End of the Rainbow

I wonder if candy really does fall out of rainbows like in the commercials.

I stood looking up at the brilliant colors, waiting for Skittles to start raining on me.

My brother Bobby appeared out of nowhere and looked at the rainbow, then to my friend Devin and me. "I'll bet you ten bucks you can't find the end of the rainbow and bring back a gold coin from it!" he proposed, and being only seven, he didn't realize what exactly he was telling us to do.

Being bored causes you to do crazy things to keep yourself busy. We accepted. My brother laughed as if he had already won, and went into the house.

"Have you ever tried to find the end of a rainbow?" Devin asked, leaning against the "10¢" sign, hands in her pockets.

We had nothing to do anyway. Sadly, our Kool-Aid brand lemonade wasn't selling. So far, we'd only made fifteen cents. My mom bought a cup, and added a measly five-cent tip. When you make cheap lemonade, it shouldn't take long to sell. At least that was what we thought.

Being only twelve and thirteen, we couldn't drive to the end of the rainbow. Pulling a little red wagon was for kindergartners, and walking would take days. Finally we decided to ride our bikes. We didn't tell our parents where we were going, or even that we were leaving for that matter, for fear that they would be too worried about us.

"Which end should we try to find?" asked Devin, positioning her blue helmet on her head and snapping it on.

I pointed to the end furthest away.

"That'll take forever," she stated.

"Exactly," I replied. That was the point. We wouldn't be bored for long. In fact, we'd probably be gone at least an hour, hopefully more.

The side that we were destined for hung right over the Golden Book Library. That was near our school, so we knew just how to get there. We pedaled fast, but light, not wanting to get tired right away. We biked past bushes, trees, and trashcans, running over loose garbage along the way.

Finally we reached the curb in front of the library. A couple other kids were lying on the grass, looking at the sky, and pointing to clouds. We parked our bikes on the rack and walked behind the library. There was a street there as well, but no rainbow. Looking ahead of us, it appeared the rainbow had moved to just behind the city grocery store.

"We have to go back and get our bikes," Devin reminded me, and we did.

Again we found ourselves playing a grueling game of Hide 'N' Seek with the rainbow. It was not behind the grocery store anymore, it was near our school. I sighed and looked at Devin.

"You're not giving up just yet," she grabbed my arm and pulled me to my bike.

"We're never going to catch this thing," I said sadly, feeling strangely like I was chasing a tornado.

"Let's just go," Devin insisted. "We'll find it sooner or later."

We made it to the backside of the school about five minutes later. There were a few kids playing around back there. Devin recognized one of them as Eugene, from her class. He was bouncing a basketball on the court. Pushing his glasses up on his nose, Eugene squatted adequately and thew the basketball from the free-throw line. It missed by a mile. When he saw us, he turned and snorted.

"What're you two doing here?" he asked nosily.

"We're looking for the end of that rainbow," Devin announced proudly, pointing to the ribbons of color tied around the sky.

Eugene gave us a weird look and continued playing.

"Oh no," I ground my teeth together. "It's moved, again."

No longer was it by the school. It was now in the middle of the park. We knew that we would find the end of the rainbow, though, because we could see the colors of it filtering among the chains of the swing set. Both Devin and I gasped at the mere sight.

"Where's the pot of gold?" I asked from a distance.

"We probably can't see it because it's so far away," Devin concluded.

I wasn't so sure. Golden pots are usually yellow or orange. It would've stood out within the trim, bright green blades of grass, if it even existed. Still, I stood there a long time just staring at the beautiful rainbow. Finally, Devin and I rode our bikes over to it.

Slowly and hesitantly I walked up to it. My hand passed right though it as if it were a mirage. For only a second I stood in awe, smiling at its majestic beauty. Then it started to rain. Carefully, as if by magic, the rainbow dissolved, and was gone.

"How are we going to get a gold coin if there isn't one?" Devin asked sadly, sitting down on a bench nearby.

"I guess we have to give him 10 dollars," I sighed, plopping down next to her.

Devin thought for a moment, then her face lit up like the light bulb that I imagined above her head. "Candy!" she exclaimed, as if it was the answer to why the sky is blue.

"Candy?" I repeated, confused.

"Yeah! You know those golden chocolate coins? We get one of those!"

"Oh yes!" I gave Devin a high-five. All our problems were solved.

The candy store, called "Sweet Dreams," was only a couple of blocks away, so we had no problem riding out bikes over to it. The chocolate coins came in bags for $2.50, but we didn't have enough money for those. We only wanted one. Luckily we found a bin of all sorts of candies marked, "Take your pick. 10¢."

"Dude, do you still have the dime from the lemonade?" I was so happy, I could barely stand it.

"Yeah!" Devin pulled the coin out of her pocket and we paid for the chocolate.

Bobby was so amazed at first that he didn't know what to do. He ran around the house telling every member of our family how we had found a golden coin. Of course they all thought we'd made up the story of going to the end of the rainbow and just gave Bobby the coin as a joke.

Little did they know.