It happened one day when Scout was walking home from school. She was thirteen years old, and in the eighth grade at the high school. Jem was in the eleventh, and he never came home after school anymore-he went straight to Finch's Landing, to do some work there for Aunt Alexandra and the rest of the family. He earned a few dollars a day for it, and Scout had begged time and time again to go. She was only reassured that the work he was doing there was not meant for a young lady, that young ladies did not haul hay barrels or help tame horses.
Scout made the trek home from school alone now, and every step of it reminded her of her encounter with Bob Ewell. He was dead, thank God, and her father had never taken a case like that again out of fear for his children's life. The road didn't scare her nearly as much in the daylight, and she was thirteen now, it was time for her to grow up like Jem had.
She walked down the roads with her head held high, and a smile on her face. Scout Finch was strong, and she wouldn't let some seven year old nightmare keep her from walking around outsider her own house.
Scout stopped when she got to the Radley home, seeing three little faces running around on the other side of the gate.
"Didya see him!" One boy asked, with the same out of town twang Dill once had.
"Not yet!" Another little boy yelled back.
"C'mon, Tim, this is stupid!" Another little girl said, with hair as unruly as Scout's once was. As the boys got closer and closer to the house, the girl hung back by the fence.
"Hey!" Scout said, unable to resist. "You kids get away from there, it's not a good place to play."
"How do you know?" The boy who looked like Dill asked, scrunching up his nose at her.
"Todd!" The boy called Tommy exclaimed. "Look ma'am, there ain't nobody in that house. Nathan Radley got taken out a couple years ago, heard my mama say so herself."
"That doesn't mean it's empty." Scout smiled. "Arthur Radley's still in there."
"How do you know?" The little girl narrowed her eyes.
"Well, he hasn't been carried out on a stretcher yet." Scout quoted Miss Maudie, trying to hide her smile as she thought of the long-dead woman smiling down at her from above.
The kids looked at each other, then back at the house. They took off in a run for their homes.
"Thanks for lettin' us know, Ma'am." Tommy yelled back to her again, and she gave them a wave.
"Maybe now you'll get some peace, Boo." She said quietly, smiling at the house. "I'll be back in a little bit with Calpurnia to drop off dinner."
The house seemed not to reply, but Scout had long ago stopped looking for twitching curtains or the creaking sound of an opening door. She gave one more nod, then continued walking home, no longer fearing the ghost of Bob Ewell.
Boo was like her mother. They weren't always there, you couldn't talk to them about friendships or boys, mostly because they couldn't bear to hear about a world they could not be a part of. Still, when you needed the, they swooped down from above like mockingbirds.