Hidden Behind My Paper Bag

Well it's me, Dolphus again. I just got back from the Robinson trial. It was the biggest, most interesting case i had ever witnessed (besides hearing about the Till Case. It was so horrifying, it shook up the whole South). Everyone in the room kept quiet, paying close attention to the speakers being Judge Taylor, My. Gilmer, Mr. Finch, and the witnesses, and what they had to say to contribute to the case. I stepped outside briefly to get a break from Mr. Gilmer's overwhelming cross-examination. I took a seat down by an old tree and got some fresh air as it was very hot and muggy inside the courthouse. I could faintly hear a noise as if someone was crying. The noise was getting closer so I peered around the tree and saw Scout Finch comforting little Dill Harris to make him stop crying. I guess he could not handle the cross-examination either. I could not believe that they had stayed in the courtroom for so long. The rape case was a very thought provoking trial and these children might get the wrong ideas from it. I ended up having a very interesting conversation with those two children. We talked a bit about the trial and I tried to mend Dill's behaviour by giving him a sip of my drink. It seems that I have a bit of a reputation around here, if you didn't already know. You see, I carry around this paper bag. And everybody seems to think that I have whiskey in there and that is why I live like I do. But when Dill took that first sip, he realized something about me, something that would ruin my reputation if it got around to the other folks in the county. The only thing I drank out of that crinkled, brown paper bag was Coca-Cola. Dill and Scout were in shock as everyone portrayed me, Dolphus Raymond, as Maycomb's finest drunk. I tried my best to explain to Dill and Scout why I pretend to be something I am not. Even though they are just children, I tried to tell them as much as I could and as best as I could. I said to them that if the people of the town think that I am in the clutches of whiskey, that I have a reason to live like I do, among the coloured folks. This is how I show them that I do not care what they think, without getting in any arguments that do not need to happen. I guess it is my way to deal...maybe one day Dill, Scout and the town will understand.