Nothing Grows Without Rain
What happens when the sky doesn’t open for you
**Fairytales For the Damaged*
*They called it a fairytale. But that’s not the end of the story.*
A New Kind of Happily Ever After
Once upon a time, there was a boy with nothing but a sick mother and a tired cow.
They told him to be a man.
To go out.
To fix it.
He walked to town with the weight of everything they couldn’t afford.
He traded the cow for hope—
wrapped in a sack and sold as magic.
They laughed.
His mother cried.
And he waited.
But that’s not the end of the story.
Because sometimes, the beanstalk doesn’t grow.
Sometimes, you plant everything you have left—
and the ground stays silent.
The Story We Think We Know
They told us Jack was a hero.
A poor boy makes a desperate trade, climbs to the clouds, defeats a monster, and brings home gold.
A fable of risk and reward.
A promise that if you dare to dream big, you’ll rise.
But here’s what they leave out:
Most boys who trade cows for beans don’t find magic.
They find dirt.
They find hunger.
They find a community that doesn’t help—just points fingers when things die.
Jack wasn’t reckless.
He was out of options.
And the world punishes that more than failure.
The storytellers never print the version where the stalk doesn’t sprout.
It doesn’t sell.
The Twist – What Happens After the Trade
There was no stalk.
No giant.
No harp.
No riches.
Just a boy with empty hands and a mother getting sicker.
The villagers said he was stupid.
Said he should’ve known better.
Said it was his fault.
But they weren’t the ones counting coins to buy bread.
They weren’t the ones choosing between medicine and milk.
They weren’t the ones digging in the yard at dawn, whispering to beans like prayers.
Jack didn’t fail the world.
The world failed Jack—
long before the trade.
The Power Paradox
They say fortune favors the bold.
But the truth is—
fortune favors the favored.
Magic doesn’t bloom in every backyard.
It grows where the soil’s already been tilled by privilege.
Where the sky opens not because of faith—
but because someone paid the clouds to move.
Jack didn’t fail.
He was failed.
By a world that gives fairy tales to a few
and droughts to the rest.
Government by Drought
We pretend we live in a meritocracy.
But we reward winners, not effort.
And we call the rest waste.
Jack didn’t need a bean.
He needed a break.
He needed someone to notice before he had to sell the cow.
Before the cupboards went dry.
Before the shame rooted in.
Instead, we gave him a parable.
Told him to believe.
Then mocked him when nothing grew.
We don’t water the fields.
We just blame the farmers.
The Cost of Waiting for Rain
Jack kept checking the soil.
Kept waiting for green.
Kept hoping the clouds would change their mind.
But hope doesn’t feed you.
It doesn’t cool a fever.
It doesn’t change a system built on stories that only work when they work.
Eventually, the seeds rotted.
The sky stayed shut.
And Jack walked into town again—
not to buy.
Not to trade.
Just to be somewhere people weren’t watching him fail.
Because the weight of dreams denied
can bury a boy
long before the dirt does.
The Broken Beanstalk
Years later, someone found the sack.
Empty.
Faded.
The word magic still scrawled across the side.
Still selling the same lie.
But Jack was gone.
And no one remembered the cow.
Or the boy.
Or the hunger.
They just remembered the version that ended in gold.
Because we don’t keep stories where the magic fails.
We bury them.
We bury the kids who don’t rise.
And call it natural selection.
Closing Line
Some boys plant everything they have and still go hungry.
Not because they didn’t believe—
but because no one ever taught the clouds to open for them.
Want to Help a Real Jack?
For every “success story,” there are hundreds like Jack—forgotten, blamed, and buried under systemic drought. These orgs help where the clouds won’t:
Feeding America – https://www.feedingamerica.org
Nationwide food bank network for families facing hunger.
Modest Needs – https://www.modestneeds.org
Small emergency grants for people on the edge.
Family Promise – https://familypromise.org
Community-based solutions for families experiencing homelessness.
Coalition for the Homeless - https://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org
Advocacy and support for housing-insecure individuals.
You don’t have to grow a beanstalk.
You just have to water what’s real.
Another genius reframing of a classic. I love how you strip the fairy tale down to its bones and show the part we never say out loud: sometimes the stalk just doesn’t grow. This version of Jack feels more honest than the one we were raised on, and it lingers after reading.
This is an amazing story about how we act, and how we should act! Both creative and critical! (and rightly so) I loved it!