LOTF chapter 4

Painted Faces and Long Hair
Lost and Found
Perspective : Jack

Dear Diary,

Today on the island it has been both good and bad, but sometimes I wish I was home in England. There I was always the leader, the head choir boy, but now Ralph has that new spot, and we restlessly fight because of this. Today we fought like this, when I brought back the pig. I can remember the hunt, still the memory blazes in my mind. I can almost feel the warm clay as I spread it across my face, as the sun bored in it as we headed through the thick trees down to the beach. Just as it was supposed to, the clay kept us hidden. The pigs only seeing the shadows of the jungle reflected in our black, red, and white faces. We slowly made a circle on one pig that hadn’t sensed the danger, and with every step we closed in closer. Then the feeling of power and adrenaline suddenly rushed through me as I pulled the knife behind my head and slashed down quickly, cheers rising from the other boys, the sense of my leadership back. But then when we got back, that was when the fighting began. The twins had the pig, with gouts spilling from it, smiling and cheering as we headed up the mountain. It was at the top though that things went wrong, our cheerfulness most obviously not echoed in the other boy’s faces. Ralph just didn’t seem to get it. We had caught a pig! We had defeated a living thing, gotten meat for everyone. Shouldn’t they be thankful? Now I see though why Ralph was chosen as leader, he knows what needs to be done, looks at what everyone needs, not just himself. It was the burning sensation though inside me that drove me to fight. We needed all the hunters to hunt the pig; otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to circle the pig. Ralph could have always gotten the littluns to add wood to the fire, they never work. All they do all day is play and eat, cry and sleep. They wouldn’t have pig if it wasn’t for us. If he had gotten littluns to do it then the ship could have seen us. I know it was my job, but I had to hunt before time ran out, and it got dark. All I know is I don’t think things will get better here on out, unless we figure things out fast.