Chapter 18

He would not allow Atticus to harm Mayella. Atticus was not sassing Mayella, he was being a gentleman. Put a cigar in his mouth after recess and spat the excess into a spittoon. Asked Atticus if he would be able to finish with his witness that same afternoon.

She is young and fragile looking. She is a thick bodied girl accustomed to strenuous (hard) labour. Mayella looked as if she tried to keep clean. On the night of the rape she was on the front porch doing nothing. She burst into tears when Judge Taylor asked her to tell them what happened.

Mayella revealed she was afraid of what Atticus might ask her. Mayella is nineteen and a half years old. Judge Taylor said he was there to make sure Atticus did not frighten her. There was a chiffarobe in the yard that her father wanted her to chop up for firewood. Mayella wasn’t feeling strong enough and saw Tom Robinson go by.

I said “Come here nigger and bust up this chiffarobe for me, I’ve got a nickel for you. He came into the yard and I went into the house to get him a nickel and I turned around and before I knew it he was on me He just ran up behind me. He got me around the neck, he cursed and talked dirty.

I couldn’t scream because he had me around the neck and he hit me over and over again. Robinson threw her on the floor and took advantage of her. Mr Gilmer asked if she screamed and fought back? She said she screamed and kicked for all she had. The next she remembered her father was in the room and he stood over her shouting: “Who did it!?”

She then fainted and all she could remember was Mr Tate pulling her off the floor and leading her to the water bucket. Mr Gilmer asked if she fought him off, tooth and nail? I positively did. Mr Gilmer asked if she was positive he took full advantage of her? He did what he was after.

Asked Miss Mayella her name and said he may repeat some of the question Gilmer asked. Mayella said she would answer no questions until Atticus stopped mocking her. Atticus is calling her ma’am and Miss Mayella. Mayella was nineteen and she had seven brothers and sisters. She was the oldest.

Her mother had been dead for a long time, she could not remember for how long. She did went to school and could read and write as good as her father. She was in school for two or three years. Atticus asked Mayella who her friends were? Mayella became angry and asked if Atticus was trying to make fun of her.

Atticus asked if Mayelle loved her father? She said he was tolerable except when… and did not complete the answer. Except when drinking asked Atticus and Mayelle nodded. Does your father ever go after you, beat you? My father has never touched a hair of my head in my life. He never touched me. What did Tom Robinson have to chop up? A chiffarobe, an old dresser with drawers on the one side.

Was Tom Robinson well known to you? Did you know where he lived, who he was? I knew who he was, he passed the house every day. Was this the first time you asked him to come inside the fence? Yes it was (Mayella jumped at this question.) Didn’t you ever ask him to come inside the fence before? I did not, I certainly did not..

You never asked him to do odd jobs for you? I might have, there’s a lot of niggers around. Can you remember any other occasion? No. You said Tom Robinson was behind you in the room when you turned around? Yes You said he got you around the neck cursing and talking dirty? Yes

Do you remember him beating you around the face? No I don’t recollect, I mean yes I do, he hit me. Was your last sentence your answer? Yes he hit, I don’t remember, it happened so quick. Will you identify the man who raped you? It’s Tom Robinson. Atticus makes Tom Robinson stand up so Mayella could have a good look at him.

Is that the man that raped you? It most certainly is. How? I don’t know how he’d done it, but he done it – I said it all happened so fast I – Mayella said Tom choked her, then he beat her. Then he threw her on the floor. She screamed.

Why didn’t the children come? Didn’t you scream for the first time when you saw your father’s face in the window? Didn’t your father beat you up? Do you want to tell us what really happened?

I got something to say and then I ain’t gonna say no more. That nigger yonder took advantage of me, and if you fine gentleman don’t want to do anything about it then you’re all yellow stinking cowards, the lot of you. Your fancy airs don’t come to anything – your ma’aming and Miss Mayellering doesn’t come to anything, Mr Finch.

Mayella Ewell refused to say anything after that.

Did Mayella try to keep herself clean and did the patch of flowers belonged to her? Did Mayella have sense? Scout wondered if anybody had ever called her ‘ma’am’ or ‘Miss Mayella’ in her life; probably not, as she took offence at routine courtesy. What on earth was her life like? Atticus was building up a picture of the Ewell’s home.

The relief cheque was not enough to feed all the children. Mayella suspected that her father drank it up, he went away in the swamp for days and returned ill. You could make nice shoes from strips of tyre.

The family hauled it’s water with buckets from a nearby spring. Everybody was responsible for cleaning himself. The younger children had perpetual colds and suffered from ground itch.

A lady came round to ask why they were not in school and Mayella wrote down the answer that with two people reading and writing in the family there is no need for the rest to learn. Atticus must have hit Mayella hard with his questions because she was really crying and she had a look of real hate when she looked at Atticus.

He looked off balance when Atticus asked him to stand. His left arm was 12 inches shorter than his right hand, and it hung dead at his side. It ended in a small shrivelled hand, and it was of no use to him.

His arm was caught in a cotton gin when he was a boy. He would have bled to death and he tore all the muscles loose from his bones.

Saw Scout in the coloured balcony and just snorted. Jem said he would probably put it in the social pages.