The Living Sandcastle
Text and music by John Rickey.
Zachariah Thumblemyer lived
with his mom at the edge of Huckleberry Beach. Zack was sort of smart but
somewhat forgetful, although he never forgot to ask his mom to read Jack
and The Beanstalk. He loved that story and asked his mom to read it often.
But reading the same story, she became bored.
One hot summer day Zack begged his mom one more time, "Please read Jack and The Beanstalk?"
"No!" she answered, "Go to Huckleberry Beach and read it yourself."
Excited, he scooted to Huckleberry Beach and
began reading. However a truck unloaded a huge pile of sand beside him.
"Be quiet!" yelled Zack."I'm reading!"
The truck left, but people gathered yelling,"Quit reading Zack and help us build a sandcastle!"
"I don't know," replied Zack."I'm reading my favourite
story, Jack and the Beanstalk."
"Come on kid! I'll help," yelled a lady with
a bulldozer. She smiled with a funny kind of smile then continued,"This
beach really needs some magic. I mean sandcastles."
Reluctantly, Zack agreed to help and
soon they built the biggest sandcastle one could imagine. It towered into
the clouds but gave Zack a funny feeling.
"Sh! . . . What's that?" whispered Zack.
"Thump! Thump! Thump!" Something huge stood at the front door and roared: "Fee Fi Fo Fum I smell the . . . "
"Help!" Everyone ran away, except Zack who buried his head in the sand.
A hideous giant burst open the door. Snarling
like a mad dog, he pointed right at Zack. "You!" Zack poked his
head out and stuttered.
"M.. M.. Me?"
"Yes you!" the giant's voice thundered."I'd know you anywhere Jack and the Beanstalk! You stole my gold. Now give it back!"
"Ah . . . Ah . . . Ah . . . ," stammered Zack,"My name
is Zack not Jack.I just came to read my . . . "
Before he could finish, the giant scooped him up and returned to
his castle. He tossed Zack into a large cage, and ate his dinner. 
"I'll eat you later,"
he said with a belch.
Zack fell on his knees and begged,"Spare me! Spare me!"
The giant dragged his chair closer and demanded, "Then give me my gold!"
Zack pleaded,"I'm Zack not Jack. Jack's the one that took your gold."
But Zack's pleading only infuriated the giant who roared even louder making
Zack weep. Each tear though softened the giant's heart till he mellowed
and said,"I'll give you one day but if by sundown you haven't found
my gold, I'll keep you forever."
Zack left the giant and frantically searched the
castle. Soon he found the window Jack had entered. Surprisingly a thick
spider web still stretched to the chopped beanstalk far below. Although
heights made Zack dizzy, he wrapped his legs and hands around a strand of
the web and slid down.
At the bottom, beside the ragged beanstalk, was a busy store called
'Jack's Bean Store'. 
Zack observed that
Jack was rich but very tough. He even had a gang of thugs. Nervously entering
the store, Zack found Jack selling beans. Zack explained his problem to
Jack.Then pleaded,"Give me the gold! I know you took it! I've read
your story!"
"The gold is mine and mine alone," yelled Jack."Get out or I'll throw you in jail!" Bewildered, Zack left the store sadly.
"I'll never get the giant's gold," he whimpered.
Shuffling along the road, his stomach burned with hunger.
Shortly he met a beautiful woman carrying a potful of stew. Smelling the
scrumptious meal, he begged,"Could you spare but a morsel?"
But the women warned, "Food I can give you but your safety is rare. With Jack as my husband, you need to be scared. Leave quick! Or you'll be seen by my husband who's mean!" Everything seeming hopeless, Zack wept bitterly. Fortunately, Jack's wife having a kind heart, felt sorry for Zack, and recanted saying, "Come on in. I'll give you a meal. But beware of my husband! His thugs will chop you up like the beanstalk."
Although scared, Zack's stomach cried louder than his trembling hands. So he entered the house and ate. No sooner had he gobbled down the meal, when a bang came at the door.
"Gracious me!" screamed Jack's wife. "It's my husband!" Frightened out of his skin, Zack leaped into the oven and peeked through the door.
Jack and his thugs rushed into the room and demanded,"whose plate is this?"
"No one," laughed his wife nervously."Now sit, eat and forget such nonsense." Believing his wife, Jack told his thugs to leave and ate a good meal.
Then comfortably sitting back ordered,"Fetch
me my gold!" His wife quickly brought him five bags of gold and laid
them at his feet. Zack peeked through the door and spied Jack selfishly
count it. Piling the gold high, Jack tired, closed his eyes and fell asleep.
Zack desperately needed the gold so he crept carefully from the oven and
tiptoed over to Jack.As quickly and quietly as he could, Zack grabbed a
bag and fled out the door. Running all the way to the web though, Zack weakened.
Nevertheless he pushed himself and dragged the gold up.
Finally arriving before the giant, he collapsed.
"Where's my gold?" bellowed the giant."You're late!"
With bulging muscles, Zack threw the gold at the giant's feet, then fainted
exhausted to the floor. When Zack awoke,
he saw the giant sleeping by his bags of gold. Zack stared at the gold sparkling
in the twilight. He dreamed of being rich. Zack decided to steal Jack's
gold. Like a hunting tiger, he crawled along the floor. Snatching a bag
of gold, he slung it over his shoulder and raced for the door. But the bag
had a hole and the gold clanged noisily to the floor.
The giant woke up at once and roared like a lion. Zack, realizing
his efforts were in vain, dropped the bag and dashed out the castle door
with the giant close behind. 
"Fee Fi
Fo Fum!" boomed the giant."I'll crush your bones!" Zack climbed
up the walls of the castle. Being a good climber, he reached the top quickly.
Zack looked down and saw the giant plodding up after him.
"Come and get me if you can," teased Zack with
a plan. The giant growled and worked his way faster to the top while Zack
climbed silently down the other side. Zack leaped to the ground, as the
giant stood snorting out of breath, on the castle's top.
However that was right where Zack wanted
him for he grabbed a water hose and hit the bottom of the castle with bursting
gushes of water. Each gush chopped a gaping hole into the bottom of the
castle. He chopped and chopped till the walls began to crumble. Teetering
back and forth, the mighty giant fell into collapsing sand. When the castle
flattened into an enormous pancake of mud, the giant began to melt.
He swirled around and around
in a tornado of spinning colours, then disappeared into the sand. Zack couldn't
believe it. He looked at the glistening sand and listened to the splashing
waves. Huckleberry Beach was back.
"Finally no more sandcastles or giants!" sighed Zack as he
flopped into his lawnchair and picked up his storybook. Instantly Zack slammed
the book shut."I'm never reading Jack and the Beanstalk!" he said
with a shiver. Zack left and went home very frightened, especially to read.
In time though, he missed reading
and returned to Huckleberry Beach. This time he chose a story with no giants.
A safe story. A story about a little girl with a red hood, visiting her
grandma. "Surely nothing could go wrong with this story?"