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Cowardice	By : saucyminion Category: G through L > Lord of the Flies Views: 17461 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Flies, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Part 10 – Nothing Brave Or Normal

    Going back to the bookshop the next day to begin his work for Jack was a bizarre feeling for Ralph and he had seriously considered forgetting about the whole thing. But he had little choice, and he understood that this job would be beneficial for him in many ways. Or at least it had the potential to be.
    By the time he approached the front of the shop he knew he couldn’t turn back because Greta – the cashier and telephone receiver whose name he’d learned the previous afternoon – was looking at him through the glass window. She had the same tired, cynical look on her face that she had when he’d applied the previous day. Since she saw him seeing her, Ralph couldn’t stand there any longer and went in.
    The place was as empty as it had been the day before. It was quiet enough that Ralph could hear the blood pulsing in his ears. He had no call to be so anxious so he tried to stomp out the butterflies inside him discretely as he uncertainly approached Greta at her desk. She was filing her monstrous nails and was pretending not to notice him.
    “Hello,” Ralph offered softly, and Greta looked up, one raised, inquiring eyebrow behind her thick-framed glasses. Ralph was about to ask about Jack until he realized that Jack had never specifically said that it was he who was to train Ralph. So he simply said, “I’m supposed to start training for work here today.”
    Greta stared at him and lowered her nail file. “Really.”
    Ralph’s stomach twisted as though he’d made some horrible mistake. “Yes… did Jack not…?”
    “Mr. Merridew,” she began correctively, “has well informed me of your employment.” She took up her nail file again and set back to work on her tobacco-stained fingers. “You two must be close. He would not normally hire under such… meagre circumstances.”
    Ralph wasn’t sure what to say or think about that, and he felt as though he should have taken offence somehow. And were they close? He hadn’t thought so. Not in any normal sense, in terms of friendship. Would they become close? Ralph didn’t know. He couldn’t think about that now.
    “He’s in his office,” Greta told him, never looking up from her nails. “When you go in bring some coffee, unless you’re feeling particularly brave this morning. He takes three creams, three sugars.” And then she looked up making a dissatisfied face. “He could do with some male company around here, I must say. If you can, teach him how to drink coffee the way a grown man should.”
    Ralph might have been amused by the woman’s demeanour if he didn’t feel so threatened by it. He glanced around for a moment, and Greta read his mind.
    “It’s in the back stockroom, there’s a fresh pot to your right.”
    Ralph nodded and walked briskly to the half-open stockroom door, seeing the coffee pot right away. Now that he had some small task, he felt as though he wasn’t inconveniencing the Greta woman, which made him feel oddly safe. He wondered if the woman chose to inflict terror on everyone, or if she just took a particular disliking to Ralph alone.
    He carefully counted three creams, three sugars and stirred them into a mug with the store logo on it. Jack must have arrived very early. It was 10:00 am when Ralph arrived according to the clock he’d glanced at on the wall. Jack must have been very tired and in need of caffeine, according to the way Greta presented the situation.
    Ralph stirred.
    He noticed that there were no cups and saucers… only a set of identical mugs. It seemed casual and comforting somehow.
    Ralph stirred again, looking at the tiny clouds of milk dissolving into the rest of the liquid.
    He was really working for Jack. He was bringing him coffee. Jack was training him. To his surprise, the more Ralph reminded himself of the position they were in, the more normal it seemed. But Ralph couldn’t help but wonder if they could ever have an employer/employee relationship that met any standards of normality.
    Ralph stirred once more, threw away the stirring stick and went to Jack’s office, trying not to make eye contact with Greta on the way. He knocked at the door, and there was no answer. So he knocked again.
    “Just go in, for goodness’ sake!” Greta shouted, her voice jabbing at Ralph’s ears, startling him.
    It seemed rude to enter an inhabited room without knocking, but he did so anyways. And there was Jack, the picture of anything but threat or superiority. His head rested on his arms that were somewhat sprawled out on his desk over a large open book with very tiny printing. By his right hand was a plate covered in sugar and biscuit crumbs. He looked like a child who had fallen asleep after a long period of study.
    Ralph supposed he was meant to wake him.
    “Jack,” he said neutrally.
    Jack stirred at his desk and lifted his head, squinting at the light of his desk lamp.
    Ralph abruptly put the coffee on the table in front Jack.
    Jack blinked a couple of times before his troubled expression changed to one that was tired, but pleased. “Oh, hello, Ralph. Thank you.” He took the coffee and sipped it briefly. “What time is it?”
    Ralph glanced at his wrist automatically but saw only the pale line of un-tanned flesh where his watch had been before he sold it. “It was 10:00 when I got here. That was a couple minutes ago.”
   “Then you are perfectly on time and I’m acting an ass not being awake.” He rubbed his hands over his face as Ralph muttered something about it being quite fine. Jack sat up a little straighter. “Please sit down. You certainly do a lot of standing.”
    Ralph smiled politely and took the familiar seat across from Jack.
    “I suppose I should tell you now,” said Jack, “that I don’t sleep very well. And I don’t normally sleep at work but… well. I just didn’t quite get up to leaving last night, I suppose.”
    Ralph nodded. “I don’t really sleep either.”
    “Hm,” mumbled Jack, seeming to consider that statement, before taking another sip of coffee. “We have something in common. I think that’s good.”
    Ralph nodded. They had a lot of things in common, and he was certain they both knew it.
    There was an unnaturally long silence and Ralph felt he was expected to do or say something.
    “Where did we leave off yesterday, anyways?” Jack finally said. He answered his own question. “Categorizing. Yes. Follow me then, you’ve got a lot of tedium ahead of you today.”
    Ralph stood when Jack did and watched him stretch his sleepy muscles briefly, with a small yawn. Jack’s arms away from the desk, the text of the book he was reading was unknowingly revealed more clearly to Ralph, who had always been skilled at mental rotation.
    Ralph refused to believe that the day had nothing but tedium in store.
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- 11
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Cowardice