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.

     

  

Chapter 6

Dear Journal,
Today was the first day back from vacation and I saw a new face right when I got to my room. Across the hall, instead of Leper, there is this boy named Brinker Hadly. I was going to go and talk to him but I was already late for an appointment at the crew house. I am the assistant senior crew manager which means I have to work for Cliff Quackenbush who is a bully."Quackenbush had clamped his arm in some kind of tight wrestling grip around my neck..."(pg.71). But after the meeting Mr. Ludsbury came up and talked to me about the illegal activities that I have done. Which were going to the beach with Finny and playing some late night poker with the group members. But he also tells me that I have a long distance phone call waiting for me in the office. It was from Finny checking in, seeing if I was still crazy thinking that I pushed him out of the tree. He also tells me that I have to play sports for him because he can not."Listen, pal if I can't play sports, you're going to play them for me"(pg.77). This made me feel really good about myself that I sort of get to me Finny or try to.

                                                                   

Chapter 5

Dear Journal,
Okay so last night I did a bad thing, a very bad thing. When Finny and I were in the tree I shook his branch and he fell out. And today i found out that his leg is shattered, which is all my fault. Another thing that makes this even worse is that none of us can go and see him in the infirmary. So I have been in the room and I tried on some of Finnys clothes, and when I looked into the mirror I saw not me but Finny. Thought that was kind of weird or spooky. But I went back to the infirmary, and Dr. Stanpole said that Finny will be able to walk again which is awesome. But he also told me that he will not be able to play sports ever again, which made me cry a little bit. The doctor also told me that Finny asked to see me, that made a lot to me. He wanted to know how he fell out of the tree. I did not have the heart to tell him, but it had to be done. And as I was going to tell him the doctor told me that I had to go. An ambulance takes Finny to his house which is outside of Boston somewhere. And I also go home down south because the summer session ended. But on my way back to school, after vacation. I went to Finnys house to see how he is doing. I also told him the real story about his leg, which he does not take good. He gets all mad and tells me that I am lying and just tells me to leave. But before I left he told me that "sure, I'll be there by Thanksgiving anyway"(pg.63).

 

Chapter 4

Dear Journal,
Today one of the worst things happened to me, I failed my trigonometry test. This is the first time I have never ever failed one of my tests before. And to top it all off Finny thinks I am trying to me valedictorian, even though I am, I still said I was not. The real reason why I want to be valedictorian is so that I can match up to Finny with his sports. "Now I became the not just good but exceptional, with Chet Douglas my only rival in sight"(pg. 46). So now I have been stepping up and being the greatest student I can, and now I am passing Chet Douglas my rival. Yea but even though me and Finny are best friends we are still different. Like he is wicked good at sports but bad at school, and I am okay at sports and good at school. I told Mr. Prud'homme about how me and Finny broke the rules by going to the beach and stuff. But surprising to me he did not care what so ever about us doing that. And then tonight Finny tells me that Leper Lepellier is going to jump out of the tree, so he can be a full member and stuff. But I think he told me that just to interrupt me from my studies.
                                                                                                    

                         

chapter 3

Dear Journal,
My life was just saved by my best friend Finny. We were up in the tree and I lost my balence, as I was about to fall out Finny grabed me and saved me. But that was that the next day Finny made up the funnest game ever. We used this hevy medicine ball and an open field with all our friends. Then the one with ball, usualy me, would have to run with it while all the other kids tried to tackle the one with the ball. But the one with the ball could pass it to someone else if they wanted to. The only catch to the passing idea is that the person recieving the pass can refuse it. Knowing me though the time I pass it, the person refused to recieve it. So i had to go and chace it down and still have to be the one with the ball. Then later that day we were chillin in the pool and Finny noticed that no one has broken the swimming records in a long time. S he wanted to see if he could break one of them right there, without any training or anything. So I hopped out and got a stop watch and timed him. When he was finished, he ended up beating the 100 yard freestyle record by .7 seconds. But after he broke it, he did not want me to tell any one about him breaking the record. I thoght that was very werid and mysterious. But after that we went down to the beach and when we were there he told me something that was very surprising to me. He said "I hope you're having pretty good time here. I know I kind of dragged you away at the point of a gun, but after all you can't come by your self, and at a teen age period in life the proper person is your best pal."(pg.40) But that wasn't it. He also told me" which is what you are"(pg.40). That ment a lot to me.