When they had finished breakfast, Walt leaned back, folded his arms across his chest, and sullenly stared at his father as if in some act of defiance. This was Walt's way of announcing he was ready for the news of what punishment was awaiting him. Disconcerted with his son's gesture, Michael nevertheless managed to avoid make an uncomfortable situation worse, and explained, "Young man, you are going to start helping out a lot more around the island, but you will not go near the new raft." Walt's face remained unchanged as he learned that his penance would be of the community service variety. "As you know we haven't trapped any boar recently, and Mr. Locke has agreed to let you help him do something about that." For the first time that day Walt's face brightened a little. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all. "Now don't get too excited, you are going to do honest work, and Mr. Locke is not going to let you off easy. You will not touch any knives, and won't participate in any hunting, but apparently there are some things you can do. Those details are left to the expert."

Being suspicious, Walt finally spoke "So how come you're letting me be with Mr. Locke now? I didn't think you trusted him."

"I now recognize I may have judged him prematurely and too harshly. I honestly believe he has your best interests at heart, though we still have disagreements about the best way to proceed. It appears I made a mistake, and I am attempting to remedy that by giving Mr. Locke another chance. Similarly, you have made a mistake, and you must rectify that by accepting the consequences. You probably don't believe it now, but this will make you a better person."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," thought Walt as his sour face returned, "Let's just get this over with," as he started to rise.

"One more thing," Michael added. "It's obvious we all know it's very hot again, and you will be working hard, so have another bottle of water now. We don't want you dehydrated."

His spirits lowered once more, Walt glumly took the bottle and drank down its contents. He got up, stretched his limbs and went over to Vincent once more, who was now just waking up. The dog had just the energy to open his eyes. Walt petted him for a minute, and then sympathetically said, "Some other time, fella." Then he headed up the path where Locke would be, wondering with trepidation what was in store for him.

"Good morning, Walt." greeted Locke as the boy arrived at a clearing up the path. Locke was dressed in his usual faded green tee-shirt and light khaki pants, ever the military type.

Walt woodenly answered "Good morning Mr. Locke. So what is this all about?"

Locke explained, "The residents of this island have decided that it's time you started making yourself useful here. However, no one else wanted anything to do with you right now, so I agreed to let you help me with the boar traps."

"I can really help with that?" queried Walt. "What can I do?"

"Well, before you get started, have some water. It's hot, this will be real work, and I don't want you getting dehydrated."

"You sound just like my Dad now! What's up with that?"

"You have to realize that we both have your best interests at heart, though we have disagreed about the proper course of action in the past. Let us say that we are seeing more eye to eye now than before." Locke handed Walt a water bottle, which Walt slowly drained.

"All right," said Walt rather impatiently, "can we get started now?"

"By all means. In order to line up the trap I'm working on, I need you to stand between those two trees."

"Okay," said Walt unsuspectingly. He walked over to the indicated location at a junction of two paths meeting at the edge of the clearing. On his last step, he felt his foot hit a branch, heard a sound like a twig snapping, … and was suddenly knocked off balance by a well-hidden circular rope net that closed up around him and yanked him two meters off the ground!

"HEY, WHAT?"

A tangle of arms and legs was floundering in the net, which had been completely covered by dirt and leaves, and now was swinging like a pendulum from a high tree branch. So this is what Locke meant by helping with a boar trap? Walt hadn't considered the possibility that he was going to play the role of the boar. He struggled to reach a more comfortable position. Eventually he settled on sticking his legs up to his knees through gaps in the net, while sitting at the bottom.

"Very well done, Walt," Locke spoke. "The net is aligned, and the trigger mechanism works properly. Thank you ever so much for your help."

Walt was too startled to reply for several moments. Then the realization dawned on him. "Uh, is the reason you and Dad made sure I had so much water is that I might not be getting more any time soon?"

"Smart lad, that is an encouraging sign. This is what our council yesterday decided would most appropriate for you. One of my earlier traps caught a boar, but the vine suspending the net broke before we got back to slaughter it. So today you are going to test this net by seeing if it can hold your weight all day. But don't worry, I promised your father you would be home by nightfall. Also, I made a thicker rope from the vines and I'm quite sure it's strong enough now, but if it does break the ground under you is pretty soft, and you won't be hurt."

Walt gazed down at the ground now that he had just about stopped swinging. The net was about two meters away from the point where he had stepped on the trigger, where the ground had been pretty firm. Could there be a big difference? He supposed so; Locke wouldn't lie to him, although he certainly tricked him. Probably Locke didn't have much choice in the matter; it could have been worse with anyone else. Turning back to the more important matter, Walt questioned, "So this was your brilliant idea for me? Thanks a lot."

