Spill the Beans

by Sarah Mlynowski

“Okay,” I whisper, putting the harp back on its stand. Phew. It feels really good to give it back. “Let’s find that goose!”

  Jack goes running down the hall and into one of the bedrooms. A minute later, he comes running out with a goose in his arms. Wow, that was quick!

  “That must be Nelly!” Jonah says.

  She’s not as giant as I feared — she’s actually my size. And she looks just like the painted portrait on the goose door. Nelly is white and fluffy with a pale yellow beak. And, from the expression on her face, very annoyed.

  I gape at Jack. “How’d you find the goose so fast?”

  “Because I found her last time,” Jack explains. “Nelly was in the room I told you I’d checked. She has a bunch of toys, too. They seem to take good care of her.”

  Jonah tilts his head. “But, Jack, why’d you lie and say the goose wasn’t there yesterday?”

  Jack hangs his head for a moment. “Because I want the goose. More than you’ll ever know. So I was planning to go back and get her for myself. A goose that lays golden eggs means my mum and I will never want for anything. After being poor for so long. I need this goose. And I’m taking her for myself. Sorry, guys.”

  Jonah’s mouth drops open. He seems totally speechless.

  I gasp. “No! Jonah and I have to give the goose to Devin. You know that, Jack!”

  Jonah looks so disappointed. “Yeah, what happened to ‘A deal is deal’?”

  “I’m really sorry. I was hoping you wouldn’t come back up today, and that you’d never know I was taking it.” Jack’s hazel-green eyes look teary. He clutches Nelly firmly in his arms. “But I’m not letting you give the goose to Devin.”

  So that’s why he tried to convince us not to come back! He wasn’t worried about Jonah being turned into bread. He wanted the goose for himself. “Hand over the goose!” I demand.

  “No!” Jack says, and goes running for the goose door.

  “Come back here!” I yell.

  “FEE, FI, FO, FUM. I SMELL THE BLOOD OF AN ENGLISHMAN.”

  Oh, no.

  THUD. THUD-THUD.

  “AHHH!” I cry. “Run!”

  Jonah and I go racing for the goose door. Jack, with the goose in his arms, is just ahead of us.

  “Philly!” comes Magnus’s booming voice. “Those horrible children thieves have Nelly!”

  “What?” Philippa cries. “Oh, goodness, they wouldn’t take our dear pet goose!” She starts sobbing.

  Oh, crumbs. Double, triple, quadruple crumbs. A hundred million crumbs.

  THUD. THUD-THUD. “I see you!” Magnus says.

  I turn around very slowly. Looming right behind me is the giant. With a crying Philippa right behind him.

  AHHHH!

  “RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!” I cry, and Jonah, Jack, and I all go rushing through the flap in the goose door again.

  We hurry around the side of the castle and straight to the cloud walkway that leads to the beanstalk.

  “COME BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!” Magnus shouts at us as the front door opens.

  “I’m really sorry!” Jack calls over his shoulder. “But no!”

  Jack is trying to get onto the beanstalk, but Nelly the goose is putting up a fight. She’s flapping her wings while he’s trying to get control of her.

  “You’ll hurt her!” I cry.

  THUD-THUD. THUD-THUD.

  We all turn around. Magnus is running toward us! And Philippa is right behind him.

  AHHHH.

  SQUAWK! Nelly yelps.

  I have to get that goose from Jack! I need her.

  Jack wants the goose for himself. I want her so I can get Prince back. But Nelly isn’t either of OURS. We’re both stealing her from her owners.

  I hang my head. My stomach churns. But what choice do I have?

  I have to get that goose to Devin or we’ll never see Prince again. We’ll have to return to Smithville without him.

  There’s no chance of me letting that happen.

  I turn again and look at Magnus rushing toward us. Behind him, Philippa is weeping and calling for her dear Nelly.

  As the giants are running down the walkway, I see Jack is still having a terrible time trying to get Nelly under his arm.

  “Jonah, I have an idea,” I whisper. “You tickle Jack. I’ll grab the goose.”

  THUD-THUD. THUD!

  “Come back here, you thieves!” Magnus yells as he nears us.

  Jonah and I rush up to Jack by the beanstalk. The goose is flapping her wings like crazy, trying to get away from Jack.

