LOTF: Before and After

Phase 2: Chapter 4

The boys had now been on the island for a month and a half. Although, most of them weren't aware of the exact amount of time that had passed. Ralph continued to gently try and talk sense into Jack, but the latter was becoming more and more resistant each time. Ralph was growing more frustrated with his friend, and started gravitating towards Simon and Piggy in response. Simon was secretly upset with Ralph for neglecting their friendship for Jack over the past month, and even when they were back at the academy. Simon didn't understand given what he knew about Ralph and how he leads, why he would align himself with someone like Jack. He noticed how hard Ralph kept trying to pull Jack back to reality, and how pained he was when he failed to do so.

One warm afternoon under the sun, Ralph went to take a breather out on the rocks down by the ocean. He felt like he was losing the other boys, and that Jack was mostly responsible for that. Ralph watched as, Will, one of the 7th graders searched for fish as he climbed atop one of the rocks below. Sam and Eric were hanging out with one of the younger boys down by the water too. All of a sudden, rocks started flying at Will's head from above. Ralph glanced up and saw Jack, Roger, and Rapper tossing stones at him, laughing.

"Hey, cut it out!" Will shouted up at them as he attempted to shield his face from the blows.

"Are you crazy? Stop it!" Ralph chimed in, glaring behind himself, up at Jack and the boys. To his surprise, the three of them each tossed their remaining rocks into the water below and walked away.

"You know why Jack got sent to military school? Because he was in trouble" Eric piped up. He was talking to the others, but Ralph continued to eavesdrop out of curiosity.

"Who says?" the other boy asked the twin.

"Tony" Eric answered. "Jack told 'im he took a car and drove it on the highway."

"He's a liar" the boy claimed. "He didn't steal a car."

"He didn't say he stole it!" Sam retorted, "he just borrowed it, it was a neighbors, and the neighbor was away and so he just like borrowed it and drove it on the highway."

"He probably just borrowed his dad's bicycle and rode it round the block" their friend thought.

"Then how come he got arrested?" Eric countered.

"Yeah, by the highway patrol" Sam added. "They got 'im doin' 80."

Ralph sat with the information as the others became preoccupied with the ugly fish Will finally caught. He knew Jack was having trouble at home. He thought about what he did know about Jack, and what he'd said to Ralph about his enrolment at the academy what seemed like so long ago now:

"Has military school always been your plan?"

"Um, not always" Jack had said.

"You don't want to be in the army?"

"I never said that."

The other boys might not all believe the twins' story about how Jack ended up at the academy, but Ralph thought it could potentially be true. Perhaps it was part of the reason Jack separated himself from his family when he talked about them; why he couldn't make it through his last summer home from the academy. Ralph wondered why Jack wouldn't have just told him, why he was so cagey with him but open with Tony. Roger probably knew the truth too, whatever the truth was.

Ralph had soon stopped offering to go hunting with Jack, and Jack had stopped asking. Eventually, after several failed attempts at catching a pig, Jack surrendered to working alone and decided to let the others in on his plan. Roger and the choirboys all gathered large sticks at Jack's request, and they used his survival knife to sharpen them at one end. Simon approached them in the forest that day, and watched as they prepared for the first big hunt as a group.