W: William – Friend for Life

Posted on April 27, 2022 by hdh

W: William – Friend for Life

April 27, 2022

Hi, William (Bill).

When we met in 1974, I was in my last year as a sixth-grade teacher at Miller Avenue Elementary school. The following year the sixth grade was to move to the newly built Middle School. You were in your first year at Miller Ave. teaching 4th grade. I didn’t interact much with the other teachers at Miller Avenue other than the sixth-grade ones, but I did find you. It didn’t take long for us to realize that we had much in common regarding our views on teaching and kids.

You and Sherry welcomed me into your home that first year. And when I moved on to the middle school the following year we continued our friendship, communicating frequently about our classes and our teaching, bouncing ideas and suggestions back and forth. Each growing as teachers and friends together.  We even got together with some of my ex-students on Saturday mornings to play sports on the Middle School fields, as our friendship continued to grow.

After six years of teaching sixth grade and a change of the middle school administration, I decided I had had enough of the Middle School and requested a transfer back to Miller Avenue, which was granted. You and I became teammates both teaching 4th and 5th-grade inter-age classes for the next 6 years. And our friendship grew stronger. We were so similar in our teaching that our students questioned whether or not we were related. We did inform them that we were, in fact, brothers, same mother, different fathers and they believed us.

We even pretended we were the Smith Brothers from the Smith Bros. Cough Drops carton, where next to each of the Smith Brothers pictures was the word Trademark, With Trade being by one picture and Mark being by the other.

We developed many programs and teaching styles, sharing the kids we taught. We continued to mentor each other and support decisions that had to be made. We spent time sharing activities, during holidays and vacations. We even went on a Delaware River canoeing trip with your friends Gary and Steve. That was quite an adventure.

You had a family now. And as your son, Marc grew up, I was part of his life too, helping you coach his PAL soccer teams. You and I played on an adult softball team for years made up of a lot of colleagues and our friends. When I broke my collarbone during a practice session, it was you and Sherry that provided me a place to stay during my initial recovery. You even lent me an automatic car as I couldn’t drive my stick shift car until my collarbone healed. Christina and I got married in your house with you as my best man. 

When you left our school district to move on your journey of administration of the Long Beach School district. Your loss to our system was felt. Your inscription to me in the book, through teachers’ eyes: portraits of writing teachers at work in which your teaching was highlighted was: To Harvey, my friend, colleague + teammate (no matter where we work) – This book is, in many ways, symbolic of all the extra-teaching activities I participated in during our time at Miller Ave. I could not have done any of them without your support, tangible and emotional…words cannot adequately express my gratitude or repay my debt. With great affection, Bill

The feeling was mutual then, as it is now. Through the 48 years, we have been friends there has never been a moment that you haven’t been there for me, as I hope I have been there for you. I asked you once when you were applying for the position of principal of Miller Avenue, “What happens to our friendship if you end up being my boss?” Your response was immediate straight from your heart to mine. Our friendship does not change because of our jobs. We will do what we have to do, but our friendship will remain strong. Neither job nor friendship is dependent on each other. And it was true. Even though you moved on to be a principal of other schools and a district principal of other districts, our friendship has never wavered and continues to grow. 

So thank you, Bill, for being you. You define the word friendship by who you are and what you have meant to me.

With great affection,

                                                                               Your forever friend – Harvey

 

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V: A Visit from Venus

Posted on April 26, 2022 by hdh

V: A Visit from Venus

April 26,  2022

Dear NASA and other Worldwide Governmental Space Agencies,

 

There are many theories about people from outer space. Are they real or are they only fictional, figments of some creative imaginations? I consider myself far from fictional; I am real, I exist, despite the fact that I do come from another world. It’s time to revise your thoughts.

If you earthlings had spent as much time exploring their closest planet in the solar system, the one named after their goddess of love, rather than that funky red one named after a god of war, they might have realized not only that we do exist, but that we’re the better of the two. I mean, you claim you want to “Make love, not war” but you are always focused on war. 

