Jack and the Elevator

Jack started at the ground level. as he worked his way up the Wilmington, Delaware skyscraper, he saw his life in little snippets of memory. He saw his father, Rodney, who struggled so much to provide a comfortable life for him in their humble abode. They possessed very few items. Those they did have, either malfunctioned or could be valued as worthless. This included the car.

“Boy, you need to get out there and sell that jalopy, get the money, and buy us some food and pay these bills.”

“I hear you talking Dad, but we’re too tapped. The car won’t even start.”

“You better do something. Ribs are touching and we’re not feeling the love. Why don’t you have a tow truck take that thing across town and sell it?”

“I’ve got it, Pops.” Jack stepped out into the blustery winter night. With one glance of the broken down car, he figured he wouldn’t even get enough for it to sustain he and his father’s lives. He, nevertheless, remembered his hockey card collection and shot back into the house and gathered up the pricey cards.

He wound up meeting a man dark as soot.

“I have the key to the biggest structure where people live in the state. I’ll just take those cards from you,” Hayer Gainsman enticed the young man.

Jack traded the cards for the key and reported back to his father.

“Your cards?! A key?!” Rodney said incredulously. “You better think of some other way, or we’ll be out on the streets for certain.”

“Roger that, Dad,” Jack replied, deflated. He marched from his small apartment on Fifth Street to downtown where the skyscrapers glistened like teeth in the night. He journeyed to the tallest residential place in the state. It gleamed like a stainless steel steak knife cutting into the sky. He entered the building knowing a code from his old girlfriend that had never been changed. The key clanged against his other keys. He stepped into the gargantuan elevator and pushed the number to reach the uppermost part of the building. He felt the slight shake and the electric hum that followed the elevator ascending to each floor.

Once he got to the top floor, he withdrew the key from his pocket. Upon entering the space, he saw a giant woman there, crying. No, she was sobbing. Great drops of tears stained her face and then splashed right in front of her. She had jet black hair and light skin. Her hazel eyes were like two precious stones lodged into her face. By keeping with her steady work load, she finished one dish after another, even with the knowledge of a state-of-the-art dishwasher right by her side. Her eye was as black as an eggplant. It looked as if it was still trying to heal and she had taken steps to aid the process, but it remained a grotesque mark on an exquisite face. She continued to wash dishes. Out of the corner of one eye, she noticed Jack. She shuddered.

“You better get out of here. My husband is an ogre and he’ll be back soon! Here. Hide in the oven,” she motioned towards the gigantic house appliance for cooking food. Not in operation, it was cold and dark there. Jack could take it, nonetheless. His Black skin matched the interior of the oven.

The woman kept washing dishes. There existed a sad sweetness that her demeanor showed. A plate of eggs and pancakes and bacon laid adjacent to the sink. She washed with a verve and a certainty that she had just spared a life. It felt good knowing that she had possibly got one over on the ogre. With her tears wiped away, she could finish her task. Then, a thunderous footstep broke the relatively convivial nature of the proceedings. It was like an earthquake. The ogre possessed light skin as well. He had stringy, greasy hair and yellowed teeth. A bulbous nose and cracked lips made his visage all the more horrific. His hands were the size of bulldozers. He stepped to the giant woman.

“Ahelia, Ahelia how many times must I ask you to—” he stopped. By sniffing the air, he could sense the presence of an outsider. He moved through the kitchen like a lamprey through water. He continued to sniff the air.

“Fee-fi-foe Jerrican, I smell the blood of an American!” He couldn’t help but mark the occasion with a rhyme. When he finally came to the oven, he never thought to switch on the light. He just stopped and shrugged.

“Now, your food’s going to get cold, Rotterman. You don’t have to worry about that. Just eat your breakfast,” the giant woman intoned.

Ahelia shot a glance at the oven. She waited for the right moment.

Rotterman’s wrinkled face and starry crown made quite the contrast. He grimaced and took the plate. It was like every crease in his face surfaced. A low growl came from his belly. He finished the plate and headed off to sleep. While he took his normal morning slumber after the morning meal, he realized some commotion in the kitchen. Then he returned to sleep.

Jack had escaped the oven and made it possible for him to take the starry crown and run away with the ogre’s hen and her platinum eggs. The crown shimmered in the light and illuminated Jack’s face. Now, the ogre had awakened and charged towards the elevator. Ahelia tried to stand in her husband’s way, but to no avail. He shoved her with the force of a freight train, barreling down the rails.

Jack kept running towards the elevator and got into it. Rotterman stretched out a hand and tried to stop the young man. He failed. Jack felt replete with his wares. He knew the crown and hen and platinum eggs would be more than enough to provide for him and his dad.

