Chapter 13

Dear Journal,
My class graduated which was a very, nice moment that I will always remember. My class donated its Far Common quadrant to the military for parachute riggers' school. The Brinker took me to the Butt Room to meet is father. He wanted to be younger so that he could be able to fight in the war. And he also wanted all of us kids to fight in the war right after they graduated school. Brinker ends up going into the coast guard and I get into the Navy. As i went to the locker room to clean out my gym locker I found a platoon of parachute riggers there. I watched them prepare for calisthenics in the playing fields. Wow high school had a lot of good and bad memories. I have never killed any one in the war, but fought at Devon were I killed my enemy. Out of every one that I know Finny is the only one not to have an enemy, and was never afraid of any one and never hated any one.      

 

Chapter 12

Dear Journal,
Oh my gosh, Finny fell down the stairs tonight. A group of boys go get help from the wrestling coach. We also sent some one to go get Dr. Stanpole. The doctor tells me that this is a much cleaner break then last time. I go to the infirmary to try to sneak a peek in on Finny. I went to the window and Finny easily recognized me. Finny falls out of the bed ad then asks "you want to break something else in me"(pg.176). I was not ready for that so I said sorry and went home. I could not go back to bed so I just wandered the campus all night. But I ended up falling asleep under the stadium. I had this weird dream, all the walls could speak and they were saying some powerful things. Then when I woke up and went back to the room. There was a note from doctor Stanpole saying "please bring some of Finny's clothes and his toilet things to the Infirmary"(pg.179). When I went to give him his things Finny had no emotion what so ever, but his hands were shaking as he opened the suit case. I also found out that Finny has been trying to enlist into the military, but no branch will take him because of his leg. After when I was back in my room, I got a call from the Infirmary telling me that Finny has just died. A piece of bone marrow broke off and went into his blood stream. And ended up stopping his heart. I did not cry at the funeral, it was more of a funeral for me as well.

   

Chapter 11

Dear Journal,
I get back to school grounds, and find Finny in the middle of a snow ball fight with every one. Finny is in a walking cast now so he is mobile. Later today Brinker comes into the room to see if Leper is all better. Which he has he has changed dramatically. Brinker still thinks that Leper has cracked. All the boys enlisted to a safe branch of the military, unless for me and Finny. Brinker thinks I did not enlist because I pity Finny. Every one wants to make Finny accept his injury. Finny and I were talking and he now believes in the war because if it makes some one go crazy it must be real. Then tonight Brinker and some boys took me and Finny down to the Assembly Hall, to talk about Finny's injury. Finny said he did not know how he fell, he remembers me being there and Leper being there. Him and me were going to do a double jump and jump off at the same time. So then they asked Leper about the accident. Leper said that he saw two people in the tree, and saw one shake the other push the other off the branch. And then Leper clammed up and stop talking. Then Finny said he did not care and ran out of the room with tears running down his face. Saying "you collect every f--ing fact there is in the world"(pg.169).  All he hear is his cane as he walks down then the hall. Then we hear his body fall down the marble staircase and we all rushed out to see what just happened.

 

Chapter 10

Dear Journal,
So right after I get the telegram, I headed straight to Vermont t Leper's house. Leper said he escaped from some spies and came right to his house. But actually he was sent home for a "section eight discharge"(pg.136). Then he just broke down into tears right there in front of me. And then randomly he started accusing me of knocking Finny out of the tree. So I kicked his chair out from under him, I know not a good idea but I did it any way. And to make it worse his mom walked in as I did that and flipped out at me. Saying "well, good heaven, the boy is ill"(pg.137), and like why would I ever attack a sick person. And then he invites me to dinner, I know random but I stayed any way. As we are eating he tells me about his hallucinations at the training camp. He told me that people's faces changed to woman's, and he saw soldiers carrying loose, detached limbs. But I could not listen any more, so I ran out. And started walking home away to the snowy fields.

Chapter 9

Dear Journal,
This might sound weird but I have felt a profound peace as Finny trains me. And something off topic but important Leper Lepeier enlisted into the war in January. Which makes the war seem even more unreal to me. But back to me, Finny and I stopped going to the Butt Room. I think Finny is trying to isolate me and the rest of my friends so it is just me and Finny. Later today Finny got a winter carnival together and is now running it. He made Brinker organize and transfer the equipment the dormitory to a park on the river. He also made Brownie Perkins guard several jugs of hard cider buried in the snow. We all organized this little ski jump, some snow statues, and we had some prizes. I guess you could say we music, it was just Chet Douglas on his trumpet though. But some of the guys seemed drunk off cider, especially when Finny did this wicked funny dance at the prize table. But at the end of the day Brownie came up to me and he said he had a telegram for me. It was from Leper saying that he has escaped and that his safety depends on me at his house.

Chapter 8

Dear Journal,

Last night Finny came back which was awesome. He playfully made fun of my clothes, and right there I realized that Finny does not want me to leave and enlist. So I am not going to enlist into the war. And then Finny gave this hilarious nick name to Brinker, which is now none as Brinker "yellow peril" Hadley. Which is referring to his supposed double life. Later that they Finny and I skip class to go  gym. I thought he wanted to go there just to stare at his trophy's. But then he asked what team I tried out for, I just told him that diminished importance of sports during the war. Finny told me that he thinks the war is a conspiracy orchestrated by fat, rich, old men. But to end the awkwardness I started doing some pull ups. Now that Finny can not play sports he told me that he will now train me for his sport. So now I tutor him and he trains me which gets great progress. I start running better, I run around the head masters house. And then to rain all over my parade Ludsbury said that all training should be or the war, and the war only.

    

Chapter 7

Dear Journal,
This morning  Brinker came in and congratulated me on having such a big room to myself. And then he said "I'll bet you knew all the time Finny couldn't be back this fall. That's why you picked him for a roommate, right."(pg.79). But then I suggested to go and smoke some cigarettes in the "Butt Room" or the basement, which got him off that topic. But still every one keeps on bringing up, that I hurt Finny on purpose. Like I know there kidding but still what if they know I did do it on purpose. But I go before smoking to study for French. Then we all went to shovel the rail rode to relieve wartime labor shortages. But a good thing from doing that was that we got money. And on our way there we found Leper cross-county skiing. He said "You think there's a path through those woods?"(pg.87). We had teams for shoveling and on my team we had Brinker and Chet Douglas, which was very, very boring. On the way home we were all talking about the war and it looks like we are all eager to be involved.  They were talking about when there going to enlist and stuff. Quackenbush said he's going to finish school before he enlists, but Brinker wanted to enlist tomorrow. I thought about it and I think I will enlist, and when i got back to the room Finny was there.