chapter 9 - LOTF

chapter 9 - LOTF

chapter 9- view to a death
Perspective- jack
WERE DOING THIS MY WAY-

All but Piggy, Ralph, Simon, and the two tending to the sow, were at our little gathering. We were laughing, singing, laying, squatting, or just standing on the grass holding food in our hands. Before the feast/party really began, a great log had been dragged into the center of the lawn, which I painted, decorated, and sat upon as if a god. Beside me, were leaves barring meat, coconut shells full of drink, and fruit ready to eat. Piggy and Ralph then came to the edge of the grassy platform; and the boys, noticing their presence, went silent one by one. At this silence, I looked around at the amount of boys at the meeting and noticed that all I could hear was the crackling noises of the fire. I did not miss the fact that Ralph looked away cautiously as if going to glare at Sam. Sam, also taking in the movement, slowly put down his bone with a giggle. I still did not take my eyes off where Ralph and Piggy were standing, but then caught Ralph point to a palm tree while whispering something inaudible to Piggy. At this same moment, Piggy and Ralph giggled the same giggle as Sam. Ralph, picking his feet up then, came closer to the meeting huddle and Piggy whistled to the two boys roasting the pig. As the two boys approached, sprinting and with meat in their hands, bumped into Piggy. Immediately, myself and all the other boys broke out with a laugher that united us all back together. Again, Piggy was the center of social mockery, but it did not bother me what-so-ever, for he, to me, was like a child who did not know his left from right; and for right now, that WAS kinda of true because of his specks being cracked. Serves him right. Anyways, I stood up and waved my spear in the air, “take them some meat.” I said. The boys gave Piggy and Ralph a very appetizing slice of meat, and ate it under the stars and thunder that was coming shortly. I waved my spear again. “Has everybody eaten as much as they want?” I looked back over to the food that was still sizzling on the wooden spits, and put on top of green leaves. Piggy threw his bone onto the sand and bent down for more. “Has everybody eaten as much as they want?” The boys ate faster. Without a reason for a pause, I stood up and walked to the edge of the grass. I peeked down from behind my paint at Ralph and Piggy. I spoke again. “Give me a drink” I demanded. Henry brought me a coconut shell and I drank from it still keeping my eyes on Ralph and Piggy over the rim of the shell. “All sit down.” I commanded. The boys arranged themselves into rows, in front of me, but Ralph and Piggy remained standing off towards the sand line. What. Does Ralph really think that he still has control over these boys? Huh? I tried ignoring them by refocusing my attention to the boys sitting in front of me. I pointed my spear at them and asked them, “Who is going to join my tribe?” I heard Ralph stumble and the boys and I looked up. “I gave you food,” I said. “And my hunters will protect you from the beast.” I was getting mad now. Could Ralph possibly consider himself still as chief? “Who will join my tribe?” I asked with more intensity. The monster inside me was beginning to get unleashed. “Im chief because you chose me.” I looked up to see Ralph speaking to all the boys in front of me. And we are going to keep the fire going. Now you run after food-“ Oh so now he was getting all ‘huntingly’ with me? That’s where I interrupted him. “You ran yourself! Look at that bone in your hands!” I was absolutely furious. I was the one who has provided meals. I am the reason for our survival. Without my leadership, we’d all be dead by now. As I said this, Ralph’s face went crimson. “I said you were hunters. That’s your job.” Oh so now he wants to talk about jobs and roles does he? I tried to ignore this. “Who will join my tribe and have fun?” I emphasized on the ‘have fun’ part. Ralph was the one to respond again. “Im chief. And what about the fire? And I’ve got the conch-“ Oh my goodness. We’ve been over this before! The conch has no power in it, what-so-ever, anymore. I took that power away, and frankly, it’s in no one else’s possession but my own. “You haven’t got it with you. You left it behind. See, clever? And the conch doesn’t count at this end of the island-“ The thunder rumbled but this time, there was a point of impact on the explosion. “The conch counts here too. And all over the island,” said Ralph. “What are you going to do about it then?” I asked, challenging him as his expression went blank. I could tell he did not plan this out thoroughly had he? Ralph looked around at the boys and there was no intention on helping him now, and turned away looking confused and sweaty. Piggy whispered something to him. “The fire- rescue,” he finally said. That wasn’t the point. There was only him and me. “Who’ll join my tribe?” I asked, this time, sounding demanding. I heard an “I will,” a “me.” And more “I will” s. “I’ll blow the conch and call an assembly.” Ralph looked warn out and appeared, to me, like he knew he had no chance. “We shant hear it.” I told him with a stern voice. Piggy touched Ralph’s wrist and said something, again, inaudible. There was a blink of bright light beyond the forest and the thunder exploded again so that a littlun started to wine. Big drops of rain began to fall then. Ah, rain. That’s the last thing we need. But we’ll pull through. We can survive without any shelters. We’ve got each other. “Going to be a storm and you’ll have rain like when we dropped here. Who’s clever now? Where are your shelters? What are you going to do about that?” Another flash of light along with another louder boom sent all the littluns screaming. The only thing that I could think of at that moment was to get us all doing something together. I leapt to my feet. “Do our dance! Come on! Dance!” I stumbled through the thick sand to the open space of rock beyond the fire. Between the flashes of lightning, the air was dark and terrible. The boys followed me. Almost instantly, Roger was on all fours grunting and charging towards me. My hunters took spears, the cooks took spits, and the rest of them picked up clubs of firewood. A circling movement developed into a chant. I noticed that Roger was mimicking the terror of the pig, and the littluns jumped on the outside of the circle. Piggy and Ralph looked eager to take place in our chant. “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” Our movement became more and more repetitive and began to beat like a steady pulse. It looked like Roger had just about had it with being the pig that got hunted, and became a hunter once again. Out of my peripheral vision, I could tell that the littluns had made a circle of their own. An instant later, the thunder was booming louder and louder up above them. We were getting stronger and louder. I could feel the rain running off my arms and my back and could feel my power pouring onto my shoulders. Just at that moment, a corpulent looking thing came out crawling towards us on all fours. We were prepared and it helped because we were already prepared with our preparation of Roger. It was shouting or wailing something that was, again, inaudiable because of the magnetuide of our chant. As it came into the center of our ring, we all stabed it and made sure it bled hard and cold. The beast shall not have the lives of any of us here and was going to pay for showing his face. As soon as we made sure it was dead, it bled to death on the sand shore. We could all see the little glimses of its blood washing out to sea. The rain was pouring vigorously now, and then I heard a big whoop. I guess we all heard it because we all looked up. To our amazment, we saw a parachute barring a dead soldier that must've been in the war that was going on back home. I could tell because the blimpse of lightning would just be enough to make out the epaulettes. Just as fast as it came, the storm was slowly begining to thaough and the prophorescense started to fill the sky. All the boys including myself bent over the dead beast to realize that it was not the beast we had just slaughtered. It was our friend. Simon. No.. it couldn't have been Simon. I swear I saw him here at the party before we even began to chant. No.. I swore I saw the beast. It was crawling on all fours yelling something or blurting something out. This couldn't be true. It was a mistake. No. I thought to myself. He deserved to die. yea.. He had it coming. The evil still warm and fresh from our chant was still circling my head filled with thoughts. No. He was our friend. Simon. Everyone killed him. Why didn't anyone stop them? I couldn't have been a part of his death. I swear I killed a beast. Not Simon. No. Not Simon. A beast.