Lady of the Snakes

Chapter 4

By the time Ralph had finished blowing the conch, every log was full, and a few boys had been forced to sit in the sand. Everyone was feeling the smart of sunburn now and had put on more of their clothes.

Ralph sat between the larger boys and the choir, in front of him sat the smaller children and Nora, who did not appear to be comfortable sitting among the older boys.

“Well then.” He cleared his throat.

Nora looked at him. Get on with it, Ralph.

He passed a hand through his fair hair and spoke. “We’re on an island. There aren't any natives, or any other people, or any signs that there are any other people. So. We're all alone.”

“But we’ll need an army-for hunting!” Jack said aggressively.

“There are pigs on the island.” said Nora.

“Pigs?” Ada looked up at her sister.

“Yes, but they aren't tame pigs.” Nora glanced at Jack and Ralph, who were trying to convey the sense of having this tiny, live thing in your complete power to the other boys.

“We saw-”

“Squealing-”

“It broke away-”

“Before I could kill it! But next time-” Jack slammed his knife into the tree trunk and looked around challengingly. Had this been anyone else but Jack, Nora would have scoffed. But Jack had this wild look in his eyes-like that of one of the terrible dictators of those countries which her father cursed heavily every night after his fifth drink. She knew that the next time he came upon a pig, he would not hesitate to kill. She shuddered and looked away, pulling Bess closer to her.

“So you see we’ll need hunters to get meat. And another thing-” Ralph continued to talk, but Nora wasn't listening. She was worrying. She couldn't sleep in the same shelter as the boys, which meant that she and Ada and Bess would need their own shelter, and how were they going to go to the bathroom privately with boys running all over the island? And what was she going to do when her time of the month came, and-

Something was happening. Piggy had the conch. “You're forgetting the most important thing.” He looked around. “Who knows where we are?”

“They knew at the airport.”

“The man with the trumpet-thing-”

“My dad.” Ralph said, proudly, Nora could see, but also with a twinge of something else as well that she couldn’t figure out.

“Nobody knows where we are.” Piggy said, taking his glasses off and fiddling with them. “They knew where we were going to, but we never made it there, see?” He swayed, almost in the breeze, and sat down.

Ralph took the conch. “That's what I was going to say.” He gazed around, at their intent faces. “The plane was shot down. Nobody knows where we are. We may be here for a long time.”

Everybody went silent. The three who had been on the expedition all made efforts to not look at each other, each for their own reason. Nora, remembering what she had previously been thinking, was too embarrassed to look at either boy. Ralph was making an attempt to look as chiefly as possible, which meant not looking at anyone in general and Nora in particular. Jack knew that if he met Ralph’s eyes he would start laughing, but he couldn't figure out why he didn't want to look at Nora.

Ralph jumped up. “But this is a good island! There’s fruit and rocks-”

“Fish, and blue flowers-” Nora added.