Journal #6

Chapter 8: It finally happened

Piggy

Praise the lord! Happy day, oh happy day! This is the best thing I could have asked for (aside from being rescued or auntie coming of course) on this hellhole of an island. That demoniac bloke Jack is gone, no more, out into the jungle in shame and never coming back and mocking me or socking me. Oh joy, to see his face, with those two bars of ol' man river. His expression, one of utter disbelief and disgrace, was so fitting. How many times would he pick on me, not 1 on 1, but in front of every single boy present. What number of times was it that he would call me names, and discriminate me for my difference. There are still some demure issues to deal with. I'm getting ahead of myself. I know I'm the only one who's ever (going to) read this or my previous journal entries, but a reader would be totally lost with what I'm talking about. So here I am the morning after everybody except the littluns left, pulling my hair out trying to keep track of the littluns despite Barry's constant whining about his cat mittens, or Jimmy's annoying antics of inserting crabs down the back of my shirt while I'm not looking. The hope of being rescued was becoming a taboo in my head. Suddenly I see Percival point at an opening in the trees. I nearly fell over in releif. Through those trees came Ralph, Simon, all the other biguns, and that pigheaded Jack in front of them. Finally I could be done with this hellish babysitting job, AND find out news about the beastie. I never saw any babysitters on that one American show, what's it called...Gilligan's Island, that's it. Those Americans are too misleading with their sitcoms. Anyways, as I neared them, I saw they had expressions that were angry, fearful, or both. That conceited Jack was boiling mad, perhaps worse than the time he got me in the gut. I swear the prefects at his old school must have to set somebody to watch him every day. Jerk. As it turns out, everybody waited at the bottom of the mountain, and only Jack, Ralph, and Roger went up. I'm sure it was Jack who made the foolhardy decision to go up there at night. Their description of the beastie paled my face though. I could never imagine it had a nest of skulls, or that it had claws the size of my head. Anyways, once they saw the monstrosity, they ran back to the others and evacuated the area immediately. And here they all were. Jack, still looking waxy, grabbed the conch from Ralph, ran ahead of everyone, and started- I mean tried- to blow it. As silly as it sounded when he blew it with his mouth and his puny intellect, everyone crowded around him in light of this rushed meeting. Jack then proceeded to speak in more detail of the beast how he'd like to paunch it, and then, out of nowhere, he (verbally) attacked Ralph mercilessly. That fool called him a coward, said he wasn't fit to be our leader. That ego-maniac only wants everyone to think he's a better chief. And then, he decided to end it, too bad (for him) it ended differently than he had excepted. He told everybody to vote whether Ralph should be de-throned and he leader, or not. He shouted, "Who wants me for leader?" with the cockiness he loved. But happily for me, a deadly silence greeted his idea. He said it again, his arrogance breaking apart. This time the silence was solid and blunt. "Alright then" he said. He attempted to hide his tears under that mop of hair. He placed the conch on the ground, and ran off. I was about to cheer, but then I saw Ralph calling after him and I decided not to. Minutes later after everybody disperses, lost in their own thoughts, I see Ralph slinking off towards the pool, visibly depressed. I go to him and tell him one of the ideas I came up with when I had to telling Kernel why we couldn't go to the fire and light it again. I says to him, "Hey Ralph, don't be so down, listen, I've got an idea." For the moment he loses those tendrils of thought and is interested by the tone of my voice. "Why does that have to be the only fire area if we can't even get there? Why don't just build a fire here on the beach?" He greets my idea with a thoughtful expression, one with intellect rather than depression. "Of course it won't be as big or make as much (smoke)" I add. "But we can use them green candle plants to make some smoke and we'll be right at hand to put on more wood." Things seemed cheery. Ralph was lost in thought, thinking of my idea. As his thoughts start to drift into other areas, he asks me, "Where's Roger and Bill?" This sudden question surprised me. We both realized that they along with a few other biguns, were missing. Our eyes both trailed to the jungle, and we silently agreed that they must have run off and joined Jack. This was a bit of downer. We separating, each brooding for most of the day. Around dusk, we actually went and built the fire. Rather small, but not smaller than I excpected, so I didn't really mind. Unfortunately, there as no smoke. We decided to worry about it the next day. Suddenly, and bunch of savages with painted faces emerged from the jungle of tall trees. They came out screaming, and I nearly wet myself. Ralph however, was brave, and stayed near the fire, realizing what they were after, and attempting to protect it. I'm afraid however, two smaller savages came and grabbed two pieces of burning wood, and before Ralph could stop them, sprinted away. They, along with the rest of the savages, went into from where they came, and the whole thing ended as fast as it started. Then SamN'Eric emerged from the trees, saying how they narrowly avoided the savages that I realized was Jack and the ones who decided to join him. Strange how they came out unscathed and right after the savages left. I could have sworn I even saw some red stuff next to Eric's right eye, but he and Sam dismissed it as blood from a cut when they ran away from the savages. I'll be keeping my eye on them.

*Note from the writer: The nest of skulls and head-claws comment was to show how out of proportion things got because of their fear and the blindness that ensued darkness.