Ralph's return to England

Ralph’s return to England

By Luke Harris 10R/T

The boy with the fair hair stepped off the boat and looked around. Although he had taken off his school sweater his grey shirt stuck to him and his hair was plastered to his forehead. Someone called out to him “Ralph, Ralph…over here!” He recognised the voice and turned towards the general direction from where it came. It was his mother, a small stocky woman with short brown hair. She looked very tired, almost exhausted. Ralph turned around as if he was going to say goodbye to someone though no-one was there. He walked towards his mother and said nothing; they walked in silence back towards their house.

When the two arrived back at the four bed-roomed suburban house, Ralph ran upstairs and locked himself in his room. His mother was still standing in the hallway with the bags, her mouth wide open. She turned around and entered the living room; she sat down on the couch and started to cry.

A few days later Ralph started to talk to his mother about what had happened during his stay on the island, his mother was mortified. She thought that Ralph was upset because his father was still away with the Navy, fighting for King and country. She never realised that he was upset because of the savagery and violence that had occurred on the island. Ralph gave her a summary of the events that had happened whilst he was away. He talked about Piggy, Jack and Simon. It was then that Ralph expressed an interest in trying to contact Piggy’s Aunt. His mother was not very keen on the idea, she thought that Ralph should just try to forget about it and get on with life, as things would soon return to normal.

For the next week, Ralph asked his mother if he could go and talk to Piggy’s aunt. His mother always replied with the same, uninterested answer, “no,” and just after Ralph would return to his bedroom and say nothing. Then in an hour, he would come down and repeat the question again, hoping that the reply would be different the next time round, but it wasn’t.

After nearly six days of Ralph asking on the hour, every hour, his mother said “yes,” Ralph was so surprised he almost fell over. His mum went over to the worn, pine kitchen table and picked up a piece of paper; it had all the boys’ details on it.

“You’ll just have to find the right person, I do not think that the boy will be listed under the name, Piggy,” his mother said bluntly.

Ralph wracked his brains, I never did ask Piggy his real name. Suddenly, a clue came to him; Piggy had mentioned ...

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“You’ll just have to find the right person, I do not think that the boy will be listed under the name, Piggy,” his mother said bluntly.

Ralph wracked his brains, I never did ask Piggy his real name. Suddenly, a clue came to him; Piggy had mentioned about his aunt living in a sweetshop. Ralph searched through the addresses for someone living in a sweetshop. He found one address – Charles Hopkins, Ye Olde Sweet Shoppe, 12 Shoreditch High Street, Shoreditch, London. There was one flaw in his idea, how was he going to arrive in Shoreditch from Belgravia? - that’s about an hour and a half’s walk. He contemplated this idea; he then spoke to his mum, “Mum, how am I going to get there? Shall I walk or ask Mr Roberts next door for a lift?”

His mum looked at him and sighed, “You will have to walk.We will leave early tomorrow, I can walk halfway with you, as I am going into town.”

Ralph smiled, but then realised that tomorrow was going to be an important day. He would have to talk about Piggy’s death and the events leading up to it for the first time. Ralph had merely told his mother only the briefest of details about the accident.

In the morning Ralph was woken early by his mother, the pair of them had boiled eggs for breakfast, he brushed his teeth – which were starting to get back to the shiny white colour that they were before he was on the island – and dressed himself and the pair of them left the house.

After nearly an hour, his mum said to Ralph, “I need to go right now, so I can walk straight into town, you need to stay on this road until you reach Shoreditch High Street, then take a left and look around for a sweet shop. Good Luck” She hugged and kissed him goodbye, turned and walked briskly into the distance.

Ralph walked purposefully along the road for another hour; suddenly he came upon a dirty road sign, Shoreditch High Street. He was there; Ralph looked around and then took a left while gazing into all of the shop windows. He finally found himself at ‘Ye Olde Sweet Shoppe’. Ralph desperately wanted to leave this old shop and walk back home, however he came to his senses and thought that because he had come so far to meet Piggy’s aunt, he might as well talk to her, despite how nervous he felt. Ralph took a deep breath and walked inside. He spoke to the elderly woman behind the counter.

