It was only partly true when I said I would never see Boo again. It was true because I never once saw Boo alive again, but I did see him in his coffin. I'll never forget that pale ghostly form lying there, eyes wide open and staring to heaven, as if he'd been waiting for it.
The first and last time I'd seen Boo alive was that fateful night when Mr. Ewell died. It all seems just part of the past now, although you'd think that such a tremendous event would have left more of a scar on me. People did talk about it, since after all, Maycomb was a quiet town where even the slightest happening could make people talk and gossip for years. But it was different with Mr. Ewell's death. Heck Tate had tried to hush up the whole thing, not even allowing investigators to look at the body. I had asked Jem about that before, but he didn't really tell me anything. So in the end, all people had to gossip about the event were rumors themselves, which made them harder to believe.
According to Dr. Reynolds, Boo had died of some sort of long-lasting cancer. Mr. Radley had woken up during the night of May 11th to find Boo dead. That was all Mr. Radley had said. And that was all that was needed. Boo, the most gossiped about man in Maycomb had died, and yet not one person, save myself, Jem, Atticus, the Radleys, and a few others even cared. But most of the town would attend the funeral. That's the way it worked in Maycomb.
The funeral was to be short. Boo had owned few possessions, so he had never even bothered to make a full will. But he had left one letter, simple and short, that had stated what he wanted to be done with his ashes. When Jem and I heard what was to be done to them, we nodded to ourselves, as we had half expected it. After Mr. Radley reopened it, Boo's ashes were to be put in the little knothole in the oak tree.
I had prepared a speech to read at the funeral, but as soon as I got up to the makeshift podium I ditched it. I needed to explain my feelings, and what I had written would not have truly done that. I cleared my throat and began.
"Five years ago I met my first real friend out side my family. He's laying down in that coffin now, for a long and peaceful rest that he'll never wake up from. Most of this town has rumored about him, making up stories about him all because you never saw him leave his house. You think that's an ample excuse to ridicule him, since he never made one move to be friends with any of you. But you never considered that maybe he was waiting for you to say hello, not the other way around.
"Along time ago, when I was younger, many of you'll remember the summer that little Dill first came to us. Many of you also shunned him, or his family, behind his back, but that's another story. That summer, Dill, my brother Jem, and I first started all of our games and dares concerning Boo. I'm sure some of you recall those games we played about Boo, and how he had stabbed his father with scissors. We of course got in trouble for them, but we were innocent. Who had told us of these stories, these things of how murderous and evil Boo was? You people, without ever even knowing him, you found it your right to tell these devilish tales that had not one fact to base upon. So you taught this town to be hateful and fearful of Boo, without ever giving him a chance.
"As the days went by, Jem and I would find little trinkets and objects in the little knothole of the oak tree where Boo wishes his ashes to stay. We know now, if we didn't before, that these were from him. We would find various objects, such as chewing gum, and marbles, all the way up to two little carved wooden figures of us. To think that Boo was looking over us like a guardian angel, while the rest of the town was gossiping about him, I find a bit remarkable. I just hope he can forgive you all for the way you treated him.
"Then came that night when I saw Boo for the first time. That's when he truly reminded me of a guardian angel, after all, his skin and hair were as white as a cloud, and his face, however sickly looking, was angelic. He was one who should have been loved by this town, one who should have been taken care of, but instead was out casted like the Blacks. He was someone who saved me on a fatal night, regardless of his own safety. But there was a reason for his seemingly kamikaze act.
"He was already dead when he saved my brother and I. You, the people of this town, had killed him. Could he ever go out into public again? No, because you had locked him up in the Radley house, not the other way around.
"You all did something my father once told my brother and I never to do. You killed a Mockingbird. He never harmed you; he stayed away from you, left you to your own business. But you attacked him viciously with the most damaging weapon of all, your words. You were the ones who left him to die, never giving him a chance to live. So in the end, I hope you all feel proud of what you've done, killing this Mockingbird."
When I had started speaking, you could hear the sound of people whispering, baby's crying, and all the other sounds of a disinterested audience. But by the time I sat back down, I heard the most deafening sound of all; silence.
Later that day, Atticus congratulated me on my improved speech. Jem laughed as he said if only women could be lawyers, since he thought I would be the best speaker around. I nodded and walked away, since I was still thinking about Boo. I just hoped Boo had gone to heaven, since he, after Atticus, was the man who deserved to most.
Maybe, one day, I'd get to heaven and fly with all the other mockingbirds there.