Yes, I will agree that our planet seems much less adaptable to human existence. Mean temperatures of 900º F are a little off-putting, but the -81º F on Mars is no picnic either. Our planet is closer to the sun than Earth so we can generate a lot more solar energy than Earth or Mars can. No fossil fuels here. You should look at an atmosphere of mostly carbon dioxide as a plus. What you don’t realize is the abundance of plants that we can grow there. Remember, plants need carbon dioxide to produce food and oxygen. Though we spend most of our time underground, our gardens and fields are a vegetarian paradise. 

It is said that our planet rotates retrograde (backward) compared to all the others. Did you ever think that maybe we’re the ones that got it right and all the other planets are actually rotating backward? Ours is unique. Who really cares which way you rotate? Our year is only 225 earth days long; meaning we can live to a much older age than the people on earth in the same period of time. Most of you spend ? of your day at work. Our workday is an infinitesimal part of our day compared to yours. Granted, our day (243 earth days) is longer than not only your day but our year; but who’s counting. When we get days off, trust me, it lasts a long time and is certainly worth it.

My exothermic skin was created for me to make it possible to survive on your planet. It would also help you survive on Venus should we choose to share our technology with you. 

I’ve been here on earth for 71 of your Earth years, just observing and reporting back to Venus with my opinion as to whether it is worth officially contacting you, rather than waiting for you to contact us.  You should be aware, that it’s not looking good for that collaboration. There are plenty more of us Venusian observers here on Earth that concur. Your planet really doesn’t learn from its own history. You still have wars; you still can’t agree to work together to live in peace and harmony; you can’t even come together and try to help each other when people are sick and dying. Besides, I believe you are actually trying to make your planet like Mars the way you are squandering resources and don’t do much to save your environment as one world. On Venus, maintaining our environment is a high priority. You might want to start listening to some of those kids that live here.

You’ve got a long way to go and time is running out if you truly want to go where no one has gone before – in a positive direction. 

It really is up to you. If that concept seems alien to you then I wish you good luck with your future. I’ll still be here. Maybe the next inhabitants of Earth will be different. 

                                      With much concern,

                                                                                            Name withheld for safety reasons

 

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A Fish out of Water

Posted on April 25, 2022 by hdh

A Fish Out of Water

It was July of 2013 and I had just discovered a message that had been sent to me on Facebook, in November of 2012, from Cathy Gérard-Fisse, someone who I was not familiar with. The message was hidden in a little-known place on Facebook, where messages to you from people unknown to you, meaning they weren’t friends or friends of friends of yours on Facebook, were put. The thing is that Facebook didn’t notify you that you had a message there, which is why I didn’t see it until 8 months later. The outcome of this message was the discovery that I had a half-brother, named Franz, living in France. Someone I did not know existed. His wife was trying to find me and my family to connect with us, which we, in fact, did. You can find the whole story here: https://www.hdhstory.net/Storyblog/?p=320. 

The impact of finding this French family, none of whom could speak English, was that someone in our family had to either know how to speak French or learn how to. The solution came from my sister Leslie’s husband, who was born in Switzerland and was fluent in French. He became our interpreter and still is as we continue to interact with Cathy. In my case, I had taken French in Junior and Senior High school and had no memory of the language, so I started taking out language books and audio CDs to learn how to speak French. Starting in September of 2013, knowing that we were actually going to meet Franz and Cathy in November, I started some online language programs, Duolingo being the primary one. To this day, I continue to practice and learn French. 

No matter how long I practice and how many different lessons from different sources I use to learn French I’m a fish out of water when it comes to speaking with someone in French. 

I can read French much better now than when I started. I’m even okay with saying some basic stuff in French. But you put me in a situation with someone who speaks French fluently, I’m like a deer in headlights. As my mind figures out one of the words that are being said, the speaker is already on the next sentence or idea.

