls are that I suddenly fell onto my side, trying to catch my breath with my abdominal feeling as it was just ripped out.

“Why did you do that? What was the point of that?” The U.S girl yelled.  I could hear her frantically walking around, shaking something that was in her hand.

“What else was I suppose to do, let her take her time?  We have a damn time limit to do this Emily.” She suddenly stopped, and I could feel like she shouldn’t have said something. I wasn’t listening to the whole conversation, but I did hear a name.

Emily.

“Great, now she’ll know who to look up if we let her go” She sighed very deeply, and finally stepped away from me.

She took a few steps away from me, but stopped.  I could feel both their eyes fixed on me, and that made me very self-conscience

“Well, what should we do with her?  We can’t let her stay in here she’ll die.  I’m pretty sure she’s close to dying.” I heard the Russian girl walk towards Emily.  She still seemed mad, but her steps were careful and somewhat calm, almost as if she was wearing some kind of ballet shoes.

I didn’t care if they left me in here.  Everything is such a blur.  I think I would be better off dead than living like this.

A hostage for a reason I can’t even think of.

Emily snapped her fingers.

“Why don’t we take her to our place, get her dressed, fed, showered, and anything else she needs.  When she’s finished, we can take her back to wherever she lives or where she last was.  That sounds like a pretty stable idea.”  She seemed so confident in herself and in her idea. The Russian girl sighed loudly.

“Do you really think that would be a good idea?  If we move her, whoever put her in here will know and they’ll come after us. Who knows, they could be watching right now.”

“Yeah that’s not the best idea.  However, we can’t just let her sit here and die! We must be able to…”

“Quiet!” The Russian girl interrupted.   I heard what sounded like a gun getting loaded.

Oh how I HATE guns! That one thing absolutely freaked me out.   I started to twist my hands out of the tied rope, mainly because of panic and I didn’t want to be shot.

I heard their footsteps frantically around the room.  It seems like they were getting ready for an ambush.  However, suddenly it went quiet.  I heard one of them breathe in deeply.

BAM!

I heard the Russian girl chuckle, and drag something into the room.  It sounded whomever she shot had a lot of padding on them. Maybe it was a cop, or even a SWAT member.

“Good shot, you have a really good eye!” I heard Emily yell in excitement.

“That, to be honest, was just luck.  I haven’t been able to shoot that well ever since I was a cop.”

I felt a jolt of joy.  There’s a cop! She’ll save me, I’m hoping.

“You were a cop?” Emily also seemed happy to hear that.

“Yeah but it was a long time ago, before I got accused for a murder.”  I suddenly started to cough violently.  I didn’t actually realize, but I was sick on top of also being hungry and thirsty.  Both the girls rushed to my side and helped me up off my side.

“Okay we need to get her out of this place! Listening to that cough, she needs a doctor really soon.”  Emily sounded scared and concerned.

“I…I’m…fine…leave…me” I managed to say through my wheezy chest.  I started to cough again.  This time it was much more violent.

Both Emily and the other girl were relieved that I could speak.

“What’s your name? Do you know how you got here?”  The Russian girl frantically asked.  She seemed panicked, as if I was dying and didn’t have a lot of time left.

“My name is Samantha.” I could barely speak without coughing anymore.  I guess whatever drug was in me, made me completely numb, until now.

“Okay, Samantha. My name is Emily, if you didn’t know from before” The Russian girl made a sarcastic comment.  I was too worried about coughing up a lung to hear what they said.

“We are kind of like undercover cops, but were not actually legal undercover cops.” I know they weren’t actual cops, but at least it was somewhat close.  I feel safe when I’m around cops because nothing can usually go wrong when near a cop.

I felt someone’s hand touching my wrists.  I jerked away from their grasp, not knowing that they were actually getting the rope off my hands.

“Samantha, it’s okay we are just removing the rope from your hands and feet.”  I could feel them undoing the not so well knotted knot on my wrists and hands.

“Wow, whoever did these knots must’ve been in a real rush.  This is a lousy job of knots.”

I felt the pressure of the rope disappear from my wrists.  I automatically moved my hands to my face to get rid of the blindfold.  I wanted to see their faces.  I wanted to thank them for saving me.  One of them slapped my hand away from the blindfold.

“Nope, you aren’t taking that off. Not yet at least.” I could hear the urgency in Emily’s voice.  They finally got the rope away from my legs, and helped me up.  It felt so good to stand after sitting for however long I was sitting.  I heard something from outside the door, like a small click.  I felt panic, then hit the ground like a brick.

Pain, more pain!

This time it wasn’t in my chest or stomach.  It was my leg this time.  Emily and the Russian girl twirled around and started to fire at the doorway.  All I could hear were guns going off and hitting the walls around the three of us.

I gripped my leg, and tried to see where I was hurt.  The pain was just too much; my body just couldn’t handle it. I slowly started to fade in and out of the fight.  All I heard was gunshots and screaming. I felt someone’s hand on the back of my head, I flinched, but then I realised that I wasn’t on the ground anymore.  Had they picked me up? Alternatively, am I just dying?

