LOTF: Before and After

Phase 3: Chapter 32

The next morning, Ralph found Jack sitting at the kitchen counter on one of the bar stools that were hardly ever used. He was eating a banana, boredly reading some magazine of his mother's.

"You're up early" Ralph observed as he approached the counter, standing on the other side in the kitchen so he was facing Jack, leaning his weight against the sink.

"How do you ever go back to sleeping til 1000 hours after getting up at 0500 hours everyday in military school?" Jack questioned. "Plus, getting up with the sun everyday on the island? I had no concept of time but no chance I slept past 0600."

"In my defense, I never stayed up until 0200 in the morning at military school or on the island" Ralph pointed out. "My body doesn't run on four hours of sleep. Lights out was at 2100 hours, remember?"

"How often were you and I in bed by lights out?" Jack countered knowingly. "Us and that campfire" he clarified. Ralph picked up on the rather subtle hint of longing in the older boy's voice.

Ralph shrugged, too tired to keep arguing. He grabbed a couple grapes from the bowl in the fridge before returning to the counter.

"I miss it sometimes" Ralph revealed suddenly.

"Miss what?" Jack asked, shoving the last of his banana into his mouth.

"The campfire. Well, all of it really. The academy, the training, the routine, the classes, all of it. My school is a shithole in comparison" Ralph elaborated.

"And I bet my school's a shithole compared to yours" Jack assumed, reaching over the counter and taking a grape from Ralph's hand.

"How is it that you're a rich public school kid and I'm a middle class private school kid?" Ralph wondered, considering how backwards it seemed.

"Because your parents think you're going places, and mine thinks I'm going to prison" Jack concluded, plopping the grape into his mouth.

"Your dad doesn't value your education? What about the academy? That school was way more expensive and high-class than my school is" Ralph pointed out.

"The academy was a punishment; his way of getting rid of me. Can't put a price on that" Jack clarified. His tone was so casual, so unbothered. Ralph wondered how long it had taken before Jack got good at talking about his broken family without crying.

Before Ralph had to respond, his dad came in from the hallway and joined them in the kitchen.

"You boys sleep alright?" Jeffery asked as he turned the coffee pot on.

"Yeah" Ralph nodded. "When did you finally come up and go to bed? I didn't even hear you."

"A couple hours after you, I think it was" Jeffery answered simply.

"Can I have some?" Jack asked as Jeffery pulled a coffee mug out of the cabinet above the pot.

"Coffee?" Ralph questioned judgementally.

"I drank it all the time at the academy" Jack confessed, much to Ralph's surprise.

"How'd you get away with that?" Ralph wondered, eyes wide with shock. "They were so strict about our diets. They never would've let you drink coffee."

"Roger snuck it in from home. We just turned the communal shower water onto scalding hot and mixed the stuff in, usually at night" Jack disclosed.

"But why?" Ralph failed to understand.

"To help us stay up late when we were studying or getting in extra training after lights out. We did it for years" the blond revealed.

"While I certainly do believe you, I don't feel great about caffeinating a thirteen-year-old" Jeffery decided as he poured himself a cup.