"Actually, it was Boone's idea, and you should thank him the next time you see him. There were lots of other ideas thrown about at the council yesterday, all of them worse than this."

Walt inwardly thought "that figures," and then with a touch of sarcasm answered, "Maybe you can thank him for me. So do I really have to sit up here all day?"

Locke just plaintively looked at Walt without answering, as if to say, "Do you really need to ask that question?"

Walt understood the lack of a spoken response. As if anyone was going to come by and assist him down. Of course not! Walt replied, "Sorry, I guess that was a stupid question."

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Locke replied. "You are still young. Some day when you are older and have developed more control over your mind you should be able to visualize how and then get out of situations like this. Perhaps I could guide you, like when I helped with your knife throwing, but that will have to wait for a more suitable time. I have other things to do. Good day, Walt."

"You mean you're going to leave me alone like this?" demanded Walt, but did not get another response as Locke moved out of sight. Walt had conflicting feelings, was he frightened of being left alone, or would he rather not have anyone else see him trussed up like this? Maybe he was being spied on anyway, they wouldn't let anything too bad happen to him, right? He looked all around but didn't spot anybody else. He decided being left alone was just fine with him.

Walt examined the places in the net where two vines crossed. Each intersection was held in place by a tight knot, which was further tightened by his own weight. The knots were evenly spaced, leaving gaps wide enough for an arm or leg to get through, but nowhere near his whole body. Walt tried to untie some of the knots and made no progress as they were very well made. Frustrated at his situation, he pondered on what he should do now. He remembered several occasions when Shannon had nothing to do, and responded by sunning herself on the beach. So Walt clasped his hands behind his head and leaned back as far as he could, trying to turn the net into a hammock. This didn't work exceptionally well, since he was bent over too much at the waist, and some of the knots were digging into his bare back, but it wasn't too bad. With some shelter from the sun by the trees' leaves and keeping still, the heat of the sun was tolerable.

Walt had plenty of time to consider what had happened in his life. His mother and stepfather had hauled him around from country to country, never letting him settle down or make long-time friends. They frequently ignored him, always engrossed in their lawyer jobs, and left much of his upbringing to his nanny. The nanny would have made a better mother, he thought. He missed her. The only really good thing to come from those parents was Vincent, and even there his stepfather made it a point that Vincent was his dog, not Walt's. It was also unbelievable the Michael could just take him away from Brian against his stepfather's wishes. Brian was a big-shot lawyer, and could easily have dragged out a court case. It was clear that Walt's stepfather was eager to unload Walt upon Michael. So desperate that Brain didn't even fight to keep Vincent. Now Walt had to live with this other dad who had never visited or spoke with him for as long as he could remember. This father did get Vincent for Walt, and occasionally seemed concerned for him, but he was such a jerk! Always treating Walt like he was a little kid. He helped rescue Walt from the polar bear, but that never would have happened if Michael hadn't been so mean to Mr. Locke and burned Walt's comic book. Since that event island life had been pretty nice for Walt, and now his dad was determined to take that away. Why did his life have to be so miserable?

Walt shifted some, to get the knots placed in different positions against his back. Some self-doubt entered his mind, which now was quite a mixture of emotions. Maybe he really did deserve to be stuck up here. The look on his father's face when he saw the raft ablaze haunted Walt, and he also felt bad about letting Jin take such a beating. But Jin had attacked his father unjustly sometime before, so that could be considered getting even. Still all the others were upset that their rescue might have been delayed. But they didn't care about his feelings, and with their lack of knowledge of ocean sailing and where they wanted to go; there was probably a big chance that the raft would have never made it. Maybe he was a hero for stopping a suicide mission. Or maybe he just added weeks of work for everyone. One thing that was troubling was that he really had been thinking of how to sabotage the second raft. Could he blame the others for suspecting what actually was the case?

Unsure of himself, Walt eventually gazed upward to the top of the net, and asked himself, "what is holding this in place?" There was no visible opening larger than the rest of the spaces in the net, but maybe something could be forced open wide enough for him to climb through? Upon further inspection, the vine suspended from the high branch went through many loops at the top of the net, and then the end of the vine was tied around the vertical part at the top of the net. Sort of like one of those trash bags with a drawstring one can cinch up to close. So was that it, the others were all treating him like a piece of garbage? Something inside his brain snapped. That did it; Walter Lloyd was not going to be treated like garbage!

To be continued …