As a fluent reader of English, you don’t see each letter that is forming a word, you either see a word or a phrase at a time. You can actually decode the meaning of what you are reading without saying the words in your head. With the exception, for me, of when I’m reading a really good fiction novel and I’m actually reading the story aloud in my mind, voices and all. This is probably why I’m a slow reader. I’ve heard you don’t have to do that. But when it comes to reading French I am still reading mostly word by word. I have expanded to getting some sentences in their entirety without seeing each individual word. But have not advanced much further.

Listening to and speaking a language is different from reading. Think of watching a streaming video when you have a poor network connection. As someone speaks to you, you may hear a word or two as the scene freezes and when the connection resolves itself, the speaker is already further along in the sentence or thought and you missed what was said during the network freeze. Kind of like what happens on Zoom meetings sometimes.

I hear a word being spoken and while my brain, on tape delay, is processing meaning, I’m missing the next part of the conversation, and thus get totally confused. 

When I try speaking, I know the English sentence I want to say, but may not know all of the words or sentence structure in French. My mind goes into buffering mode as I try to construct my sentence before saying it. And by the time I have it, the conversation usually has moved on. 

I find it a little easier to understand French if I am cognizant of the topic being discussed. But if I come in during the middle of a conversation that I was not part of, this little fish is looking for water. 

There’s a story about a family of mice that are being chased by a cat. The mother mouse comes out and lets out a very loud, “BARK”! The cat hearing it quickly turns and runs away. The mother mouse then turns to her children and says, “Now do you see the advantages of learning a second language.”

I agree there is a great advantage to learning a second language, especially when you’re young. It would have helped me a lot with communicating with my brother and sister-in-law. But learning it as an adult, trust me, it ain’t easy. And for you fishes out there, make sure there is plenty of water available to you if you try and you deer, stay out of the headlights.

 

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U: United

Posted on April 25, 2022 by hdh

This is a continuation of the writing from K: King’s Choices, Q: Queen’s Quandry, and S: Seeking Out.  You may want to read them first if you haven’t already.

U: United

 

May, a long time ago

 

Dear Middle One,

Your letter has intrigued me. If you say that you are in a similar situation as myself, then yes, we must meet. I would suggest a meeting outside my mother’s palace. You may have heard the stories about her and my father and a roguish imp called something like, Pumple Inkskin. A total fabrication as far as I’m concerned. Why don’t we meet in the Royal Garden, where we can discuss our points of view. 

Let’s say, next week at noon.

                              Looking forward to our meeting,

                                                  Prince Number 2

————-

Late July, a long time ago

My Dearest Luna,

These past few weeks have passed too quickly. Our discussions of life and happiness and the future together fill my heart with joy. I am so glad that you have agreed that we should wed. There is a plot of land between our two kingdoms, where we can settle and build that garden of native plants and flowers, and that animal sanctuary we both dream of. Together we can leave these castles of royalty and privilege and create a home as we see fit unencumbered by archaic rules and expectations. Where we coexist as equals, with respect, kindness, and love as we work together to make a better world for ourselves and others.

Let the Kings and Queens do as they wish with their lands and people. I feel sad for the people that stay, for it is they that will suffer the most, ruled by our parents and my older brother and his wife, Cinderhella, and your youngest sister and her husband, Prince Arming (I think you called him),  who will be next in line for their respective thrones. 

Let us leave that behind. To our unity, I pledge all of my love.

                                      Forever yours,

                                                   Samson

 

This will be concluded in X: eXes

 

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T: Time Lord – Doctor Who?

Posted on April 23, 2022 by hdh

T: Time Lord – Doctor Who?

April 23, 2022

Dear Doctor(s),

You may not know me, but I know a lot about you. You are a Time Lord. You travel through space and time on your time ship, the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) to all different worlds and times, with your companions, to help different civilizations that are threatened by evil and destruction. You have spent a lot of that time here on earth, mainly focusing on the United Kingdom, though I know you have a more global purpose. 

I am an avid fan of your work. There have now been 13 different versions of you, as you regenerate yourself as a new persona when one of you dies, making you over 1,000 years old. This means that there are at least 13 of you wandering around in time helping people. 

