Facing the Truth

Pages 152-177: The truth about his accident was finally forced on Finny. I cannot believe it happened as it did.

When I returned from Leper's, Finny and about 20 other students were having a snowball fight. I wasn't going to join in until Finny hit the back of my head with a snowball. He switched sides several times during the fight until no one knew which side was which. It finally ended with everyone throwing snowballs at Finny. Later, I thought it was a good sign that Finny said he thought his leg was getting stronger. That wasn't true.

After dinner, Brinker came to our room. He guessed what had happened to Leper. Then he accused me of not enlisting because of my pity for Finny. He also thought this would make Finny pity himself. Another surprise occured when Finny told me he now believed the war was real because of what it did to Leper. He said after the chapel service he saw Leper hiding in the bushes. I didn't know it at the time but Leper would play an important part in that night's events.

About 10:00 that evening, the events began which led to the terrible truth Finny had to face. Brinker and 3 others came to our room and took Finny and me to the First Building. We went to the Assembly Room and found 10 members of the senior class seated on a raised platform with a railing around it. They were wearing their black graduation robes and looked like a jury. At first Finny and I didn't understand what was going on until Brinker told Finny to describe his accident. Brinker said he wanted to know because Finny couldn't take part in the war and he had to find out why. When Finny couldnt remember the exact details leading to his accident and I didn't want to remember them, Brinker said Leper always remembered details. When Finny said Leper was at school, two boys went went to get him. Leper did remember details and described what he had seen in the tree. He had seen one person shaking the branch and another person falling.

The truth finally hit Finny who had once said he believed in me, not books, not teachers- me. He rushed out of the room. Finny falling down the steps was the sound we heard to close the trial.