“Hold on Samantha, keep your eyes open, we need you to live.” I heard the Russians girl’s voice.  It sounded concerned, caring, and frightened.

A complete stranger actually cared for me, as if I was her best friend or even her daughter.  I wish my mother cared for me like that.  Recently, I’ve been completely ignored by her.  I’ve tried to tell her how much I need her, how much I love her.  That seems to do nothing.  I’ve learnt how to live on my own for the past 5 years.  I’ve been getting the groceries, paying most of the bills, feeding my little brother. I’ve been the mother in the house, and she’s just the rebel teenager.

I’ve always wanted to be a parent and have my own children, not look after my brother as if he’s my own child.  I’m not saying I hate my little brother I absolutely love him.  It can get annoying having to babysit your little brother when you want to go out and have a fun night out, while your own mother has her fun week out.

“Samantha, Samantha c’mon say something. Don’t leave us, please.” The Russian girl was wrapping something around my leg to stop the bleeding.  It’s obvious that I’ve been shot, and it seemed to be a bad wound.  I felt Emily slap my cheek repeatedly.  I felt water drop onto my chin.  I thought they were giving me water, but I heard what it sounded like Emily crying.

She’s crying. Why is she crying?  I’m not going anywhere; I’m not going to die not now.  I lifted my hand to touch her cheek, and wipe the tears.  I didn’t realise how weak I actually was.  I knew I was weak.  I heard Emily choke back a sob and a slight laugh.  She grabbed my hand, and didn’t let go.

“I’m not going anywhere Emily. I’ve fought this far.  Why would I give up now? It seems kind of pointless.”  I felt Emily relax and calm down.

TO BE CONTINUED

 “Mom? Where are my jeans?”  Claire yelled from her bedroom.  She was in a rush to get ready and look good on the first day.  She put as little makeup on, but enough for people to actually see the make up.  She was not the type of person who was crazy over make up and fashion.  She felt really nervous as soon as she thought of the people at school.  She kept thinking in her head, what if I don’t make friends here?  What if I don’t fit in, what if I got bullied?  She heard a muffled sound, but didn’t pay any attention to it.

“Claire!” Her mom said in a rasp voice, breaking her trance.

“Huh? Oh, sorry I’m just nervous about today.”  Her mom saw that she didn’t look too well.

“you feeling okay Claire? You look a little green.  Maybe you should take a Gravol to make your stomach settle down?” Her mom went to feel her forehead, but Claire swiftly moved away.

“No, mom. I am fine.” Claire knew that her mom didn’t believe her.

“Fine, I will bring some Gravol in case my stomach doesn’t settle.”Her mom patted her cheek lightly. She skipped to the bathroom and grabbed half a Gravol and put it into a small container, then slid it into her backpack. She jumped at the sound of her mom honking the horn.

“Okay, I’m coming!  Gosh she’s so impatient.” she mumbles to herself.  She always tend to mumble to myself.  She briskly ran out of the bathroom and quickly slid her pink shoulder backpack onto her back.  When she got downstairs, she quickly looked for her iPhone.  She really needed to bring it just in case she misses the bus after school.  She ran to her van were her mother, so patiently waited.

“Why does it always take you so long for you to get ready?” her mother almost gave her poker face away.

“Hey! I’m not the one who always takes a shower for an hour, and leaves no hot water for anyone else.”  They both laughed.  They were always very sarcastic to each other.

Claire’s mom drove her to the bus stop the first day.  They waited for 20 minutes till the bus finally arrived.

“Oh god, I’m really nervous. Can I just stay home instead.”

“No Claire.  Remember the promise we made on the first day of summer break?”

they both said it together:

“When I go to the new school, I will not chicken out in any way, shape, or form, on the first day.  I will meet new friends and continue to be friends or so help me god.”

Claire sighed deeply and lazily got out of the front.  She closed the door and waved to her mother.  While going towards the bus, she looked at the people inside of it, just to give her a heads up about how people acted.  Everyone was staring out the windows very blankly.  At least she isn’t the only one that didn’t want to go to the school.  She got onto the bus and immediately went towards the back of the bus.  She threw her bag on the seat and sat down heavily. Today was a new day for her.

She ran to her homeroom, thinking that she was really late.  The bus driver didn’t know where the school was.  The school was ginormous!  It had many rooms for different grades and classes.  I ran up and down the halls looking for the right class.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing running down the hall?”  Someone crankily yelled at Claire.  She immediately stopped and tried to get her breath.

“I’m trying to find my homeroom.  Do you know where room 201 is?” Claire started to walk towards the nicely dressed man, still out of breath.

“Tsk, Tsk.  Silly child, you don’t have to hurry!  ‘Tis not even 9:00 yet.” He set down his brief case, and took something out of it.