I’m writing you because our world needs your help and we need it now more than ever. There are still wars going on, our climate is changing such that future generations may not survive, not to mention our planet may not either, and there is this disease, COVID-19, that many people are just not taking seriously enough.

Yes, we have all this technology and medical advancement, but too much of our social technology and news base their opinions and votes on untruths and disinformation. We have not grown smarter. We need an intervention. So I’m calling on all of you to provide it. 

You have experience with politicians and world leaders. You have worked with President Nixon, Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth I, and Queen Victoria. Can’t you work with some of the ones we have now? I’m not asking you to change our future as much as guide our future in the right direction. Maybe you can invite (or take) some of our more skeptical and stubbornly, fixated leaders into the TARDIS with you to a planet or what’s left of it, that was heading in the same direction as we are today, and didn’t do anything about it. Let them see what was the result of their inaction and ignorance. 

Maybe that would persuade them to reconsider the amount of effort that they are putting into making this a livable place or change their views as to how reality is not what they think it is. If not, I’m sure you know of a way to persuade them. 

Please, we need you. If you can’t help us, I don’t know who will. 

                    Your devoted admirer,

                      Harvey Heilbrun

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S: Seeking Out

Posted on April 22, 2022 by hdh

 

This is a continuation of the writing from K: King’s Choices and Q: Queen’s Quandry. You may want to read them first if you haven’t already.

S: Seeking Out

May, a long time ago

Dear Number 2,

I read with interest the proclamation by your Queen, of your interest in meeting other people. She described you as average height, pleasant to look at, and clever, with many ideas about what one should look for in a friend. That intrigued me. 

That seems quite atypical of Queens in general. My research shows that they only look out for the best women for a specific Prince of theirs. That is if they have any more than one son. I was taken to understand that you were not the favored son. 

I find myself in a somewhat similar situation as the second of three.

I would like to meet you, for you sound like an interesting person. I would like to discuss some of your ideas.

                   With interest,

                            You can call me Middle one. 

 

——————

 

A little later in May, a long time ago

Dear Number 2,

I so enjoyed meeting you. The tour you gave me of your royal garden was fascinating. I can’t believe your royal gardener has planted so many non-native plants in the royal garden. Your point of view on what should be grown there matches my own. 

I’m sorry to hear that you have no given name. Though I do have a given name, Luna, no one in my family uses it. Maybe the next time we meet, we can compare some of our Prince and Princess research, and come up with a name for you. What do you think of the name Samson?

Till we meet again.

                      Your friend,

                                Luna

 

—————

 

This will be continued in U: United

 

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2022, Original Stories | Tagged , | 1 Comment

R: the 3Rs

Posted on April 21, 2022 by hdh

 R: Recognize, Recall, Repeat

 

Memo To: Whom it may concern

From: H..? (I know it begins with an H)

RE: The three Rs

Date: April 21, 2022

I’m sure that you are all aware of the 3Rs. In school, growing up, it was “reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmatic”. Being that it will be Earth Day tomorrow we also have “reduce, reuse, recycle”. You can check out this Wikipedia article if you want more 3R references: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3R

It has come to my attention that I suffer from a relatively unlisted 3R which is due to what scientists, doctors, and my wife call, “the aging factor”. In this case, we get introduced to the 3Rs of, “recognize, remember, repeat.

There are many symptoms of these 3Rs.

Example #1: You go into a room in your house because you want to get something. When you get there, you recognize the room you are in, however, you cannot remember why you went into this room, therefore you must step out of the room to where you started from and repeat the entire process of walking into the room, in the hopes that you will recall what it was you went into the room for. btw, This rarely works. 

Example #2: You meet a person on the street that you know or you see an actor/actress from a movie or TV show that you recognize but you can’t quite remember their name (other than maybe, you know it begins with a certain letter of the alphabet), so you repeat in your mind every person you have ever interacted with or every movie/TV show you have ever watched, hoping that the name will mysteriously pop up in your head. Sometimes this works at the appropriate time, though most of the time the memory either comes back two days later in the middle of some other conversation or when you do recall the name, it does not start with the letter you thought it did. One trick I use which sometimes is effective is saying the alphabet inside my head with the hopes that the name I’m looking for will pop up when I hit the letter of that person’s name.

