Fire! Fire! Fire!

LOTF Chapter 2
Fire on the Mountain
Perspective: Simon

Dear Journal,

This island is great! It's like a serene paradise, with all the jungle, beaches, coral, and the granite mountains. I think I could live here and be happy. At our meeting a little boy said he saw a beastie that was a snake at night but was a creeper in the day, but I don't believe him. It's probably a creeper, and he's just imagining it was a snake. Small children have such vivid imaginations, it could have been a nightmare. I think it symbolizes a monster or evil of some kind to the littl'uns, but I'm not scared of it at all. As much as I love this island, I miss England, and I want to be rescued. Ralph, our new chief, suggested that we build a signal fire. We all agreed and went looking for firewood. Once we found a few large logs, we brought them to the top of a big hill. Then we needed something to start a fire with, but no one had anything that you normally use to start a fire with. Just then, an out of breath Piggy came panting unevenly up the hill, and the sun was reflecting off his specs. Then I got an idea. We could use Piggy's spectacles to start a fire! Piggy was very reluctant to let us use his specs, so we cornered him and pinched them. We used his spectacles to start the fire. Then as the flames got bigger, the boys started running and they began to caper around the flames. Then Piggy got very mad and gave us a big lecture on what a bunch of kids we were for stealing his specs. Piggy seemed almost officious that he was in the right and we were in the wrong. As we were listening, the fire started to spread. Piggy continued and soon the forest was starting to be consumed by flames. Piggy pointed out that some of the littl'uns were missing. We figured they were looking for fruit in the forest, which was now on fire. So now little Johnny with the birthmark who told us about the alleged beastie, was dead. We all stood there feeling very guilty that our irresponsibility and our over-ebullience about the fire had caused a death. I think I am different from the other boys because I am more observant and a tad less errant, too. When I go to bed tonight I will be excited for the brand new day that lies ahead of us.