Jane looked outside and noticed that it was a very nice day. Even more so because she did not have to teach Adele until tomorrow. She took a note from Ms. Fairfax to post and she went on her noble way, stepping out of the large mansion treehouse into the middle of a thick beachside forest. She took the path toward the beach town, enjoying the gentle breeze of the cool day.

As she approached the beach and was reaching up to post Ms. Fairfax’s note on a shop’s bulletin board, she witnessed a tall, broad, plain-looking man and his horse fall to the ground. She ran to help him and found that his leg had been caught under the horse in the fall. The man tried to refuse Jane’s help, but she ran back to the shop and got some materials to tend to the man. He was very soon feeling better, and as Jane helped him up, the two looked into each other’s eyes for the first time, and something clicked.

“You look… where are you from?” the man asked Jane.

“I live at the Rochester treehouse as a governess to a young girl named Adele,” Jane replied. “I was just about to head back from posting a note from the lovely Ms. Fairfax.”

“Well fancy that! I am the Rochester that you speak of. I am so glad to make your acquaintance. What is your name, girl?”

“Jane.”

“Jane! What a plain name and body to go with your beautiful eyes. Would you like to spend some time out on the ocean in my house boat?”

“That sounds like a reasonable way to spend my afternoon,” she said.

So Jane and Rochester went for a ride in Rochester’s house boat. They were so impressed with each other’s company that they failed to realize how much time was going by, and they suddenly found themselves in the middle of a huge storm. They struggled and fought, but it was no use. Nothing they did helped. Jane was nearly thrown off the deck, but Rochester caught her. Then noticing she had gone unconscious, Rochester decided to ignore the storm and stay by Jane’s side. He was exhausted, though, and the next thing he knew he was lying on some hard rocks with a young fair boy standing over him, watching him intently.

When Rochester opened his eyes, the fair boy was quite happy. “Good. You guys are alive!” he exclaimed. Rochester looked sideways and was relieved to find Jane still next to him, and that she was awake, too. He also noticed that his house boat was smashed into unusable pieces a short way off, but it did not faze him because his mind was still on Jane. He sent her a small smile, which she returned, and they reached out to hold hands.

“I have been exploring this island for a short time since the huge storm a few hours ago,” the fair boy said, “and I have yet to find anyone besides yourselves. My plane crash-landed here during the same storm you guys came in. There were more passengers, but I don’t know—“

He was interrupted by a far-away sounding deep-flowing unidentifiable sound. “What was that?” he wondered. “Let’s follow the noise.”

So the three set off farther into the island in pursuit of the noise. In mere minutes, they found themselves in a small secluded area with a pond and some large rocks surrounded by layers of trees all around. To their astonishment, they also found a short, fat boy who was holding a large shell of some sort.

When the fat boy noticed the fair boy and Jane and Rochester, each staring at his shell, he said, “It’s a conch shell. You blow it and it makes a loud noise that travels far. I can’t blow it very long because of my asthma. I am so glad I have found some other people!”

“What’s ass-mar?” the fair boy asked.

“It makes it difficult to breathe,” the fat boy said. “What are your names, seeing as we ought to have names?”

“Ralph,” the fair boy replied, “and this is Jane, and a Mr. Rochester. What do they call you?”

“Well, I’m not fond of it, but they used to call me Piggy.”

Rochester roared out in a sudden attack of laughter at the name, but quickly tried to suppress it and failed miserably to pretend that it was a fit of coughing instead of laughing when he saw a disapproving look from Jane.

“What a nice name,” Jane said to Piggy.

At this moment there was a rustling of leaves and on the other side of the clearing a group of young boys came into view, led by a taller and meaner-looking boy.

“So there are others,” Ralph said. “And what are your names?”

“Who’s asking?” the leader asked.

“Ralph. And Piggy, and Jane and Rochester,” Ralph said, gesturing to each one.

“Piggy?” The mean boy let out a cruel-sounding laugh. “You’re talking to Jack. And this is Simon, Sam, Eric- twins, and Roger.”

“Now that we know who the people are on this island, we need to work together to figure out a way to get off of it,” Ralph said. “Anyone got any ideas?”

“Let’s set the island on fire!” exclaimed Jack.

Jane interjected. “And burn us all to death? That’s a terrible idea.”

Rochester used this time to add his own idea. “How about we use any wood and materials we can find to build a raft? I noticed before that out on the horizon from where Jane and I washed ashore, I could see my own homeland. It wouldn’t be too hard to build a raft.”

Jack was the only one who did not agree with this plan. As the other boys went off to find materials for the raft, he set his own way building fires out of the materials. The island was not very big, so there was not much material available, and Jack seemed keen to build fires rather than help with the escape, so it made the raft-building job harder on the others than it should have been.