Example #3: You are looking for something that you know you just had in your hand. You recognize the object in your mind and remember that you just had it, so again you must repeat, and retrace your steps through every inch of where you have been in the last 24 hours trying to find said item. Sometimes the object in question is never found, like that Covid mask, or the holiday list of cookies I’ve baked over the last 8 years that I know I wrote down.

#Example #4: You plan on doing something, so you write it down or put it in your calendar. Hopefully, you recognize as the clock strikes the appointed hour that there is something you are supposed to do or be at, though in many cases that recognition comes after the event has started or has finished. Here’s where the fun begins. You remember that you wrote it down somewhere, for it has all the information needed to attend the event, but not where you put said remembrance. So again, you must repeat your actions from the time you wrote down the event and become a detective to figure out either what the event was that you forgot or where you put your reminder. 

The sad thing about the aging 3Rs is that the frequency of each of these examples increases as years go on. The other sad thing is that, unlike puberty, there is no set age range for the onset of these symptoms. And once they start to appear, they never go away; there’s no cure. 

So this memo to you is to help you recognize what is going on with me when you see me staring at you with a blank expression on my face or you see me wandering around as if I have no purpose in mind. You need to remember that this is all part of my succumbing to the aging 3Rs. Don’t make me repeat myself.

 

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2022, Original Stories, Personal Stories, Writing | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Q: Queen’s Quandry

Posted on April 20, 2022 by hdh

This is a continuation of K: King’s Choices. You may want to read that first if you haven’t already. 

Q: Queen’s Quandry

April 20, a long time ago

Dear Mother,

I’ve heard all of the stories about my older brother’s birth. How grandfather lied to father, how father demanded you to spin straw into gold, how some strange little man, whose name I can’t remember, something like Uncle Pimpleskin, did the spinning for you then demanded that you give my oldest brother to him on my brother’s birth unless you guessed the little man’s name, which you did. Not that I believe any of it. It’s just a story grandfather must have made up. If it’s true, whatever happened to all this golden straw, that greedy father made you spin? Years from now no one will even remember the story. 

My problem is how you dote on my brother using that story. He was saved from evil. He was blessed by a messenger of God giving you the name of the little man. It was my brother’s birth that saved your marriage. And your doting has not changed. He gets to marry the pick of the princesses. You’ll just throw a Ball in his honor and let him choose. I hope he gets stuck with a poor, ragged, house cleaner. 

Of course, then I came along; your second son. Did you have any stories about my birth? No. Do you even remember my name? No, you don’t, because you never named me. I believe my name might be, “younger brother”, after all, that is what you always refer to me to your precious firstborn. “Go get your younger brother.” or “Tell your brother it’s time for supper.” “I wish your younger brother would be more like you.”

I’ve been doing a lot of reading and research on princes. I’ve noticed that a lot of stories about them only refer to them by title, not name. Is that where you got the idea? Add to that they are always handsome and win the hand of some beautiful princess that they either rescue, uncover hiding under their noses, or complete some impossible task and get them as a prize.

Let me remind you that looks aren’t everything. And that princesses are not prizes to give away. Nor are princes, who you can just throw into a Ball full of single women, who only want to marry them for the fame and power, and tell them to pick one. See how that works out with my brother. We may not be the prettiest bachelors in the bunch, but some of us have brains. Has my brother ever read a book? 

Women should have the right to choose who they would like to marry, based on the person’s qualities as a human, not because someone says, “You’re mine.” Game over.

And princes are humans too. It’s okay to have galas to meet other people, but don’t set up any expectations ahead of time. In my case, not that you ever thought of throwing a Ball for me, maybe I want to marry a peasant, or another prince, or not get married at all. Maybe I don’t want to grow up to be a king, though I’m sure you’ve already slated my brother for that. Maybe I want to just settle down on a nice farm and raise and rescue stray animals. I’d like to hear you make up a story about that!