“Here, have this.  It will help you with the nervousness.” Claire slowly grabbed the tablet.

“How did you know I was nervous?” Claire popped the tablet in her mouth.  The man gave a loud laugh.

“I can always tell if someone is nervous.  I guess it’s a special gift. But don’t tell anyone about it.”  He then winked at Claire.  Claire blushed slightly.

“Me, tell anyone, please I would never tell.” Claire looked at the suited man, realizing his dreadful scars on his face.

“I completely forgot to introduce myself to you, how rude.  I am Mr. Wallabye, the science and physical education teacher.  Yeah, I know the last name’s funny, go ahead and laugh.” Claire stared at him.  He suddenly went to a more serious face.

“Why would I laugh at your last name?  That’s not respectful at all.  It’s a very unique name, I’ve never actually met a teacher with that last name.  You should be proud of your name.” Claire gave a huge grin.

“Well, thank you…”

“Claire Bullocks”

“Well, Claire you are a really nice girl!”

“Thanks! You are a nice teacher.  I am exited for your classes.”  The bell gave a loud ring, and Claire got panicked.

“Well, I have to go.”Claire walked slowly, but sure enough he spoke again.

“Let me walk you to  your class, so you know where to go.” He hesitated slightly, but not enough for her to actually realize it.  She twirled around to notice he was right next to her.

“Sure, that would be really nice”  Claire was a bit suspicious about him.  How did he get the scares on his face?  She knew that she had to mind her own business, but she likes mysteries in people.   It  was a long silent walk to her classroom with Mr. Wallabye.

“Hey, do you enjoy sports like soccer, tennis, softball..?”

Claire’s eyes immediately widened when he said softball.

“Oh I love playing softball!  I was the best player on my old team.  They gave me the nickname, The Steel Tank.” Claire looked around, noticing that she raised her voice a bit too loud in the hallway.  She collapsed her head in embarrassment.  Mr. Wallabye slightly giggled.

“Yes, it must have been really exiting for you to get an actual nickname.” Mr. Wallabye looked ahead, but he had a huge grin on his face.  Claire looked at him and felt kind of embarrassed.  The rest of the way was silent and awkward.

“Well, here is room 201”  He said quietly.  Claire started to walk in when she turned around to thank him, but he’d vanish into the empty hallow halls.  Claire stood there just oblivious of her transaction.  How could he of just walked away? She sighed and walked into the classroom.

“The weak can never forgive.  Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong”. 

If you don’t know, this quote was said by Mohandas Gandhi, the most inspired person we know today.  He led the Indian independence movement with absolute non-violence.  He didn’t believe that violence could solve a simple nor a complicated situation.  But he didn’t only participate in the Indian independence movement,  he later led nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women’s rights, to build religious and ethnic aminy, end the “untouchability” in India, and increase economic self-reliance.  This quote by Gandhi stood out towards me the most because I 100% agree that only people who are strong emotionally and mentally can forgive someone or something more quicker than weaker people.

Why does this quote stand out towards me?  There are many people who I have known who have not been able to forgive themselves or even other people around them.  They can hurt or even lose people who care about them severely.  I know this one girl who has been bullied for most of her life.  She has very low self-esteem and can’t trust a lot of people because of the past.  I would say she can’t mentally or emotionally forgive people for what they have done, or what she has done.  We were good friends for a good year or so.  She was very nice, kind, and she seemed like a good friend.  When we started getting a bit closer, I started to notice that she was becoming a bit clingy.  She didn’t trust me with other people, nor did she trust the people around me.  I had a couple other good friends, and she would always feel betrayed if I decided to spend a day with them.  She would try anything to try to get me and my other friends to break apart, just so she can get closer to me.  The turning point for me was that she actually started to bully me.  She would call me short, fat, stupid and meant every word of it.  I forgave her, thinking that she was just doing this because she was bullied.  It continued, and it started to get more constant every time.  I confronted her about it, and she simply said that she didn’t mean it.  She didn’t apologize, she just denied that she meant it.  The one disadvantage of not forgiving yourself or being very forgiving is that, like this girl, your trust for someone starts to diminish so fast.

Forgiveness is very powerful and can fix most situations.  The advantages of forgiving someone is that the trust they had in you will grow even stronger.  You will prove to them that you can let go of any problem pretty easily.   For example say you accidentally said a secret to another person, when it really wasn’t your secret to tell.  I know that has happened several times for me.  If they found out and knew it was you, they would be pretty mad.  If you have the strength to forgive for what you did, then most time the other person will forgive you.  They may not trust you as much as you would like anymore, but they do at least trust you.

The disadvantage of forgiving is that it may be hard to forgive if you don’t believe them or if you don’t actually mean it.  I know personally think that it is really hard to actually believe someone who you’ve had trust problems in the past.  They constantly lie and do stuff behind your back that you don’t like.  If they ask for your forgiveness, you will not believe that they actually forgive themselves.  You will always have doubt in them no matter what.