I Am Scout by Charles J. Shields Read Free Book Online

young readers, sometimes responding positively to requests to visit local high schools for book-signings or unpublicized appearances. “I was in the National Honor Society at Monroe County High School,” said student Amanda McMillan,
    and every year we induct an honorary member at our induction ceremony. My sophomore year it was Alice, Harper Lee’s sister, because she’s the oldest practicing female attorney in Alabama.
    [The adviser] didn’t tell us because they didn’t think she would say yes. But since she went to high school there, she thought it was super-cool and agreed to it. Our president was there, but he had a leg cast, so I had to hand her the plaque. I was sitting next to Miss Alice, and Harper Lee was on the other side of her.
    I heard her talking to Miss Alice (who is partially deaf, so she was talking pretty loudly), and she said, “I don’t get nervous at these things anymore. You want to know why?” Miss Alice asked why, and Harper Lee said, “’Cause you and I are the oldest ones here!” 26
    According to Don Collins, a former Methodist minister in Alabama, Nelle has funded scholarships over the years. “Many have attended college without knowing she was their benefactor.” 27
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    In 2006 , Nelle turned 80 ; Alice was 95 . They both wear hearing aids that go Wheeee! in diners at times and then they argue about whose is making noise. They often debate whose turn it is to get the check, too, a discussion that usually ends with “I’ll get it this time, and you next time.” Nelle dotes on her older sister, whom she calls “Atticus in a skirt” because of Alice’s achievements in law, particularly with regard to integrating the Methodist Church over the years.
    For Alice’s birthday a few years ago, some friends pulled up to the Lees’ home early in the morning. The two sisters followed in their Buick, with Nelle at the wheel, until they reached Vanity Fair Park. Robert Sims, the city superintendent, was there waiting. While Nelle and Alice watched, two workers lifted a large box from the bed of a pickup truck and opened it. Out waddled two large geese, who headed for the edge of the pond a few yards away. From a second small box issued three baby mallards. The ducklings were gently steered into a safe, penned-in area in shallow water. The event, which brought children on the run to see what was going on, was part of the park’s effort to replenish the supply of waterfowl, which hawks and foxes had decimated. Alice was charmed by it all. “These new park residents should continue to bring pleasure to people from 92 down,” she wrote to family gaily. 28
    While in Monroeville, Nelle spends most of her time at home reading. Inside the entryway of the Lees’ one-story brick ranch are photographs of family members. But everywhere else are books: in a bookcase that takes up half the entrance hallway; in Alice’s bedroom, off the kitchen; and in Nelle’s blue bedroom, at the end of the hallway. In her room, the walls are devoted to built-in white bookshelves, floor to ceiling. A third bedroom, for guests, has bookshelves, too. As in Nelle’s apartment in New York, there are no expensive furnishings that would indicate she is the author of the bestselling novel of the 20 th century. On the contrary, the Lees’ home is unremarkable in every way.
    â€œThose things have no meaning for Nelle Harper,” Alice said. “All she needs is a good bed, a bathroom and a typewriter.… Books are the things she cares about.” 29
    In 60 years, Nelle has never attended a reunion of the sisters of the Chi Omega house at the University of Alabama. “I’ve written to her many times,” said a Chi O member, “and she’s never acknowledged receipt of my letter.” 30 But a street on campus is named Harper Lee Drive.
    An anecdote floating around on the Internet