"i don't give up easily,
'specially when there's
a real pretty girl involved."
"cute, merridew.
that's real cute."
When the pilot's daughter crash-lands on a desert island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, all she wants to do is survive long eno...
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The top of the mountain was very quiet except for the occasional crackle of branches in the fire and the passing cool breeze. After laying down some rules, Ralph, Piggy, and Simon went down to the shore to build some shelters, taking little kids, or, as Piggy started calling them, "littluns". Jack had gone off in search of pigs that were supposedly on the island. I'd tried very hard not to lose it-what good were pigs to us right now-but in the end it did me a world of good by giving me some peace and quiet.
Using a large, discarded branch I'd found on the ground, I poked and prodded at the fire, pushing the branches here and there, deeper into the coals or to the side. Maurice, the good-natured boy with sun-bleached hair who had (kind of) stood up for me, suggested using green branches to produce more smoke. I had collected a few and piled them within arm's reach.
The only thing that was bothering me was boredom.
It seemed very strange to me that there were no adults on this island, or anyone else at all. How had it not been discovered and colonized yet? With the empty island came a strange but terrifying freedom. Freedom from the lawful civilization we knew, but terror at what might happen without it.
A slight panting from behind me made me look up from the fire. I peered behind me and noticed two things about the figure standing there.
The first thing was that Jack Merridew was holding a knife. It was much too small to be considered a butcher's knife, but much too big to be a simple pocket knife. Its silver blade glinted wickedly in the sun.
The second thing was that his shirt was missing.
"Where's your shirt" was the only intelligent thing I could think of to say. Jack's appearance on the mountain left me dumbstruck, to say the least.
"Doesn't matter," he said, shrugging and giving me a devil-may-care smile. My cheeks flushed with heat-his comments at the last assembly still stung.
"What are you doing here?" I followed up, trying to squash down the anger rising in my stomach.
"It's a free country, I suppose," he answered, sitting down next to me. "Or a free island. I can do whatever I want."
"No you can't" was my automatic response. "We still have rules, you know."
"Well yes, but-"
"Why are you here?" I said loudly.
"Just checking on the fire, I suppose," he replied. Using the branch, I pointed at the fire, which has grown to a pretty good size. Small enough to be contained on the island, but big enough to generate smoke, which was snaking towards the sky in large, puffy clouds.
"Still think a girl can't do that?"
"All right, all right, you got me there." Jack shot me a grin, which I didn't return. "Want me to take over for you? Doesn't have to be me, either, it can be one of my hunters."
