It Wasn't Us

A terrible thing happened. It wasn't us, though, see? Last night there was a storm, and during that storm...it wasn't us.
     Last night, before sunset, Jack came down to the beach. Ralph and I were just sitting there, by the fire, talking. I think Jack's exile had affected him. Ralph seemed worried that we'd split into groups, but I supposed as long as we stuck to ourselves we'd be okay. (The only thing that did worry me-- and still does-- is that the only biguns left besides Ralph and I are Samneric, and you almost have to count them as one person. What if we can't get enough people to take turns watching the fire?) Anyway, there we were-- minding our our business, mind, and Jack appears! He's got all his people painted now, but a couple of them grabbed some logs from our fire and ran off. Jack said that he'd caught a pig, and invited us to go and eat with him. He's really taken his power to his head. He even had the audacity to call himself chief, when technically Ralph still is! They're just a bunch of bullies-- I've seen enough of them at school to know one when I see one-- but I think they scared the skins off Samneric!
     There was a storm last night-- a big one. Samneric had gone off to Jack's party, so we decided to go too. It wasn't too bad until Jack started talking. He declared himself chief, but then Ralph pointed out that it was about to rain, and who'd be laughing when he and I were safe and dry in our shelters? That really ticked him off, though, and I could tell there was going to be trouble. But then it started raining, and they all went off into some sort of frenzied dance. They were acting out their killing of the pig, with Roger as the pig.
     Then it arrived. Crawling out of the jungle like a serpent, crying like a wolf. It was yelling at us, something about a dead man, but then the dancers got to it. They beat it with spears, and spits, and firewood. It died screaming. I can still hear it sometimes. Except the it wasn't an it. It was a he. It was Simon. I didn't-- we didn't do it, though. Ralph and I. We were on the outside. We didn't do it. It wasn't us.