  “Stay still, Goose!” Jack tells Nelly as nicely as he can. “Please!”

  “Now!” I yell at Jonah.

  Jonah tickles Jack under his arm.

  “Hey, stop that!” Jack says, wiggling around. He is the opposite of laughing.

  I grab the goose. “I have her!” I say, and leap onto the beanstalk.

  When you’ve done this five times, it’s not that hard even with a goose.

  Nelly is flapping her wings and trying to escape, but I have her securely under my arm.

  “I can’t believe you took her from me!” Jack shouts, jumping onto the beanstalk after me and sliding down. He’s not far above me. I hope he doesn’t try to steal her back. Especially on the beanstalk!

  “I had to!” I say.

  I see Jonah leap onto the beanstalk after Jack and start to slide down, too. Phew. At least he escaped the giants.

  Nelly tries to flap her wings, but I hold her securely under one arm. I use the other arm to grab on to side stems as I climb down.

  Squawk! Squawk-squawk! Nelly protests.

  “I’m sorry, Nelly!” I say. “I don’t have a choice.”

  The giants are standing at the edge of the cloud walkway right by the beanstalk, looking down at us. They won’t try climbing down the beanstalk, right? It wouldn’t support their weight. Would it?

  “There’s always a choice!” Magnus yells. “We could talk it out!”

  Tears sting my eyes. This is the worst! Nelly belongs to the nice giants. Not to me. Not to Devin.

  I think about Prince being stuck forever with the trader who went back on his deal — twice!

  I have to save my dog. Not just for me, but for Jonah. He loves Prince so much. And so do my parents. I have to get Prince back.

  “I’m really sorry!” I call up again to Magnus and Philippa, and climb down the beanstalk as fast as I can. When I’m about three-quarters of the way to the bottom, I see Jack’s shabby little wood house and barn. And wait — a man is there, too — standing right beside the beanstalk. A man with curly hair staring upward. It’s Devin! And is that Prince sitting behind him? It is!

  Devin must have been waiting for us to come down with the goose.

  This is perfect. I’ll give Devin the goose, and that’s it. Jack won’t get his hands on Nelly again.

  I’m doing this for Prince. To save Prince. I have no choice!

  But I’m stealing the giants’ beloved pet. I’m no better than Jack. Or Devin.

  Just a bit farther and I’ll be at the bottom.

  “I need that goose!” Jack cries from just above me. “To make sure we’ll never go hungry or be cold again!” He reaches down to grab Nelly from me.

  “No!” I say. “Stop it!”

  “Leave my sister alone!” Jonah yells. He’s shimmying down the beanstalk and is a few feet above Jack.

  “Ahh!” I hear Jack yelp. “I’m slipping. I can’t — ”

  Jack starts to fall.

  I’m the only one who can save him.

  But I can’t catch him with a goose in my arms.

  The only way to save Jack’s life is to let the goose go. At least geese can fly, right?

  “Jack!” Ada yells, running out of the house to the yard. “Oh, no, my darling son!”

  “Ahh!” Jack says as he drops. “I’m falling!”

  I suck in a breath and let the goose go so that I can grab Jack’s wrist.

  Nelly squawks and flies up, up, up.


  Jack gasps and is able to grab on to a side stem and get his footing again. He looks at me. “You saved my life.”

  “Abby!” Jonah says, staring at me in awe. “You’re a hero!”

  “But I let the goose go,” I cry. My eyes are stinging so hard from tears, I can’t see. “We’ll never get Prince back now.”

  Jonah’s face crumples.

  I look up. Nelly is half climbing, half flying back up the beanstalk.

  Our only chance of saving Prince is gone.

  We slide down the rest of the way, and all jump down to the ground. Ada grabs Jack and pulls him into a hug.

  “You fool!” Devin yells at me. “The goose got away!”

  I look up. Nelly is almost to the clouds.

  “Nelly!” I hear Magnus’s voice boom. “Nelly! I’m coming for you.”

  I can see the giant’s huge boots on the beanstalk. The beanstalk starts to shake.

  Oh, no! Magnus is coming down? But the goose is going up!

  “Don’t worry!” Devin says. “I have an ax! I’ll chop the beanstalk down and the giant will fall to his death!”

  Devin has an ax? What, does he carry around an ax at all times?

