karenika
books
main • all books
To Kill a Mockingbird


We had strolled to the front yard, where Dill stood looking down the street at the dreary face of the Radley Place. "I - smell - death," he said. "I do, I mean it," he said, when I told him to shut up.

"You mean when somebody's dyin' you can smell it?"

"No, I mean I can smell somebody an' tell if they're gonna die. An old lady taught me how." Dill leaned over and sniffed me. "Jean - Louise - Finch, you are going to die in three days."

"Dill if you don't hush I'll knock you bowlegged. I mean it, now -"

"Yawl hush," growled Jem, "you act like you believe in Hot Steams."

"You act like you don't," I said.

"What's a Hot Steam?" asked Dill.

"Haven't you ever walked along a lonesome road at night and passed by a hot place?" Jem asked Dill. "A Hot Steam's somebody who can't get to heaven, just wallows around on lonesome roads an' if you walk through him, when you die you'll be one too, an' you'll go around at night suckin' people's breath -"

"How can you keep from passing through one?"

"You can't," said Jem. "Sometimes they stretch all the way across the road, but if you hafta go through one you say, 'Angel-bright, life-in-death; get off the road, don't suck my breath.' That keeps 'em from wrapping around you-"



To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite books. Having grown up in a country where the entire population is white, I have no idea why I related so well to this story. But I did. I loved the narration, the characters, the story. Everything.

©2005 karenika.com