Character POV Chapter 2

Ralph


The second that I mentioned fire, the boys scurried off like a bunch of rabbits. I hurried after them with Piggy following closely behind me. He was huffing and puffing by the time we got to the mountain. Everybody had already begun collecting firewood and dry leaves. But then Jack told us that nobody had any matches. Then, we thought that maybe Piggy had some matches, but he said no, he did not. But suddenly we thought that Piggy’s glasses could be used for starting the fire. Maurice started the fire while Piggy yelled at us to give his specs back. The fire started very quickly and we called an assembly. I was irritated at the way that the boys were acting. There was no law or order. We needed to make some rules. For some reason, Piggy wanted to talk. I let him because I found that he often had good things to say. And, after all, we had pinched his specs. He started ranting on about how Jack had led the other boys to make the fire and how it was getting out of control. That is when the fire started creeping along the ground towards the trees. The trees caught on fire and piggy started gasping for breath. He was screaming at us now and the heat burned my face. Piggy asked how we knew where all the littleuns were. Hadn’t I told him to count them that first day??? Why had he not??? I started yelling at him but he yelled right back. And, he continued. “And, what about that kid with the birthmark on his face? Has anyone seen him since that first night? Remember? The boy who talked about snakes and a beastie? Where is he?”
The weight of his words sank in. Where WAS he? I could not remember seeing him and he wasn’t with us. Piggy leaned against a rock, trying to catch his breath. It was completely silent and all you could hear was the burning fire and Piggy’s loud gasps for breath. Even Jack had nothing to say. The silence seemed to sink in on us and I was very nervous. The small boys seemed to begin to look up to Jack now. He had fun with them. Not giving rules like we should be. Piggy is yelling for me now. But the fire has gone out. We should relight it.