  “NO!” I say. “You can’t. Magnus and Philippa are nice! Don’t hurt him!”

  Devin swings the ax over his head. “The giant deserves it after what he did to my boy!”

  I stare at Devin. “Your boy?” What is he talking about?

  “That horrible giant killed my son!” Devin cries. “Magnus deserves to fall to his death!”

  Wait a minute. Suddenly, things are starting to make sense.

  I put my hands on my hips and glare at Devin. “You set us up from the start. So that we’d take your beans and grow the beanstalk. Then we’d climb up and steal stuff to make the giant come after us. So you could chop down the beanstalk with him on it! You wanted to kill Magnus!”

  Devin’s eyes fill with tears. “It’s true,” he admits. “It’s all true.”

  “Why didn’t you just plant the beans yourself?” I ask. “Why get us to do it?”

  Devin looks at the ground and then up at me. “I’m too old to climb a beanstalk. I’m just a widower with a bad back.”

  “How did your son meet Magnus in the first place?” Jonah asks.

  Devin takes a deep breath. “A fairy gave my son, Elden, ten magic beans.”

  The fairy! No wonder she wasn’t in this story. She was in a different story: Elden’s.

  “Elden used five of the magic beans to grow the beanstalk,” Devin said. “He snuck into the giant’s castle and tried to steal a bunch of stuff. But instead of having mercy, the giant killed him. All I got was a note.”

  “A note?” I ask.

  Devin nods. “The note said, ‘Your son snuck into the castle. Now he is dead.’ It was signed ‘Magnus the giant.’”

  “Oh, Magnus, really!” Philippa scolds from a quarter of the way down the beanstalk. “What kind of note is that?”

  “I’m not good at writing letters,” Magnus says sheepishly. “And you weren’t home, so I had to write the note myself.”

  “Wait,” I call up to him. “What happened that day, Magnus?”

  “I smelled the boy in the castle,” Magnus explains. “I did want to eat him, but Philippa told me that was wrong years ago and made me promise I’d never hurt a human child. I kept my word.”

  “Liar!” Devin yells up. “Then how did my Elden die at your hand?”

  “Not at my hand,” Magnus responds. “The boy was trying to climb into the cabinet to get my gold coins. And he fell from the cabinet to the floor. That’s quite a distance for a human boy.”

  That’s true. We know that firsthand.

  “I heard the thud,” Magnus continues. “I knew he was dead and I felt terrible. So I wrote a note and then buried him myself.”

  Oh, poor Elden. Poor Magnus.

  “What a sad story,” Ada says, dabbing under her eyes.

  Very.

  I turn to the trader. “Devin, you now know what really happened.”

  Devin sniffles, but he doesn’t say anything.

  Maybe Devin and Magnus can reach a truce now.

  “And, Magnus,” I call up, “we’re very sorry we stole your gold and tried to steal Nelly. That was wrong.”

  “Keep the gold,” Magnus says. “I have plenty. At least you brought back the harp. And I’m just so grateful that we have Nelly where she belongs.”

  Squawk! Nelly says.

  “Thank you, Magnus,” I say. “That’s very generous of you.”

  “Um, Magnus?” Jonah calls up.

  “Yes?” the giant says.

  “So you don’t really turn people’s bones into bread?” Jonah asks.

  Magnus laughs. “Of course not! That’s just an old song my dad used to sing to me before he died.”

  “My dad died, too,” Jack says. “Sorry for your loss.”

  “And yours, young man,” Magnus says. “And yours, Devin,” he adds.

  We’re all silent for a moment.

  “Devin?” Magnus asks.

  “What?” Devin mutters.

  “Since your son used five of the magic beans, and then Abby, Jonah, and Jack used the other five, there’s no more, right?” Magnus asks.

  “Well, I do have one more,” Devin says. “Abby, Jonah, and Jack only used four. But I don’t want anything to do with beanstalks ever again. Here,” he says, pulling the bean from his pocket. “I’ll throw it up to you so that no one can ever get to your castle without your permission again.”

  Devin winds his arm like a baseball player and tosses up the bean. I watch it sail higher and higher until it goes through a cloud. Magnus’s huge arm darts out from the top of the clouds and his hand snatches up the bean.

  “Got it!” Magnus calls. “So maybe you can chop down the beanstalk? Now that you don’t have a beef with me anymore?”

