Jack and the Beans of Immortality

"What do witches do?"

"Bad thing?" Jack wasn’t sure.

"Extremely bad things, for sure. Hold her still." The fellow quickly jammed the head onto the neck and stepped back.

There was a heart-ripping scream throughout the forest. The headed witch and Jack rolled violently around the forest clearing. The fellow put his smallish frame behind a different large tree and tried not to watch Jack bang his head against the ground as the witch fell over backwards. Jack let go and the witch sprang to her feet. She moved her head in ways it should not be able to move. Suddenly, it was calm except for Jack’s labored breathing.

The witch pulled on her ear lobs to adjust her head placement. "What’s all this then?" She said looking down at the grounded Jack.

"He’s looking for magic beans." Said the fellow from behind the tree.

"I have no magic beans." The witch spit her reply at Jack as he got up from the dirty.

"But. . . " whispered Jack.

"I told him, but he’s really looking for Em-more-tal-ity." The fellow giggled, still behind the tree.

"Em-more-tal-ity?" The witch wrinkled her already very wrinkled brow.

"Yes," said Jack, as he stood up straight. "So, I won’t ever grow old or be sick again."

The witch looked at the fellow as he stepped from behind the tree. "His Daddd sent him to find you, by himself."

"Doesn’t like him very much does he?" The witch turned back to Jack.

"He does, uh, doesn’t, uh, he likes me." Jack remained confused on this issue.

"Never grow old. That what you want?" The witch squirmed this question out of her throat.

"Exactly." Jack looked contemptuously at the fellow. The fellow just shrugged his dirt shoulders again.

"With magic or without?" She squirmed out another one.

"Oh, with magic. That would be ever so much more fun." Jack said as the fellow ducked behind the tree again.

"Fine!" The witch screamed as a bolt of dark light shot from her mouth. It enveloped Jack in black. When the darkness parted Jack was now gray, hard and stony. He was now stone.

"Never grow old that way." Said the fellow from behind the tree. "I warned him."

"Warned him, what?" The witch just stood there after her excursion.

"That you were a witch." The fellow stuck out his dirt head.

"That I am, so?"

"That you do bad things." The fellow stepped from behind the tree.

"Extremely bad things." The witch giggled evilly then cried out in pain.

The smallish fellow knocked at the stony Jack with his dirt hands. "Kid was kind of dumb though."

"Too bad, maybe I should have kept him around for amusement?" The witch caused herself further pain by attempting to smile. The fellow looked back in surprise at her. "No, I didn’t need anyone new. You’re dumb enough for me." The witch hurt herself again with a laugh.

The fellow gave her a painless, dirty smile back. "That witch." he chuckled to himself. "So, what was the non-magic way of not growing old?"

"I would have stabbed him in the heart with my broom. But that’s so messy."

"Yea, this is much cleaner." The fellow walked toward the witch.

"Human blood makes the broom handle sticky for weeks. Ugg." The witch ran her hand up and down her broomstick.

"Yea, very inconvenient and inconsiderate of them, I’d say." The smallish fellow gave a laugh. The witch hurt herself again in response.