Not to mention that Rochester was not used to being stuck on islands fending for himself, so this kind of treatment quickly started getting to his head and making him feel a little sick and he had to stop working. Jane was so attached to Rochester that she would not leave his side for an instant, so all the young children were left to build the raft.

Hours later, Ralph and Piggy had built a good working raft out of the materials that the other children brought to them. The only problem was that the raft was only big enough to seat three, due to the fact that Jack had set fire to most of the material, which left it unusable.

Ralph said, “Rochester seems like he won’t last for much longer on this island. He is losing his mind and it will only get worse, so I think he should be one of the first to raft back.”

“Agreed,” Piggy added, “and he and Jane would not be comfortable parting from each other, so it is also reasonable that we should send her, I think.”

“Yes, but now we only have one seat left. Let’s take a vote to see who should get the last seat back. All for Piggy? None? Simon? No? How about Sam or Eric? No, that’s right, we can’t split the twins. Me? One vote, Jack’s. All for Roger? None. And for Jack?” At Jack’s name everyone’s hand went up except for his own. And so it was voted that Jack needed to get off of the island because he was too much of a menace to keep on the island without an adult present.

Jane, Rochester, and Jack set out on their island-made raft, promising to be as quick as possible finding a way to rescue the rest of the children from the island.

The ride back was quite relaxing, and Rochester was getting better as they got closer to the beach at the edge of the ocean. When the three stepped off the raft, Rochester was completely back to himself. Jack had had his heart set on destroying the raft with fire, but was upset when Jane pointed out to him that it wouldn’t work because the raft was soaked with water. He was very disappointed and decided that he was going to sit there and wait for it to dry. Rochester decided that this fire-obsessed child needed to be taught discipline, so when they arrived back at the mansion tree house with a kicking, screaming Jack, Jane and Rochester called a strict faraway school called Lowood and agreed to have him sent there as soon as they had an opening, which, as luck would have it, was already open, so he would be gone as soon as Mr. Brockelhurst could make his way up to retrieve him.

Meanwhile, Jack was left in the care of Ms. Fairfax while Jane and Rochester set out to buy a new house boat with a small portion of Rochester’s fortune of wealth. They checked the weather to make sure it was good this time, and they were on their way. The boys on the island were super hungry when Jane and Rochester arrived, so Jane cooked a meal for everyone, in the kitchen of the house boat, and everyone was quite satisfied with her lovely cooking abilities.

On the way back home from the island, Jane realized something.

“Do none of you boys have any parents, or anywhere to go?” she asked.

They answered sadly that they did not. “There were no adults on the plane that crashed, because it was a plane full of orphan boys who were being sent to a newer and probably harsher orphanage,” Ralph explained.

“Well we will have none of that!” Rochester boomed. “You will all live with us in a mansion in the trees of the forest. There is plenty of room for all of you, and we would be delighted to let you all stay as our honored guests for as long as you like. See, there she is!” he said as they slowed the boat and climbed off onto the beach. “Home sweet home. Just a couple minutes on a path and there we are!”

The boys were amazed.

“Wait,” Jane said. “Did you say they would be our guests? I work in your house. I am not your equal. Why did you say they would be our guests?”

“Well, my dear Jane,” Rochester said, “I intend to marry you. That is, if you will.” He got down on one knee and looked up at her. “Jane, will you do me the honor of accepting my hand in marriage?”

“Uh, I love you and all, but shouldn’t we date for another day or two before we decide?”

“Jane,” Rochester whispered.

“I’m only joking. I’m just a touch too plain for it to come out as such, I guess. Of course I will marry you! There is nothing I would rather do in the whole world!”

The wedding was simple. It was the very day after they decided to be married. There was a very small number of people in attendance, and everything went as planned. Jane wore Rochester’s mother’s wedding dress, and Rochester wore a fine suit he said he wore only on the most special of occasions. After they each said “I do,” the loudest cheer came from the small group of young boys sitting in the front row.

Later that night, when Jane and Rochester were lying in bed, Jane said, “Rochester, I had the strangest dream last night after the proposal and everyone was asleep.”

“And what was that?” he inquired.

“It was so stupid. You’ll probably laugh. But I dreamt that in the middle of our wedding ceremony, some random guy would jump up from out of nowhere and say that we couldn’t be married because you already had a wife, one who was crazy and that you kept locked up in a room somewhere. It was so strange. My brain must have been high or something last night.”

Rochester, yawning, said, “Yeah, or something,” rolled over, and fell asleep.