“Excuse me; are you Piggy’s aunt?” The woman looked at him curiously and said, “Yes, I’m Mrs Bates. Why, who are you?”

“I’m Ralph – Piggy’s friend,” he blurted out.

“Come inside into the back Ralph.”

Mrs Bates ushered Ralph into a small kitchen at the back of the house. Ralph looked around and was disgusted as the place was a mess. Books and papers were everywhere; dirty dishes were piled up next to the sink and an overflowing bin was in the corner. Ralph could hear Mrs Bates calling upstairs “William, William…”

Mrs Bates walked back into the room. “Will you please sit down?” Mrs Bates asked Ralph. She cleared more dirty crockery from the table and Ralph sat down in an old uncomfortable chair. Ralph felt nauseous.

“I have something terrible to tell you, Piggy…” Ralph’s voice trailed off as Piggy walked into the room. Ralph looked on in amazement. The boy who had suddenly joined them looked exactly like Piggy; he was fat, wore glasses and waddled as he walked. But he couldn’t be Ralph’s Piggy; a boulder on the island had crushed him.

“Wh, who’s this boy?” Ralph stuttered nervously.

“This is Piggy, or William Hopkins.”

“Hi…” said the other Piggy.

“William” said the aunt “is Charles’ twin brother.”

Ralph looked at William and was suddenly very sad. However, he realised that he had no choice but to tell the two of them how Piggy had actually died.

Ralph began by saying “After having left the airport, to be evacuated to Gibraltar, the plane was shot down.”

“Yes, we know this; we received a letter saying that there weren’t any survivors.” Mrs Bates remarked.

Ralph continued, “Well, there were a few boys including myself and we used the emergency evacuation chute to escape from the plane as it crashed. We ended up on a remote island deserted apart from wild pigs.”

Mrs Bates went very pale. “I don’t believe it.”

“Yes, anyway, whilst we were on the island Piggy was telling the other boys that we should be a bit more sensible and not behave like a pack of animals. The other boys were very annoyed by this and dropped a boulder from a cliff onto him. He died and was washed away into the sea.”

“What, you killed my nephew?” Mrs Bates shrieked.

“No, I was his best friend on the island.” Ralph was shocked that this woman could have thought of him like that. “The other boys killed him,” Ralph continued, “I am very sorry. I was his best friend and so I thought that I should tell you the truth about his death.”

“I knew he didn’t die in the plane crash,” William said “I just had this gut feeling. It doesn’t make it better but at least now I know the truth I can try to understand what happened to him.”

Mrs Bates rushed out of the room and Ralph could hear her crying, sobbing for Piggy.

Ralph sat in the chair very quietly. Half an hour later, Mrs Bates reappeared in the living room with a tray of biscuits and some lemonade. Ralph thanked Mrs Bates and started talking to William about his adventures on the island. After what seemed like hours, Ralph realised that he should leave as it was nearly late afternoon and his mother would be anxious about him.

Ralph got to his feet. Mrs Bates thanked him for coming and replied “Oh, it is nice to have met you, Ralph.”

Ralph turned to leave but then remembered that he had not given them the present.

“Before I forget, here, have these.” Ralph gently placed in William’s hands a pair of broken glasses. “They were your brother’s. We used them to make fire until one of the boys broke them and stole them from Piggy.”

Ralph left the shop, it was then that he realised he was crying too. He turned and waved to William. Ralph had arranged to keep in touch with William in the future. Ralph walked back along Shoreditch High Street, down the tree lined road back towards his house. As he was walking back home, the sun came out and Ralph felt comforted by the warmth on his back. It was then that Ralph realised that although he had lost a friend in Piggy he might be able to, in time, build a new friendship with his twin brother.

By Luke Harris 10R/T