TKAM: AE (To Kill a Mockingbird: Alternate Ending)

I couldn't believe it, they had just killed Tom Robinson. I had been in the court house for the trial, Tom and Atticus had lost the case. I knew all the facts, even if I didn't get some of them completely. There was no reason to ask Atticus why they did it. He hadn't done anything, everyone in Maycomb now knew that. None of them wanted to accept that though, they still wanted to believe Bob Ewell's word.

Jem was still moping from the defeat, he had believed in Atticus with all of his heart. He understood the entire case, or at least that's how it seemed. It must have struck him awful hard when the jury pleaded Tom guilty. I tried to get him to do something to take his mind off of it, but he just told me to go away, he wanted to be alone. That was all he ever wanted nowadays, so rather than bugging him about it, I went to find company with Dill. He however must have still been shaken himself and had decided not to leave the comfort of Miss Rachel's house.

I left with a sigh, something telling me this was never going to end. I trudged to Miss Maudie's house where she greeted me with a smile that wasn't very happy. Even she was being effected by all of this. But this did not stop her from bringing a small cake out for me and a bigger one for herself out onto the porch to enjoy.

"Miss Maudie..."I mumbled messing with the cake she had given me.

"Yes Jean Louise"She answered before taking a bite.

I was just about to ask her why everyone was getting so down because of this. I mean of course Tom had done nothing wrong, but it wasn't damaging everyone else's lives. But Miss Stephanie Crawford stepped right in shouting for Miss Maudie.

"Maudie, you'll never believe what I just heard!"

"And what would that be Stephanie?"Miss Maudie answered, figuring it was just more gossip.

"I heard that while Atticus was down town-"She paused when she saw me on the porch.

"Yes Stephanie while Atticus was down town..."Miss Maudie didn't seem to care if I heard this.

"While Atticus was down town, Robert Ewell came up to him, called him a 'Nigger Lover', spat in his face and waited for him to get angry. When he didn't he attacked him!"Miss Stephanie shrieked.

I ran from Miss Maudie's porch, and she let me, Miss Stephanie too shocked to move. I swear I couldn't of run any faster then I did then, my heart racing as I ran into the house.

"JEM IT'S ATTICUS HE'S BEEN-"I shouted, but stopped short when I saw Cal rushing the both of us out the door.

She locked it shut and quickly proceeded to pushing us faster than we could run towards Maycomb's only Hospital. I was in total shock, I had so many questions, but I couldn't seem to speak. It was as if my voice had been locked away, and it couldn't escape. Cal however was talking up a storm, giving us all kinds of directions. She sounded like her usual, but her look told me she was mighty worried. It wasn't long before we were outside the large gray building, the second most dreary place in Maycomb.

I wanted to say something but Cal shoved us in and gave one final direction, to stay together. With that she was forced to stay outside while Jem and I were to find the room Atticus was staying in. It seemed to take forever just to find the front desk, but really with our frenzy like movement, it couldn't have been two seconds. When we finally reached it, the nurse silenced us, she reminded me of Aunt Alexandra on a bad day.

"MISS WERE HERE TO SEE ATTICUS! IS HE ALRIGHT!"I was talking a mile a minute.

Jem however seemed to regain his composer for the short time to explain the situation. The nurse nodded and made little noise as she listened to the story. When she finally nodded as the story ended, I added a quick little comment.

"PLEASE TELL ME HE'S ALRIGHT!!!"

Jem looked at me as if I had just embarrassed him to death, but with the worry from the situation, it looked like he'd spun around too many times and had to puke. The nurse ignoring my comment led us quickly to a stairway where she then proceeded to take us to the top floor. She then showed us to a small room at the end of the Hallway with a locked door. I went to pound on the door but Jem held me back for some reason. I struggled against his grip and just as I was about to pound on the door, a doctor opened it.

"IS HE ALRIGHT"I screamed so loud it could have woken the dead.

"I'm alright Scout... just a little beat up"

It was Atticus, he sounded okay, but his breath was heavy. I raced past the doctor and to Atticus's bedside where he lay with his arm in a sling, a black eye, and a cast around his foot.

"Just a little, Atticus you got to be kidding me"I said as I pointed at his injuries.

"No just a little Scout, doctor says I'll heal in awhile, a month or two if I'm lucky..."He said with a small grin.

I asked him about everything, he slowly but surely told me everything. I absorbed every word, asking more questions than he could answer at one time. Jem told me to hush some and let Atticus rest, but I didn't want to hear it. Atticus explained that he didn't fight back one bit, that while Mr Ewell tried to kill him, he dodged what he could and took what he couldn't. It didn't take long for Police to show up, having Mr Ewell both shot to stop and killed for running. Just as I was about to ask another question a doctor came in.

"I'm sorry children, but your Father needs his rest, please allow him to recover, I'm sure he'll be perfectly able to finish your talk then."

He was going to usher us out, but Atticus stopped him, told him that he should let the children stay. The doctor argued but left when he found out we didn't have someone to look after us. He left mumbling something, but I didn't care.

I remember everything after that, we let Atticus rest, we read some stories, looked at the paper. When Atticus woke up we both bombarded him with our left over questions, and eventually had nothing left to do. It was then that Jem tried to take me home, but I told him to go home with Cal and that I wanted to stay. Atticus refused to allow it to happen and told us to go home with Cal. I wanted to fight but knew it wouldn't help the situation. As we left the Hospital and followed Cal home, I wondered what would have happened if Mr Ewell attacked us instead of Atticus.

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Okay, so this is the project I've been working on since I got here, I got the only 100 in our class. The Teacher called it a "Must Read", so she must have liked it. Tell me what you think.