Lady of the Snakes

Chapter 7

Ralph was floating idly in the pink granite tidepool. His teeth were on edge from the argument he had just had with Jack. He'd tried to talk with him about making arrangements for different things: the fire, food, and so on. Jack, however, would only pay attention if it had to do with hunting-or Nora, he admitted resentfully.

Flipping over, he squinted at the bottom of the tide pool. He couldn't think of the last time he had been this close to a girl for so long. At the Military Academy, his only thought was keeping on top of the expectations his father had set for him.

Someone was shaking him. Ralph turned onto his back again. “What is it?”

“A ship-there's a ship!”

“What?” Ralph sat up, gasping. “A ship?”

Piggy was waving, not being able to get anything out. Ralph could just see, near the edge of the horizon, a ship. It was definitely a war-ship, but he couldn't quite make out anything else.

He glanced up at the mountain. There was no smoke coming from it. “Why isn't there any smoke?” He demanded of Maurice, who had been about to dive, but in the surprise of the ship had fallen back into the grass.

“They must have gone off somewhere.” Simon said, staring at where he imagined smoke would be if there had been any.

“Oh God!” cried Ralph, and the four of them began to run.

……

There was a bit of the mountain sticking out, just below the top where the fire was. Sitting there, Nora sighed. This was better. She was all alone, with no littluns, sisters, Jack, or Ralph. The hunters who were watching the fire were being nice and quiet as well. She wondered if they had perhaps fallen asleep.

Gazing out over the ocean, she noticed something dark on the horizon. Was it a whale, or a-a ship! “A ship!” She cried aloud. Glancing up, she realized that there was no smoke, that there hadn't been any for quite a while.

“Those bloody idiots!” Muttering furiously, she scrambled up the mountain.

The fire was no more than a few live coals in a mound of ash. There was nobody sitting around it, and Nora knew now that they hadn't been there even when she'd first arrived on the ridge.

There was a crashing in the undergrowth, and Simon, Piggy, Maurice, and Ralph burst out of the woods.

Nora's hand flew to her eyes. “Lord, Maurice!”

The other boys moved in front of the naked Maurice, who was, it seemed, in the middle of putting his clothes back on. “Sorry, sorry.”

“Who was supposed to-” Ralph and Nora both exclaimed at the same time, then stopped.

“They left.” Nora said.

“Jack. He-”

“Is it too late?”

“Piggy’s specs-”

Piggy was shaking his head. “It's too late. It's gone already.”

“What were they thinking? The stupid bloody-” Nora stomped around the fire, cursing. Ralph could hear some words he knew weren't English, Welsh perhaps, but he was too angry to find out.

Ralph felt his fists clench. What had they been thinking?

“Look.” Maurice, dressed now, pointed down at the beach.

A procession of boys carrying sticks was walking along. They could hear a faint chant coming from them, but couldn't make out any words. Ralph thought he could hear the word pig. He glanced toward the front. There was Jack-he could see the red hair-and the twins, both carrying something.

“It's a pig. They killed a pig.” Nora thought of Jack. Not when we're the ones with the meat. She shivered involuntarily.

Ralph was furious. When he was this mad, he went quiet, deadly quiet, and you could tell only by his eyes just how angry he was.

The procession came closer. The chant was clear now-Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood. Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.

Over and over, matching the hunter’s steps as they moved up the mountain. Jack reached the top first. He was grinning wildly. “We've killed a pig! I told you-”

The twins came next, carrying the dead pig. There was blood dripping everywhere, and the pig’s head swung on a piece of skin from its gaping neck.

Nora had seen dead animals before, but never with such gaping holes in which you could see all the blood and organs….she tried to hold the vomit back, to not appear so weak, but she failed. Turning around, she threw up.

“Are you all right?” Ralph glared at Jack.

“Fine.” She was staring at her feet, at Simon’s feet, at the rock behind Jack’s head, at anything but the dead pig.

The hunters were breaking into dancing out of sheer joy and ecstasy for having meat! And the hunt! They tried describing it, but when words failed them, they would have to do a hop and a skip.

“You let the fire go out.” Ralph spoke over their frenzy.

“We needed them-” Jack was uncomfortable, but he glared right back

“You let the fire go out!”

Nora looked up, growling. “There was a ship!”

Jack looked cornered. He drew his knife. Ralph raised his fist.

Piggy cried shrilly, “We could have gone home! We could have gone home if it weren't for your blood, Jack Merridew!”

Some of the smaller ones began to cry. There were murmurs of dismay as everyone realized just what the hunt had cost them.

“The job was too much. We needed everyone.”

“You could have had everyone but the two with the fire. But no, you had to-”

“We needed meat.”

Jack had been cleaning the pig, and now he stood up with the bloody knife in his hand. They looked at each other hard. Nora knew she should do something, pull them apart before they went at each other, but she herself was too angry to do it.

Piggy said, “That was our chance, and you ruined it! You let the fire go out!”

Jack turned on him with a red face and punched Piggy hard in the stomach. Piggy sat down with a thump. Jack stood over him cried, “Shut up, will you? Fatty!”

Ralph moved to defend Piggy, and Jack grabbed threw Piggy’s glasses. They shattered, and Piggy yelled, “My specs!”

Nora came from the back and kicked Jack’s legs. He fell over and kicked hers, and they were soon at each other, battling and cursing with a fury. Jack kicked a large rock, which rolled down the mountain and stopped at the bottom in the middle of a patch of blue flowers.

Ralph attempted to separate them, but he found this impossible and was restricted to standing three feet away and yelling, “Jack! You got to stop-Nora, don't-”

Nora found herself, at a break in the tussle, on her back with Jack above her. He grinned at her, and she kneed him where she knew it would hurt the most. He rolled off of her, groaning. She stood up, breathing heavily.

“Well, now that we've settled that,” Ralph said, “We need to start the fire again."