Forward
While I have chapter one for my first story to edit, it is just about ready and I hope to publish it by Tuesday tops, hopefully sooner. In the meantime, I wanted to write a short story for the recently shelved movie Gigantic. I have more to say at the end of this chapter.
I own nothing of Disney's take of Jack and the Beanstalk other than this story's plot.
Jack and Inma belong to Disney.
Chapter 1
Prologue
The sun has just risen and the earth already has a procedure to follow. With the sun's rays beaming onto the rich light soil that is home to a garden consisting only of sunflowers. The golden beauties would stretch up as high as 10 feet and compete with one another to collect the most sunlight. For wherever there was a garden there was a farmer who grew these magnificent giants. Life at the farm has also gotten lively for the rooster would crow to the sun, letting the farmers' know it was time to get out of bed.
A middle-aged woman got off her bed and slowly walked out to the front porch of a two-story house full of holes on the ceiling and no glass on the windows. Not that the woman was able to notice these details for she was very near-sighted and needed her glasses to see anything. The woman had suffered from back pain as she would hunch at times. Aside from her back, she had black hair with strands of gray, but she didn't mind as long as most of her hair remained the former. Her eyes were dark brown, but it was hard to tell because even as a child, the woman never had good eye sight. She found her glasses next to a vase near a window and set them on, looked outside and from what she could see, she wanted nothing more than to bask in the sun as well as enjoy the wind, breezing with just enough force to make the even the hottest afternoon bearable as well as speed up the process of drying the laundry. After a moment to herself, a loud moo coming from her only cow called in need of milking. The woman sighed to herself and pulled up her sleeves, mentally preparing herself for a long day. She then remembered she wasn't the only one living and could use the help anytime soon.
"Jack, if you're done pretending to be asleep. Be a dearie and help out your poor mother!" She yelled in a playful tone. She couldn't blame her son for not wanting to work, especially since he stayed all day at the nearest city to sell milk and sunflower seeds. A bit irritated that he didn't answer, she called her son once again.
"You better come down now!" She waited, but no response. "Looks like someone will be picking sunflowers for longer hours." She shook her head in disbelief as she muttered and went on to her daily routine.
Had her eyesight been better, the single mother would have noticed a giant beanstalk that had towered their house and made the sunflowers look like grass. A sight for sore eyes, but an opportunity for a young teen.
Jack
"How far up can this weed travel? It can't go on forever!" The boy complained. "But it sure beats harvesting sunflowers seeds all day." Jack said out loud as he struggled to continue climbing up while fighting the urge to not let go and fall all the way down. Jack glanced up and spots a giant leaf nearby and gives himself one final burst of energy. "Just a little more⦠got it!"
The boy is able to get a good grip and pulled himself up and sat back and the leaf with his back the stem of the gargantuan plant. As Jack caught his breathe, he scratched the top of his head, full of patch of hair, as black as charcoal and stood up as though it was the remains of a burned forest.
Once Jack found himself feeling less exhausted, he stared at awe of the incredible environment of a sea of white clouds and patches of blue so he could look at his farm from below.
"The sky is truly astounding." All of his frustration melted away and was replaced with excitement.
"I'M KING OF THE WORLD!" the farmer yelled at the top his lungs. He then stood up and yelled again, only to notice his armpits were sweating through his sleeves.
"I ought to take better care of my clothes. They're my best pair after all." Jack pressed his hands all over his red tunic to make sure it wasn't drenched, but instead admired his well-toned body and for all the years of manual labor. The only perk he ever liked about being a farmer. His brown smooth leather boots were killing him but didn't want to take the risking climbing barefoot. Now that he had taken a breather, he was ready to climb on. About 15 minutes passed and lo and behold, the tip of the beanstalk. Jack had finally made it.
"Holy Storm Giants, I am near the top of the world. Just a few more steps and I have a story of a lifetime!" Jack exclaimed.
The young farmer was about to touch the tip until a dark shadow surrounded him for a second and disappeared just a fast. Jack was dumbfounded as to what he had just witnessed and looked down to see a circular figure formed in the middle of the clouds below him. Afterwards, he heard a set of monstrous sounds that almost sounded like footsteps. It stopped and then a patch of clouds above him cleared away and revealed the edge of a cliff.
Jack had no idea what was going on, but he had made it too far to call it quits and as scared as he was, he wanted to see his goal to the end.
"It's easy, just touch the tip and then call it day." He thought to himself. With the last of his energy, he leaped up as high as he could and poked the tip of the beanstalk with his finger. The moment was short lived for as soon as he did so, he would've fallen to his death had he not grabbed hold of the cliff.
Jack let out a sigh of relief. "Glad my life doesn't end at the age of 16. My mom would never forgive me-!" The boy never finished his sentence for when he looked up before him, a pair of ginormous pupils, brown as light chocolate were staring down at him, searching deep into his soul. Along with hair that shined bright as the sun, and longer than any waterfall he had ever seen. Unable to scream for help. Jack remained frozen, his life in the hands of a monster.
Wow, as long as this was, I loved every minute of writing this piece. As I was saying earlier, of all the fairytales I've read, Jack and the Beanstalk is still my all-time favorite. To this day, I am still saddened that Disney decided to cancel the movie. I want to believe that the movie can come back someday because it has the most potential. Can't really say that about Newts.
I hope you all take the time to read this and please follow this and/or give feedback. I'd truly appreciate it.
Until then, take care.