So there you have it, mother. It’s time for you to get real. Think of this letter as a warning sign from one of your fervent advisors. It’s time for you to recognize ME. Either you allow me to go out on my own and seek out my future, or this clever lad will start up a story about you, just like grandfather did. Only in this story you and my brother may not come out as well. I don’t think father will be too pleased with that.

Your other son,

Younger Brother

This story will continue in S: Seeking Out.

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2022, Original Stories, Writing | Tagged , | 4 Comments

P: Pledge of Allegiance

Posted on April 18, 2022 by hdh

P: Pledge of Allegiance

April 19, 2022

Dear Politicians of the United States,

When I was a child going to school and continuing through all my years of teaching, we were required to start every day with the Pledge of Allegiance. Even as an adult on numerous occasions the pledge is recited before meetings.

Have you ever repeated something over and over and over again so that the thing you say becomes rote and the words become meaningless? I feel that is what has become of our Pledge.

Some history for you who fail to heed your own words. The pledge was originally written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy. The words were, “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and just for all.”

There have been only two times in our history that changes to the pledge have been made. In 1923,  “my flag” was replaced by “and to the flag of the United States of America”. And in 1954, “under God” was added to it. It hasn’t changed since.

I believe the time for addressing our Pledge is at hand. It needs to be revised. 

Look at the words that are being used and the reality of what we experience. There is a disconnect. 

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands”  The definition of “republic” is “A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them.” 

How many elections have the majority of people of the United States voted for someone, only to have their candidate defeated by archaic rules that allow for less than 50% of the people voting to elect that officer or representative. For the president, for example, most states’ rules allow the winners of the popular vote in their state to give all of the delegates for that state in the electoral college to that candidate. That’s not a republic, those that voted for the losing candidate get no voice. Shouldn’t the electors for each state be divided proportionally to the actual votes?  And shouldn’t a person that gets elected have to get more than 50% of the vote to represent the people they represent? If no one gets more than 50%, then there should be a runoff between the top two vote-getters, ensuring that one person will have a majority to represent the people. 

“One nation, under God” 

Whose God would that be? Jewish? Christians’? Muslims’? Agnostics’? I guess Atheists must pledge to something else? I always thought that the constitution or at least some laws of the land require a separation of church and state. That doesn’t seem to be the case in regards to the Pledge.

“Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for All.”

Have any of you been paying attention to what is going on in this country? We are far from indivisible. Check out the number of bills trying to be passed as bi-partisan. Whether it be a Republican majority in either house or executive branch, or a Democrat majority, there is no listening to each other. They are divided by their political party’s platform, the money they receive from lobbyists, their need for power, and their wanting to be re-elected. And they do everything they can in order to prevent what is best for all the people they are supposed to represent, focussing on the ones that elected them. 

As for” Liberty and Justice for all”. More like Liberty and Justice for some. There are too many violations of this to list. Just read the newspaper on any given day. 

It’s time we add “Equality” to the Pledge. If you want to set an ideal to strive for, our pledge should read, “And Liberty, and Justice, and Equality for all.” 

What is so hard about adding the Equal Rights Amendment to our Constitution? It’s a no-brainer for me. It was introduced in 1972, and the deadline for ratification was extended in 1979 and in 1982.  In March of 2021, the House voted to remove the time limit for ratification so that it could be ratified now, without going through the whole reintroducing and ratification process again. As far as I know, it is still un-acted upon in the Senate.  

Our Constitution’s Preamble starts with, “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union…” “WE” means EVERYONE regardless of gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation. It’s part of our Constitution and should be part of our pledge. 

Are we that perfect union that our preamble mentions? No, but in order to build a more perfect one, we need to actively change ourselves, our system, and our pledge. 

I’m not going to re-write the pledge for you. That is up to you. You can choose to continue down the path that you are going, slowly breaking up our Union and ignoring the words that you make everyone say, or start listening to the words that you are asking everyone to pledge to and revise them to mean what this country should stand for. Who knows, maybe by re-writing the pledge, it will have to be taught again in schools so that people saying the pledge will actually know what it stands for. 

