Journal Eleven

When I returned to the Devon school today, I had realized that Finny had organized an unusual sport to play with some boys. Finny and the rest of the guys ended up making me join in on the snowball fight with them even though I did not want to. "When I got back I found him in the middle of a snowball fight in a place called the Fields Beyond." After the snowball fight, Finny had approached me about Leper and I had explained to him how he had gone crazy. Also, I informed him about the activity that took place when I had visited Leper.

(This picture reminds me of when I came back and

caught the boys in the middle of a snowball fight.)

Later in the day, Brinker talked to me about enlisting. He had accused me of not enlisting because he thought I felt guilt for the shattering of Finny's leg. This same night, Brinker had taken Finny and I into the assembly hall. Here, Brinker decided to have a meeting about Finny's shattered leg. It does not take long for Finny to get frustrated and leave the meeting. Finny had began to run with his foot cast and I went after him. "Then these separate sounds collided into the general tumult of his body falling clumsily down the white marble stairs."

(This reminds me of the awful site I had

to witness when Finny fell down the stairs.)

Journal Ten

Last week I received a letter from Leper, in the letter he had stated that he had escaped and needed me to come to his "Christmas Location." After thinking about it, by "Christmas Location," Leper was talking about his home in Vermont. So today, I went to Leper's rescue. During my journey, I did some thinking. It came to my attention that you cannot escape from war so what was he talking about? He must have gotten into trouble and escaped from that. "'You didn't "escape" from the army, so he must have escaped from something else.'" It was morning by the time I reached the Lepellier house.

(This house reminds me of the Lepellier house,

up on the hill in Vermont.)

When I arrived, Leper invited me into the dinning room where we sat and talked for a while. In our discussion, Leper had announced that he had left the war because the army wanted to give him a Section Eight Discharge for insanity. "'I escaped!' the word surging out in a voice and intensity that was not Leper's." Later in our conversation, Leper had began to get very intense, it did not take long for him to start accusing me of shattering Finny's leg. This really set me off which had caused me to kick over Leper's chair. 

(This chair reminds me of the one I kicked

when Leper was sitting in it.)

Journal Nine

After watching a documentary about skiing, Leper had decided to go enlist. After watching the documentary Leper explained to Finny and I that he know knew what racing skiing was all about. He had told us that "Its alright to miss seeing the trees and the countryside and all the other things when you've got to be in a hurry." As Leper is talking, he soon connects it to the war. He told us "...when you're in a War you've got to be in a hurry." Normally I only focused on Leper's stories with one ear while I did my thinking with the other. This story, it was different, it had way more meaning than all the others. Leper's story really intrigued me into listening to it. It was now a week later, and Leper had gone off to war.

(This reminds me of the documentary on racing skiing 

Leper was watching just a week ago.) 

Not long after Leper had gone, Finny decided we needed to have the annual Devon Winter Carnival. Although myself and the rest of the other Devon boys knew such a thing did not exist, Finny told us it does not. "'There isn't any Devon Winter Carnival and never has been.' 'There is now.'" The carnival included many stupid things, it was not much of a carnival, in fact, I was not even entertained. There was not much to do there, just a ski jump and Finny came up with useless ideas for prizes. For example, cider. 

(This is exactly what the cider looked like that we had at

the carnival as a prize.)

Journal Eight

Today Brinker came to visit once again, he came to see if I was ready to enlist. Brinker had not realized that Finny had returned until he was half way through questioning me if I was ready to enlist in the war. It did not take long for Finny to catch on and demand I told him what Brinker and I were talking about. "He wants to know if I'll sign up with him," I said, "enlist." At this moment, Finny had turned to me and I could see the coldness in his eyes. It was this same moment that I had decided to not enlist in the war with Brinker.

(This picture reminds me of the look on Finny's face when

he found out that I was going to enlist with Brinker.)

Later the same day, Finny and I were walking to class when Finny had decided we should skip class so he could  walk around and get to see the school again after his accident and leave of absence. "'Do you have a class?' he said as we reached the steps of the building. 'Yes.' 'So do I. Let's not go.'" Once again Finny had thought of a dramatic excuse to tell the head master if they were caught. Finny told me "'We'll say I fainted from exertion on the way from chapel,' ... 'and you had to tend me.'" Right after Finny had explained this to me, he turned his back and headed for the gym.

(This picture reminds me of Finny and I walking across

the ice to get to class.)

Journal Seven

Today Brinker came to visit and accused me of trying to get rid of Finny so that I could have a big room all to myself. ""I can see you have real influence around here. This big room all to yourself. I wish I knew how to manage things like you." Soon after Brinker and I went down to the butt-room where Brinker tried to make jokes about Finny. "Heres your prisoner, gentlemen, ... I'm turning him over to the proper authorities." In my opinion, none of these jokes were funny. Instead of making a big deal out of it, I just shook it off and ignored it.

