Every story seems to start once upon a time, but this tale flows a little differently. Many times across many places, one will find a little girl. She is rowdy and loud and loves to run and play. Let's call her: Jane. She cares not who you are, as long as you want to have fun. Some future day she comes across a boy, for the sake of this story, let's call him: Jack. Jack is adventurous and impulsive, he does not like these things called "rules". Now, Jane herself is not fond of rules, but she heeds them all the same, because she loves her parents and wants nothing more than to see them proud of her.
Jack invites Jane on an adventure, one of his most daring and bold yet. He enjoys playing with Jane, and thinks she will find this adventure to be great fun. Jane is not sure, but Jack assures her everything will be okay, he will make sure of it. Jane follows Jack into the woods where the frogs croak and the birds chirp. The air is humid and crisp. Jane breathes in the air, fresher than any air she has felt in her lungs before. And she has the urge to run and climb.
Jack too senses this and begins a race. He tells her, "Last to the stream is a rotten egg!" and they run across the underbrush. The sunlight falling between the leaves streaking their faces in patches of light as they fly by underneath. Jane reaches the stream first even with Jack having a head-start, her legs are longer and he stumbles over some of the exposed roots in the path. Reaching the stream, she scoops up water and throws it in Jack's face just as he reaches it.
"Not fair," Jack whines, "My path was more dangerous. I call a rematch!"
They switch sides and run back to their starting places, but Jack once more cannot keep up with Jane. He resolves that if he is not faster than her he has to be stronger than her. He lifts up a boulder and places it on the tree claiming, "My fort is going to be better than yours."
Jane doesn't want to build a fort, "Well, can I help you build your fort? I don't want a fort of my own. I want to share one with you. So we can play together."
"No," Jack says, "You have to have your own fort, no girls are allowed in my fort." This hurts Jane, and she then resolves to build her own fort.
Jane has built forts before, out of pillows and blankets, she begins to find sticks and rocks and laces them together into a wall up against a tree. Jack runs to find more rocks and stones to stack up on top of each other. Jane takes a rock and digs into the mud embedding the wall into the ground. Trees are strong because they are stuck in the ground, so my fort will be strong for the same reason, she thinks.
An hour passes by then two, Jane diligently focusing on slathering mud on the branches and bracing the wall up thick. Jack, however, has stacked his rocks as high as he can manage. His rocks tip balanced very carefully and with a strong gust of wind half his wall tumbles to the ground. He looks over to the fort Jane has been building, she doesn't have as many rocks, but hers didn't react to the breeze. The wall of her fort is thin and dense, and now, taller than his.
This upsets Jack. He grabs the largest boulder from his fort and waddles towards Janes. He raises his arms to throw it, but his fingers slip and it falls on his foot. He lets out a yelp and Jane pops out from behind the wall she was building. "Oh no!" She leaps out and helps him lift the rock from off his foot, "Are you alright?"
Jack's face goes red and he mumbles, "I'm fine, I don't want to do this anymore." He limps toward his fort and knocks the rest of the rocks to the ground.
"Okay." Jane says. She looks to the sky and notices that the sun is going down. "I'm getting kinda tired, maybe we should go home."
Jack panics, he doesn't want to leave without having done something impressive or bold, so he points to a thick tree in the center of the wood. "Let's climb that tree, whoever makes it to the top is the best and the loser has to do whatever the winner says."
"I don't want to do whatever you say though," Jane protests.
Jack smiles mischievously, "Then don't lose." Then he bolts to the tree and begins to climb. Jane is hesitant, but walks over to climb not wanting to lose a challenge. She thinks about how worried her parents will be if she doesn't go home soon. The bark on the tree hurts her hands and Jack is climbing fiercely, determined to win just this once. He looks down towards Jane and sees her struggling to get up and the satisfaction dies. He notices she's scraped her hand in falling down the trunk and doesn't seem to be having any fun.
He continues to climb, he can see a lot of the forest from up there and he calls down to Jane, "Come on, you're gonna lose!"
Jane is crying now, tears on her face, What does it matter if he wins? she thought, We're doing everything he wants to do anyway. "Fine, you win."
Jack looks down and sees that Jane is walking away from the tree, back to her fort, she is fixing it once more. She begins to sing a song and Jack feels annoyed, he wanted her to play with him, and winning against her doesn't seem to make her feel as upset as it made him. He squirms his way down the tree and marches over to Jane's fort. Without a word he begins kicking the walls she built, when they don't move he grabs at the sticks and leaves and rips the fort to piece.
Jane shouts and cries for Jack to stop, but the tide of his frustration has surged into a hurricane and it blows through the fort she created, breaking every stick in his path. Jane, fed up, shoves Jack to the ground. Jack stunned at both his actions and Jane breaks into a sprint and high tails it home, Jane tries to follow, but trips on a root she can't see. The sun has nearly set by now and Jane is left alone in the woods.
She yells at Jack angry and scared, confused at why he would break her fort and leave her alone in the darkness of the woods. Jane sits at the base of a tree and waits hoping someone at home might go looking for her. She looks up at the leaves that during the day let trickles of light dance in her path. From this point she can see the moon, full and bright. Jane feels a pull warm and sweet in her chest like her mother giving her a hug. Without knowing why, she stands up and walks in the direction of the moon.
Soon she finds a path, a route that leads back to her world and her parents loving arms, she follows it guided by the moon. On the wind she hears a whisper, "You have done well today, my child, return to your parents." When she sees her home, her feet become frenzied, rushing to get her back in her bed as soon as possible. Her parents hold her and listen to her tale of the day and the fear she felt.
"What lessons have you learned, Jane?" Her parents ask as they put bandages on her hands and kiss her head.
She thinks, Don't trust boys? No. Don't go into the woods? Maybe not after dark. "I'm not sure," she admits, "I felt scared and angry and confused."
"Maybe he did too," Her parents say, "but you are not to blame, and you did what was right for you and for him when you could. Trust your heart and trust that others are often scared, angry, and confused too. What matters is what you do."
"I don't know what any of that means," Jane says laughing. Then she yawns loudly, "I know that I am sleepy."
Her parents hug her again and tuck her into bed.
These Janes all over the world and all across time have never been to blame for Jacks being sad or scared or upset or confused. The Jacks of these tales acted on their emotions, that does not mean they are inherently "bad". We all feel these emotions because we're human, what matters is what we do. Sometimes we're Jack, sometimes we're Jane, which one will be you?
THE END
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