The Fool on the Hill

So. Assignment time. Excerpts from Friday's journal, once he figures out how to write in English.

April 5, 1684

Today master showed me how it is that he plants corn. I'm not sure how it is he expects me to learn after just one, but I'll do my best to help him. Master's been very kind to me, giving me a soft place to sleep, lots of food (though I still miss human flesh), and someone to speak with. I can't speak so well with him but he's teaching me, and very patiently at that. I truly miss my homeland, but sometimes it feels as if Master is trying to make me forget what it is that I have experienced in my life. I do not want to forget, not really, but he is insistent, speaking of his home and his ways as if they are right. Master is kind, but I'm not sure that he understands quite as much as he says.

April 16, 1684

Master tried to explain to me what he believes, but it was hard to understand. He said there was a monster of some sort that fights with the Creator, someone called God, to make people do things. I think maybe I missed something because my language isn't very good yet. But Master told me that God is good and the monster evil, and that if the monster wins I'll burn after I die. I'm not worried. I'll be dead, so why would burning hurt? But Master seems really worried about me, because he says he doesn't want my soul to burn. (I don't know what a soul is, either.) I helped plant corn today, and Master gave me good meat from a kid to celebrate. I cooked it very well for my first time, and Master approved. He still seems as if he thinks I know nothing... Maybe I don't know anything, but I don't think that Master should be quite so worried. I'll be okay.

May 13, 164

I was taken ill today and master seems sick, too, though with worry. I have a fever and am too week to even stand. Master has been good about bringing me fresh water from the creek and even giving me a piece of bread to eat every time I finish another. I do not entirely enjoy being on this island, especially with this fever and so much work to do, but Master takes care of me. I still wonder, though, as I've had much time to reflect on the things he's said. What if the monster is winning against God in Master's heart? What if all the things that Master has told me are tainted by the monster's evil? I can't believe that Master himself is evil, but if he's acting under that influence, perhaps I should be more careful. I am worried about the corn crop, because I feel I should be tending to it.

May 29, 1684

I have not spoken to Master much in the past two days, because he has been on an expedition of sorts, looking for more of my people on the island. I don't think he'll find any so soon, but he seemed very concerned. I just let him go and decided to tend to the goats. Master tends to be very focused on one thing and make himself very angry or sad over it, but I don't understand that. I think he might need to just relax a little bit, because he seems to be growing a little frail, even for his age. The goats are usually an easy thing for me to observe, and it seems to me that they are much like the people this island doesn't have. They organize themselves into big competing groups, and one of them is the king, much as Master is.

I am presently running out of ink, and I do not think that Master will continue to let me write. With help, though, I should find more ink and continue writing.