It is the year 3022 and the world is not what it used to be. There was once a time when people lived peacefully together and everybody had a chance to live a good life if you worked hard enough. However, those days are long gone. These days, there are only two types of people, the extremely rich who live on a massive floating island in the sky, and the extremely poor who live on the earth’s surface. It is only a matter of which side you are born on that determines the outcome of your life.

It was a dark and gloomy morning. The air was chilly, and pollution crowded the sky. A poor, young man named Jackson had an extra hard time getting out of bed this particular morning. He hated his job, and he hated his life. He worked in the coal mines six days per week and was extremely overworked each day. The only good thing in his life was his best friend who worked with him in the mines.

On Jackson’s way to work, he met up with his friend and they started chatting.

“It isn’t fair that we have to do all this dirty work every day while the rich just take what they want from us. We poor people are the ones creating all the food and supplies yet we are the ones who are starving down here. We should all just stop working and then they would have to do everything themselves.” Jackson said angrily.

“You know they would just kill us if we stopped doing what they asked. They hold all the power so we just have to go along with what they say,” replied Jackson’s friend.

“Yeah, I know,” Jackson sighed, “but do you ever wonder what’s up there? In the sky, on the floating island that the rich live on. It must be wonderful up there. Being one of the rich means you can sit around up there and do whatever you please. You never have to work a day in your life.”

“I think everybody has dreamed about that but there’s no way any of us poor people could get up there. Besides, the only way up to the island is by riding one of the beanstalks.” Jackson’s friend stated.

The beanstalks were these giant, high-tech elevators that were thousands of feet tall. They were used by the rich to travel and transport supplies between the earth’s surface and the floating island which they lived on. There was nearly no security around the beanstalks, but no poor man would dare to ride one up to the island because the consequences of getting caught were greater than death itself.

After Jackson’s long day of work, he headed home and decided to have a glass of milk from his milk generator.

“Oh, come on!” Jack exclaimed, “Why isn’t it working?”

It seemed that his milk generator had gotten old and needed a replacement.

“What am I supposed to do now? I don’t have the money to buy a new one. I guess I’ll have to take it to the shop to get it fixed.”

It was Jackson’s day off the next day so he headed to the milk generator shop first thing in the morning. On his way there he met a strange man who approached him.

“Can I help you?” said Jackson.

“Well isn’t that a fine milk machine you have there? How about I trade you something for it.” the man demanded.

“What can you offer me?” Jackson questioned

“How about this special set of clothes?” said the man as he pulled out a very fancy yet familiar set of clothes from a bag.

“Aren’t those the type of clothes worn by the rich?” asked Jackson.

“Indeed they are,” replied the strange man.

Jackson then came up with an idea and decided to make the trade. At work the next day, Jackson told his friend about the deal he made.

“Are you insane?!” shouted his friend, “The milk generator was the most valuable item you had and you traded it for some silly clothes!”

“It’s alright, calm down. I have a plan but you might think I’m crazy,” said Jackson.

Jackson went on and explained to his friend that he planned to sneak onto a beanstalk and ride it up to the island. Once he gets on the island, he will change his clothes and nobody will be able to tell that he is one of the poor.

After the workday finished, the plan commenced. Jackson made his way over to the nearest beanstalk and sneaked into it when nobody was around. He hid behind a bunch of barrels full of coal and waited. Sure enough, about an hour later, the beanstalk operator entered the elevator and started taking it back up to the island for the night.

Once Jackson reached the island, he waited for the operator to leave. Then, he carefully exited the beanstalk and looked around. There was a village nearby so he thought that would be the best place for him to go to. He quickly changed into his rich clothes and he made his way over there.

After Jackson got to the village, he aimlessly walked down the streets while he figured out what to do. Nobody noticed him because his clothes made him look just like everyone else. He then saw a very fat man leaving his house. The man was also quite ugly and reminded Jackson of an ogre.

Jackson thought, “This may be my chance to steal something since that ogre is leaving his home.”

Jackson carefully approached the front door, making sure nobody was looking. Luckily, the man left the door unlocked. Jackson quietly opened it and made his way inside. He then heard a voice calling out to him from inside the house.

“Honey, did you forget something?”

Jackson realized he was not alone. He quickly turned around and tried to leave the house.

“Stop right there!” shouted the voice.

Jackson, in a panic, stopped and turned towards the voice. He saw a pretty lady standing down the hallway.

“Who are you and what are you doing in my home?” the lady asked.

“I’m sorry ma’am, I am just very hungry. I haven’t eaten anything all day. Would you be able to spare me some food?” Jackson replied.

The lady was kind enough to invite Jackson inside and she cooked a nice meal for him.

“You better get going now. It would be a problem for the both of us if my husband were to find you here. He doesn’t allow any visitors.” said the lady.

Moments later, the front door opened and the ogre-looking man walked in.

“I’m home! Now make me some supper!” the ogre yelled with an ignorant tone.

The lady quickly pressed a hidden button on the wall which opened a secret room. She pushed Jackson inside and told him to be quiet.

“Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the sweat on a working man. Be he rich, or be he poor, he’s in my house, he will live no more.” shouted the ogre as he stopped his way into the kitchen.