(This reminds me of how empty the big dorm was when

I was left alone because Finny had yet to return.)

On my way back from shoveling off the railroad to prepare for war labors, I ran into Leper. As Brinker makes fun of him yet as we began to walk away, he told me that he is sick of school and is going to enlist to war tomorrow. After spending much time thinking about it tonight, I too finally decided to also enlist in war. In my return to my dorm, I discovered that Finny had returned. "I grabbed the knob and swung open the door. He was seated in my chair at the desk, bending down to adjust the gross encumbrance of his leg.."

(This picture reminds me of the night I thought long and

hard about enlisting in the war.)

Journal Six

Today I returned back to the Devon School, coming back I went to visit a few places. "Peace had deserted Devon. Although not in the look of the campus and village; they retained much of their dreaming summer calm." I, myself, live in the same room again as I did in the Summer with Finny. However, Leper no longer lives in the room across the hall, Brinker Hadley does. As I was walking around I stopped to visit the upper Devon River and the lower Naguamsett River. Standing here thoughts of Finny kept running through my mind. "As I do whenever I glimpsed this river, I though of Phineas. Not of the tree and pain, but of one of his favorite tricks..." I kept picturing him standing on the edge of a canoe on the river just like he used to.

(This looks exactly like the canoe that Phineas used to stand

on in the river.)

With returning back to Devon, I took the job of being an assistant senior crew manager working for Cliff Quackenbush. I will never forget coming back from practice and listening to Cliff questioning me about why I took the job. He had begun to accuse me that I was only taking it to become manager the next year. This was not true at all considering I was already a senior and this was nearly impossible. It wasn't long after that Quackenbush and I had fallen into the river.

(This river looks exactly like the one Cliff and I had fallen

into while arguing today.)

Coming home that night I had run into Mr. Ludsburry. He started talking to me about how he knew I had done many illegal things over the summer session. Mr. Ludsburry knew about all of the late night poker partys and even about the time Finny and I ran off to the beach. Later in this day, I had recieved a long distance phone call. Calling back, I could tell by the voice it was Finny. 

(This is the same phone in Mr. Ludsburry office that I

had talked to Phineas on that night.)

Journal Five

Everywhere I went today, it was like the only thing people could talk about was what happend to Finny. There was all different kinds of rumors, but soon enough a fact came from all of those lies. I soon found out that Finny had hurt one of his legs; It had been "shattered." As the time of day passed I could not go on longer listening to all the talk about Finny, so I isolated myself from everyone and everything. "I spent as much time as I could alone in our room, trying to empty my mind of every thought, to forget where I was, even who I was.

(This reminds me of myself sitting in my dorm to clear all of my thoughts.)

After a few days had passed, Dr. Stanpole had informed me of Finny’s well being. He had told me that Finny was finally in shape to have a few visitors. "He could stand a visitor or two now, after these very nasty few days." Before going to visit Finny, Dr. Stanpole had informed me of a few things. First, he told me that it was not a very clean break and he was still in pain. Soon after, the doctor informed me that Finny will be walking again. The next thing I was told was that Finny could no longer play sports. It was then that I started to feel the guilt for his fall. When Dr. Stanpole had told me this I started to freak out. "But he must be able to," I bust out, if his leg's still there, if you aren’t going to amputate it-you aren't, are you?.."

(I remember this being what it looked like as I first walked

into the hospital to visit Finny.)

Journal Four

The first thing I saw today, the sunrise on the beach. Finny and I had fallen asleep here last night. I had awoken before Finny, but not long after he had woken up too. Before we left of course, Finny decided to jump into the ocean for a morning swim. '"There's time for just a short swim," and before I could say anything he was trotting down the beach, shedding clothes as he went, and into the ocean."'

(This picture reminds me of Finny taking his last swim into

the Ocean before we returned to our dormitory.)

That night, when we had returned to the dormitory, I had sat down to catch up on what had been happening in trigonometry. It was at this time that I became sure of the fact that Finny is jealous of me. "You want to be head of the class, valedictorian, so you can make a speech on Graduation Day- in Latin or something boring like that probably-and be the boy wonder at the school." For the rest of the night, Finny distracted me from my studies, talking about anything he could to take my mind off of it. From this point on, Finny had set out purposely to wreck my academic studies. I don’t understand how he could be so jealous of my academic skills when he had his athletic skills to depend on. From this moment on, I promised myself to be a great student. “I became quite a student after that. I had always been a good one, although I wasn’t really interested and excited by learning itself, the way Chet Douglass was.”

(This is exactly how I remember myself studying for trigonometry

that night before Finny had interupted.)