  “Okay,” Devin agrees. “We have a truce. And this time, I really mean it. Let’s chop this thing down. You two climb back up to the top first,” he tells Magnus and Philippa.

  “Hey, Magnus?” Jack calls up. “Can I ask you something? How’d you get so rich anyway?”

  “Philly and I stayed in school and then both worked very hard every day until our retirement,” Magnus explains. “We squirreled away quite a lot of savings.”

  “So that’s how you bought the goose and the harp?” I ask.

  “Actually, we found Nelly as a stray baby goose wandering around the clouds. We put up Lost Gosling ads in other kingdoms, but no one claimed her. She’s been with us ever since. Years now. As for the harp, that was a gift from my brother, Morty.”

  Wow. So Philippa and Magnus really did come by all their wealth honestly. I’m so glad we learned the truth about them.

  The beanstalk shakes as Magnus and Philippa make their way back up through the clouds.

  “Okay! We’re on the cloud walkway,” Magnus shouts down to us.

  “Bye, Magnus and Philippa,” I call up to the giants. “Thanks for understanding!”

  “Bye, dear!” Philippa calls back.

  Devin picks up the ax. “Elden sure loved chopping wood,” he says. “I gave him an ax for his birthday.” Tears well in his eyes.

  “Aww,” Ada says. “There, there, Devin. You take a breather. I’ll chop down the beanstalk. I’ve been chopping wood on my own for years.”

  Ada takes the ax and gives the beanstalk five good whacks. It comes falling down in the far side of the field with a THUD.

  “I’ll chop it up a little every day,” Ada says. “Maybe we can make a pottage out of it.”

  “Or a fort,” Jonah suggests.

  Ada smiles. “We’ll see.”

  “Well, Jonah and I had better get home,” I say, looking at my watch. I turn to where Devin is standing with Prince. Finally. Prince is ours again! “Come on, Prince. Time to go. It’s almost seven a.m. there! And we don’t even know how to get home!”

  “Where is home?” Jac
k asks.

  “A place called Smithville,” Jonah says.

  “How do you get there? Another magical beanstalk?” Ada asks.

  “No,” I say. “But it does involve magic. We need to find a regular object that turns purple and swirls. Let me know if you see anything like that. As soon as possible. The three of us have to get going for real.”

  Devin steps forward in front of Prince. “Um, sorry, but you can’t take Prince. You still owe me something for him.”

  He has to be kidding. After all this?

  “Devin, come on,” I say, my annoyance bubbling over.

  He lifts his chin. “The giants have their riches and Nelly the goose. Jack has the gold coins. And what do I have?” He hangs his head. “Nothing. Except for sweet, cute Prince.” He kneels down and scoops up Prince, petting him and cooing at him.

  That is OUR dog!

  “We don’t have anything to trade you for him,” I say. “You saw what happened with the goose.”

  “Oh, well,” Devin responds. “I’m very sorry, but like you guys said, a deal is a deal. Come, Prince, time to go home. TO MY HOUSE.”

  Devin starts to walk away with Prince in his arms.

  Prince looks back at me and Jonah. Ruff-ruff! he barks, tilting his head to the left and then to the right.

  But Devin keeps walking ahead.

  Noooo!

  Wait!” Jack calls.

  Devin turns around.

  Jack steps forward. “If you give Prince back to Abby and Jonah, I’ll give you all of the gold coins, Devin.”

  I gasp.

  Jonah’s mouth drops open.

  Devin stares at Jack. “You’d give me all of the gold? Just so they can have their dog back?”

  Jack hangs his head. “Yes. Abby saved my life. Even after I tried to steal the goose for myself. So I’m going to do right by her.”

  I’m too shocked to say a word.

  Jack turns to his mother. “Sorry, Mum. We won’t be rich, after all. But it’s the right thing to do.”

  “Oh, Jackie,” Ada says, pulling him into a hug. “Don’t be sorry. I’m so proud of you. You’re a hero, too, now.”

  Jack hugs his mom, then turns to me. “I’m sorry I tried to trick you and Jonah about the goose. You helped me, and I betrayed you. That was wrong — no matter the reason. I’m really sorry.”

  Huh. Maybe the reason DOES matter, though. Jack tried to steal Nelly to ensure he and his mother would survive. That’s a pretty good reason!