The School. Reading 'To Kill a Mockingbird' in Russia

-I read it at night under the blanket with a flashlight.- he said, “Some things are obvious: those white folks in that poseolok (little town- MS) tried a black man on the accusation of isnasilovanie. That girl said he had his way with her. The attorney was defending the Negro but it was all fixed from the start. She was 19 years old and presumably tzelka (slang for the virgin girl- MS)..

-Who?

- A virgin, you, moron. Isnasilovanie is a sexual attack on a woman who does not want it. If she happens to be tzelka such encounter can lead to injuries. The court doctor would very easily find out if that really happened. But that sheriff whoever, that court- they never examined her. Surely that Ewell guy never asked for a doctor either.

-How do you know those things about the girls?

- My uncle is in the militia and he brags a lot. Such things are called ‘routine‘ (date rape- MS). That is some guy likes a girl, she goes out with him, he gets all excited but she for some reason is not in the mood. He gets drunk or so and ... he gets 3 years in jail.

Now, if she was not tzelka… then it is very much another story.

-Elaborate, genius.

-You, clueless. Many girls in our school have sex with seniors, college students and even total strangers. Now, if such girl complains unless it was a group attack it would be tough for her to prove anything. These girls, they prefer to keep it cool. Nobody wants to be dragged out into the open. Now, that chuvicha (girl- MS) in the book was so morose that she most likely would not notice the moment she lost her virginity, unless…

Sherlock stopped. He grabbed the book and started to turn pages frantically, found something, read through, then read again. Then he gasped.

-Her father had sex with her,- he said, “Fucking bastard. That’s what it was all about from the start; they all knew that, the whole town knew that. That Ewell bastard, he thought it was his chance to get off. If that guy Robinson was convicted he would become some kind of a hero. Only he miscalculatedl they surely convicted a Negro but he got nothing but notoriety. That’s what drove him crazy and he attacked the kids. Boo killed him. Freaky people.

- The father...-I said.

-Yep. Here it is tougher to do- too many people around; such freak would not be able to do this for long. But I heard that in some villages…

6. The old man

It was a sunny day and I was sitting on a bench. The book laid beside me. An old man sat down near me and looked at the cover. Then he looked at me. We knew each other only this time his expression was different.

-We did the same things here, you know,- he said.

-What things?

 1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  |  7  |  8