Chapter two: The trees catch fire: Ralph's journal

I gathered another meeting to announce our discovery. Jack and I helped explain about how we were on a Island. Other boys kept butting in, and I was getting fairly annoyed. I knew that had questions, but we discussed how we were going to do hands up like at school. Obviously, that wasn't going to work for long. I rubbed the shell in my hands. Suddenly, I came up with a brilliant idea. I announced that from now on, whoever was holding the shell was the only one that could talk.

Everyone seemed to agree my idea was great. I sensed a sign of envy in Jack's eye, like he wanted to be the one making the rules. We continue talking about our new lifestyle. Suddenly, Piggy reaches out his hands for the conch. I give it to him, hoping he has a good idea.Piggy states that no one knows that we've crashed here. As hard as it is to admit, I know he's right. Our family thinks that we are heading home... and why would they even look on this island? There are a lot of other places we could have crashed. Jack said all the islands were discovered, but would anyone ever find us? He states we'll be stuck here for probably a long time. Not many people seem to acknowledge this.

A small little boy with a mulberry colored mark on his face looks horrified. He starts talking about a snake-like thing he called a "beastie" that came out at night and scared him. Jack and some others start laughing. They tease him a bit and then settle down. We tell him it was just a nightmare, and there was nothing to be worried about. But I could tell by his expression he didn't believe us. He went on telling us over and over, trying to induce us that there was a beastie. I needed to draw the worries from the child; he was young and was probably dreaming or imagining the "beastie." I thought about what to say, and the conch was passed back to me. I rubbed the smooth and rough edges in my hand, thinking about what Piggy had said. There had to be a way to let others notify we were here. Eager eyes looked up at me, waiting for what I had to say. I started talking, hoping the right words would simply fall into place.

I announced that ships coming bye would not see us. A Fire would work! I said, and then realized the brilliance of my words. The boys all started talking amongst themselves. We decided that the fire needed to be high, so it would be visible on all sides of the island clearly. The boys seemed so excited by the idea, we all went running off, with Piggy shuffling his feet far behind.


We got to a high point on the mountain and start running around gathering wood. I wonder where Piggy is, but I assume he'll show up soon. With his ass-mar it might take him a while to reach us. A while later, Piggy comes up looking exhausted. We still haven't managed to get a fire going, none of us knew a fast way.

Finally, we used Piggy's specks. He wasn't very happy of the idea of us pinching them, but he let us use them after a while. When the fire was up, we were full of ebullience. Jack was constantly telling Piggy to shutup, and was being very errant to the rules of the conch.The fire died down, and made us upset. We quickly and carelessly remade the fire- and it caught onto the trees.

We did a head count, just to be sure we had everyone. We soon realize that the boy with the mark on his face isn't there. We look out at the fire and were rapt. We are all speachless.
I am full of nothing but shame.