I will never forget the details of later in that day. As Finny and I had walked to the tree, he had proposed the idea of a double jump to me. Finny had explained that we would both get up on the limb, and jump together. Finny had just climbed up the limb, and soon after I began to also. As I walked across the limb, Finny had lost his balance and slipped and fell. When I heard the unnatural thud of his fall, I knew at this moment that this was something I would never forget, for the rest of my life.

(This picture is just like the image that keeps playing in

my head, it reminds me of the time Finny fell right out of

the tree and hurt his leg really bad.)



Journal Three

Today was a warm, sunny day. It was the day Finny, the boys, and myself were all avoiding the sports events going on. It was not long after that Finny created his own sport for us to play. Finny was extremely good at sports, it was just something that came natural to him like academics came easy to me. To finny, "Nothing bad ever happend in sports, they were the absolute good." The game Finny created was called blitzkrieg, the only item we used to play was a medicine ball. As the game went on, Finny made up all of the rules. When Leper refuses to take the ball, Finny created the "Lepellier Refusal." With this said, a player doesnt have to take the ball if he doesnt not want it.

(This reminds me of the time Finny created the game Blitzkrieg.)

Sometimes I began to get jealous of Finny and all of his achievments. Finny was like the weather, people are always watching his every moved as if they are amazed at what his abilities are.
Later in the day, I was goofing around with Funny and we came across the pool. I was amazed to find that nobody had broken the swimming record in such a long time. Finny had jumped in and told me to time him. So, I did. When finny jumped out of the pool and I had hit stop on the stop watch, I was amazed to see that he had broken A. Hopkins Parker's record by .7 seconds. I was shocked at Finny's reaction to himself. "My God! So I really did it. You know what? I thought I was going to do it." Finny was not surprised at himself at all. It was at this moment that I saw he really did excell in sports.

(This reminds me of the pool Finny broke the record in)

(This reminds me of when I timed Finny and he broke the record by .7 seconds)

Journal Two

The next morning, Finny and I had been caught. Our masters had noticed our absence from dinner and we received a visit from Mr. Prud'homme, a very intimidating man. "He was broad-shouldered, grave, and he wore a gray business suit...He enforced such rules as he knew; missing dinner was one of them." It did not take long for Finny to create a huge lie off the top of his head. "We had been swimming in the river, Finny explained; then there had been a wrestling match, then there was the sunset that anybody would want to watch.." Finny's lie continued going on and on and soon Mr. Prud'homme stepped in and replied "If you hadn’t already missed nine meals in the last two weeks..." It wasn’t soon after Finny's ridiculous lie that i stepped in and told him of course it was because we had to jump off of that stupid tree. Finny then stepped in and explained that we needed to prepare for war, we would soon be seventeen and by that time it was almost time to enlist. With this said, neither Finny, nor I, got into trouble that morning.

(This dinner table reminds me of the one just like at the summer

session when Finny and I skipped dinner.)

It wasn't until this day that I had realized how much Finny wanted nothing to do with the war. Finny began to discuss the bombing of central Europe. It was always up to Finny to speak about the details of the war, he was always putting forth his opinions and views on it. "I think we ought to bomb the daylights out of them, as long as we don’t hit any women to Mrs. Patch-Withers, perched nervously behind her urn." Finny always claimed there was no such thing as war, but in the back of my mind I can see Finny enlisting in the war.

(This picture makes me think of Finny one day realizing

that war does exist.)

Journal One

I went back to the Devon School today, after fifteen years of not being there all the memories began to come back to me. As I walked in I started to realize how different it looked. To me, the school looked so much more new than it did when I attended school there fifteen years ago. "I didn't entirely like this glossy new surface, because it made the school look like a museum, and that’s exactly what it was to me, and what I did not want it to be." Through the swinging doors, in through the marble foyer, was a long white marble staircase. Fifteen years later, the worn moon in the middle of the stairs have not worn away that much. Although I was too busy thinking of all the old times and things that occurred on these stairs, it didn’t occur to me to think that the marble of the stairs were unusually hard. Comparing myself to the stairs, I realize that not much has changed over the past fifteen years. Only the fact that I was now older, taller, and bigger. "There was nothing else to notice; they of course were the same stairs I had walked up and down at least every day of my Devon life." Soon I left and began to walk along the Devon field to find a particular spot.

(This picture reminds me of exactly how the marble 

staircase looked when i returned to the Devon School)

(This reminds me of today, walking 

through the field to find the tree.)

As I strolled around the school, I began to think of my best friend Finny, who was my roommate. The next place I visited was extremely important to me, the tree of the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. As I approached the tree, flashbacks of the summer session began to come back to me. The first thing I remembered was Finny jumping from the tree. Soon, I was up on that very same limb about to do the same. "What was I doing up here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into stupid things like this?" Next, the thoughts in my head screamed "Jump Gene!" It was Finny encouraging me to jump.

(This picture looks exactly like the dorm that Finny and I shared)

(This tree reminds me of the one we used to jump off of to start 

the meeting of the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session)