Hard Hitting Reality

The memories of the island were distant after all it was 15 years ago, a lifetime ago. Each day though the images in his head became a little clearer as the memories became more vivid.

He was 12 when they became stranded on the island and soon he found himself in charge. No longer was he able to be a normal child, that had been stolen from him.

After they were rescued Ralph found it hard to give up the control. He wasn't mad with it like Jack had been but it was being in control, whether it was of the others or of his head, that had allowed him to survive. After what seemed like a lifetime the boat that rescued them returned to the UK, but it wasn't as they had left it.

For a while the officers that had rescued them tried to return the boys to where they'd come from, only where they'd come from was now piles of rubble. There wasn't even a hint of life in the place where they had once been normal children.

With no relatives that they could find Ralph was taken in by the family of one of the officers and spent his teenage years on a naval base. None of that was a problem because when you're at rock bottom nothing that happens could make you feel any worse, instead he threw himself into anything that required minimal thinking. Thinking meant remembering and remembering hurt.

Life went on, it was when he reached adulthood that he realised that adults didn't hold all the answers in life. He'd always had his suspicions that growing up wasn't all it cracked up to be but he clung to the hope that becoming an adult would make everything clear in his mind. It was then that he properly realised that he'd never really been a child.

Memories can easily be pushed to one side in your head though if you're keen not to dwell on them, and that's what he did. Years passed and he got married and now had a young son, Ralph was happy. The thing is that bottling things up is never a permanent solution, it has a habit of over filling when things are going well. So that was why at nearly 3 in the morning 15 years after his life changing experience, he lay in bed screaming and crying in his sleep.

Never had he told anyone about what had happened on that island firstly because he didn't want to relive it but secondly because he wasn't sure anyone would believe him. If someone had told him that he was sure he'd have laughed at them and he was scared of being met by the same reaction.

Painted faces became clearer and clearer in his sleep that he was almost sure they were in front of him. His cries became louder as they began to chase after him making the noise that still struck fear into him and made him feel sick to the bottom of his stomach.

"Ralph?" His wife, Susan, asked as she shook him lightly with one hand. Their baby, Harry, in the other with a red face clearly from crying.
"No! Help!" Ralph screamed which made Harry scream all over again.
"Ralph wake up it's me." After shoving him a bit harder Ralph came back to reality. His skin and sheets were damp with sweat and his throat hurt. "You're okay, it's just a nightmare." Susan told him soothingly as she got into bed beside him again and rubbed is arm affectionately.
"No it's not."
"There's no need to be embarrassed, everyone gets them."
"It's not a nightmare, it's memories." He told her before he got a glass of water, out Harry back to bed and then told her everything about this island, about Simon and about Piggy. To his surprise she never once laughed or showed any signs of laughing or finding the situation in any way funny. Instead she listened and soothed him when necessary.

Ralph was broken and was in desperate need of being out back together. Only an experience like he'd had doesn't just leave you alone, it stays with you and haunts you. With someone now to share the load with it suddenly looked to be a bit easier but there was still a long way to go to be free of the island.