The lady then said, “Nonsense, dear, you must be tired. Why don’t you take a nap while I cook you a delicious meal.”

“Perhaps I am a little tired after my long day of counting my precious diamonds.”

The ogre then put down a big bag full of diamonds on a table and headed to his room to take a nap.

While the ogre dozed off to sleep, Jackson looked around the secret room that he was hiding in but it was quite empty. There were a few boxes and some basic supplies but the only thing that intrigued him was a gigantic safe with a code lock on it. Once the lady let Jackson out of the secret room, she told him that he had to leave before her husband woke up. On his way out, he noticed the big bag of diamonds left on the table. When the lady wasn’t looking, Jackson put a few in his pocket, but not too many hoping the ogre wouldn’t notice. Once he made it out, he wondered about all the incredibly valuable items that may be in that mysterious safe considering the amount of diamonds the ogre had right there on the table.

The next day, he was able to get back into the beanstalk and he rode it back down to the earth’s surface. His friend was amazed that he was able to make it up there and back without getting caught. Jackson told his friend everything and showed him the diamonds. After selling the diamonds for a large sum of money, they could afford to live decent lives. They no longer had to worry about going hungry and they did not have to work as many hours each day. But their joy came to an end a couple of months later once they spent it all.

Jackson decided he had to go back up to the island once again so he sneaked into the beanstalk the same way as before. Once he reached the island, he approached the same house as last time and waited outside of it in a bush. Once the ogre left the house, Jackson knocked on the front door.

“Oh, it’s you.” said the lady as she opened the door.

“Sorry to bother you again but could you give me something to eat?” asked Jackson.

“I’m sorry but you can’t come back here again.” said the lady, “If my husband catches you, we will both be in big trouble. I have something to ask you though. Do you happen to know anything about the missing diamonds from the last time you were here?”

“Well I could possibly tell you something about that but I’m so hungry I don’t think I can remember at the moment,” said Jackson.

The lady decided to let him in and make him something to eat.

Shortly after Jackson finished his meal, the ogre returned with another bag full of diamonds in his hand. This time, the lady tried to hide Jackson in the attic, but he refused and insisted on hiding in the secret room again.

“Honey, why don’t you go take a nap while I make you something to eat.” said the lady.

“Alright, but I better put my diamonds away first.” said the ogre.

Instead of putting his bag of diamonds on the table, he decided to head into the secret room. Jackson heard the door open so he quickly hid behind some boxes. The ogre entered the room and approached the safe. He typed in the code to unlock it and luckily Jackson was close enough that he could see what he typed in. The safe opened, the ogre threw his bag of diamonds inside, closed the safe, and then left the room to go take his nap. Jackson knew he only had a couple of minutes before the lady would open the door in the secret room to let him out. He dashed over to the massive safe and he typed in the code to open it immediately. The code worked, and Jackson made his way inside. He couldn’t believe his eyes.

The amount of diamonds and valuable treasure overwhelmed him. He did not know what to take as he could only carry so much in his pockets. He searched the safe for about a minute or so until he came across a diamond hen statue which intrigued him. There was a button on the hen with the word “Lay” written on it. Out of curiosity, Jackson pressed the button and the hen laid a diamond egg. He pressed it again, and again, and again. Before he knew it, his hands were full of diamonds.

“This is it!” he thought to himself, “This is all I need to steal for me to be free from my horrible life!”

Suddenly, the door shot open and the lady caught Jackson red handed.

She screamed, “Thief! Thief! Wake up honey, there’s a thief in the safe!”

The ogre came tumbling into the room but Jackson was already out the front door and on his way to the beanstalk with the hen in his hands. With the ogre on his trail, he ran faster than he ever had before. It was late at night so there was nobody at the beanstalk. He got inside and panicked as he did not know how to operate the giant elevator. There were countless buttons and Jackson did not know which one to click. The ogre was only a few meters away and Jackson did not know what to do. He had no other option than to start clicking the buttons at random. Just in time, he pressed the button that slammed the doors shut and the beanstalk was on its way down. Jackson looked through the window and saw the ogre screaming at him, full of rage.

“You won’t get away with this!”

For a moment, Jackson thought he had gotten away, but he quickly realized there was another beanstalk only about a kilometer away that the ogre had started running towards.

After making it back to the ground, Jackson ran over to his friend’s house and started shouting,

“Quick, grab me some dynamite!”

Jackson’s friend had a lot of extra dynamite at his house since he still worked in the mines. They grabbed as much as they could carry and made their way to the beanstalk that the ogre was riding down. The ogre was about halfway down to the earth’s surface when they placed the dynamite all around the base of the beanstalk. They set off the fuse and ran before the tremendous explosion occurred. To the ogre’s surprise, the entire elevator toppled over and he came crashing to the ground along with it.

Jackson showed his friend the diamond hen that could create diamonds by simply pressing the button on it. He said that they would never have to work another day in their lives as long as they could sell the diamonds that it produced. They left their little, depressing town the next morning to start their new lives. They eventually made it up the beanstalk, became extremely rich, and lived happily ever after.

In this futuristic retelling of “Jack and the Beanstalk”, Darion weaves commentary on classism and wealth discrepancies into themes from the original tale.