As he descended the floors of the skyscraper, he had an unmitigated joy that swept over him like a dream. He laughed to himself and kept laughing in a total, youthful cheeriness. It rang like church bells throughout the city. He summoned up enough strength to defeat Rotterman, finally.

Then, he heard the ogre go to the next elevator. The mechanisms of the device clicked in his mind. By moving with the quickness rivalling a cheetah, Jack stashed the goodies and ran up twenty flights of stairs. With Ahelia’s help, he pried open the elevator and with a huge pair of scissors, she snapped the line and the elevator crashed to the ground, killing Rotterman and allowing Jack a chance at complete freedom. It felt like liberty enveloped him and it remained far from mere relief. It was a signal that both Ahelia and he could both rid themselves of the ogre’s presence for good.

With the elevator crashing, this brought about residents who wanted to know what happened. Police vehicles and fire trucks all lined up with their sirens blaring and their lights flashing. In this entire spectacle, there seemed to be an air of certainty, nonetheless. Jack cradled his trove of precious things and looked at Ahelia. He noticed her as a woman of immense strength and reminded himself that he would find a woman with similar attributes. He felt like cheering, dancing. When the cops came to ask him what happened, he just said that the elevator’s cord snapped and that there was a huge problem for the medical examiner to deal with that night. He turned to Ahelia. She looked more sure and confident with her enormous arms folded. A smile crept its way onto her face.

“Thank you,” Jack acknowledged.

“It’s nothing. Go home. Make sure you bring those treasures.”

“But what about—”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

“Thanks, again,” Jack reiterated.

“You’re more than welcome,” Ahelia announced.

Jack gathered the goods and went home to his father. He appeared livid.

“I’ve been calling you! Is your smartphone not working? What have you been doing, boy?” Rodney shouted.

“Dad, look,” Jack showed him the platinum and diamond crown and the hen and her platinum eggs. Rodney gasped.

“How did you—”

“Never mind all of that, Dad. I’ve got them and we can get out of this tiny house now.”

The man hugged his son. “You’ve done good, Jack. I don’t know how you did it, but you’ve done good.”

In time, Jack found an investor. He valued the crown and the hen and eggs at close to five hundred billion dollars. Jack purchased the skyscraper and ensured that he and his father would coexist until he found a gorgeous young princess just finishing college at age nineteen. Her beauty reminded him of Ahelia and he knew that he would have the opportunity to enjoy love and laughter in a penthouse atop a skyscraper. By bringing up children in this space, he would forever remember the harrowing activities that secured him this place in the city. With all of the stories that flew around that night, he knew the truth. He knew that Rotterman was a rotten piece of trash that beat his wife and planned to have him as a snack. Jack decided that this would never be as he barred all ogres and only allowed giants onto his property.

His father beamed. He saw his son with his new bride and they found happiness within the context of the grandchildren who wanted to know the story about how Jack trekked to the top of the building. They wished to understand how their father could surmount such odds and win. He didn’t forget Ahelia. With a few platinum eggs, Ahelia moved to the country to live amongst other giants in the land. This emboldened Jack to become evermore aware of the kindness of strangers based on benevolence towards those with ethics and morals and values.

He looked up at the skyscraper and just felt a sense of finality and truth that could not be foiled. A few snowflakes floated down from the sky as Jack soaked in every bit of the information that had formed the details of a fateful night in winter many moons ago. All of it came rushing to his mind. He pictured the life he would have with his bride and the lasting relationship with his dad. She kept him joyful and understood his plight. She had been poor as well and now, as a graduate from New Sweden University, she could relate to the might of her husband’s abilities to actually slay giants. Or at least one.

Jack kept looking up at his empire. The snow started to accumulate and he still felt the warmth and the pride of a man who could outsmart a vicious beast-man and craft his own reality. He made mental notes about the structure and kept close to his mind a plan to build even more skyscrapers in Wilmington, Delaware. This time with no ogres. He would set up a fund to invest in properties that would enhance the cityscape. With the money he had earned, he would be empowered to keep fighting for his place in Delaware history as Jack the Ogre Slayer. He didn’t mind titles like this because they were true. He looked about him and saw his young children making snowmen and tossing snowballs in seemingly endless battles. Welled inside of him, he sensed the draw and the mystique of this building and vowed to promote only the best tenants and keep them safe from ogres.

He tugged at his father and wife Lakia even tighter as they walked into their own home reaching towards the heavens. He called his son and daughter. They ceased their play and followed their father’s instruction. As they made tracks in the fresh fallen snow, they remembered why they were there and how as well. They got into the elevator. They shook off the snow, laughed and they lived high in the sky, happily ever after.

THE END