One of my favorite authors has always been Nelle Harper Lee.  I love To Kill a Mockingbird—the way some do an heirloom that's been in the family for more years than anyone can recall.  I can't remember a time when I didn't know of it.  I think of  Ms. Lee every once in a while, and wonder what she's up to.  Does she think about writing anymore, or has she simply moved on?  Is there anything that bothers her?  I like to think of her as curled up with a good book by her fireside, and that, at her age, she is fearful of nothing.
    It is October and Halloween is coming soon.  That brings Boo Radley to mind.  He is the sum total of what frightens people, or is at least in the beginning of the story.  Much more is ascribed to him by town folk and by the Finch children than belongs to him. 
    Lee writes:
        "Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo:  Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks;
        he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained—if you ate
        an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off.  There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face;
        what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time."
    Sometimes we allow our fears to become bigger than life.  Heaven knows, there's enough in the news to make you fearful, if you weren't before.  In this country, decaying fall leaves perpetually swirl on autumn's breath.  On dark nights, sounds of footsteps plod unsteadily behind you as you head down the path toward home.  Haints, hot steams, and boogie men with jagged scars and knives in their hands, wait and crouch in the bushes everywhere you turn.  
    You'll remember that by the end of the story, Boo saves the lives of the Jem and Scout.  The very person they'd spent all that time fearing, rescues them from the real boogie man.   Maybe your Boo Radley is really the Robert E. Lee Ewell of today—the crazy economy, illness, or worrisome relationships.  But then again, maybe it's just plain old Boo Radley on October windswept, leaf strewn nights.
    There are a few questions I'd like to ask Nelle Harper Lee.  About Boo, Jem and Scout, and old Bob Ewell.  Has anyone seen her, lately?