 

                            Respectfully submitted,

                                            A very concerned citizen of the United States

 

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2022, Original Stories, Personal Stories, Writing | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Reversal of Fortune

Posted on April 18, 2022 by hdh

Reversal of Fortune

I finally had earned enough money to buy my first house. Owning a home was my fondest wish. And now it was coming to fruition. 

The asking price was great. The house had only been lived in by a mother and her young son. They had come into a great fortune and moved on, leaving their house on the market. 

We closed on the house and I moved right in. It was a cozy two-bedroom ranch house. The previous owners left all of the furniture which made the price even better. Just outside one of the bedroom’s window appeared to be a great spot for a garden. It had been cleared out, though I did find remnants of a bean plant there. I thought to myself; that might be just what I should grow there. 

Someone must have read my mind because the day after I moved in there was a packet of bean seeds left in my mailbox. There was a note attached to the packet, “To Jack, Plant these beans, see what grows, and you’ll get what you deserve.” It was signed, “the G’s wife. 

I was sure that Jack, the ex-owners son, had no interest in planting beans, considering how rich he was now. Plus I had no way to contact him. 

I decided to plant the seeds myself. Always wanting to grow a garden of my own, I knew these seeds would change my life forever, and I wasn’t about to let them go to waste. 

Carefully, I pressed the seeds into the ground and covered them up. I was not prepared for what I saw the next day. Sticking up out of the ground where I had planted the seeds were some very large roots. These roots grew straight up from the ground and were about 12 feet high. I decided to dig a little bit to see what was under the ground when the ground gave way and revealed a very deep tunnel, and to my surprise, I saw that it paralleled a bean plant that was growing down into the tunnel. 

Being a bit adventurous and having done some rock climbing, I decided to climb down the beanstalk and see where it led. I took a flashlight with me and slowly made my way down. It was a long descent. When I had reached the bottom, it was like I was in another land and it was very warm due to the scorched earth all around. I looked off in the distance and noticed a rather very large disheveled house. Carefully I made my way there. 

I was about to knock on the door when it opened and standing before me was a giant. This giant looked in bad shape, based on the bruises all over his body. He looked like he had fallen from a great height onto a hard surface. In his hand, he carried a very large club.

He stared at me and shouted, “Fee Fi Foe Fum, You’re not the one that makes me glum, I’ve waited long to give a whack, My wife had said it would be Jack!

I was a bit confused, but at the mention of Jack’s name, I said, “I’m sorry. If it’s Jack you’re looking for, he’s gone. He sold the house to me. I’m just following this plant that was grown from seeds that were left in my mailbox. By the way, where exactly is this?”

“Where in hell, do you think this is? This is where you get sent when you are greedy, steal and do bad things in life and then you die. Jack should have easily found his way here on his own since that’s exactly how he treated me. I guess no one informed my wife that he moved.” 

The giant looked quite forlorn and I felt bad for him. “Is there anything that I can do for you?” I asked. 

“I’m not sure you can,” was his reply, “I’m stuck here for eternity.”

“Well, I’m not,” I responded, “At least I don’t think I am. Can I get a message to your wife and let her know how things are going?”

“I get messages to her all of the time through her dreams. I’ll be sure to tell her what happened with those bean seeds she left you. But maybe, if you could somehow get me some good food to eat down here. Everything that I’m given to eat down here is overcooked and usually burnt.”

“I’ll be sure to do that,” I said. ”In fact, I’ll drop down some frozen meals every day. I’m sure you can find a way to thaw them and heat them here.” I even promised that I would come down and visit him periodically to bring him some fresh food and even some treats.

The giant looked happy for the first time since I arrived. 

As I was leaving the giant called out, “I never did get your name. What are you called?”

I turned back to him and answered demurely, “Oh, my name’s Jacqueline, but you can call me Jackie.”

 

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