Chasing A Rainbow Is Not As Futile As Adults Make It Out To Be
"Crow, please tell me you're joking. You're fucking joking, right?"
I sighed, and tugged at my brother's arm. "No, Bee. I swear, like ten more minutes and we'll find it!"
He groaned, and stumbled along as I pulled his unwilling body across the field. "You said that thirty minutes ago. Can't I just go back and read my book? I'm starving and I left my sandwich in the tent, border patrol's probably coming after us for crossing half a mile back, and the goddamn jew's getting my shoes and socks sopping wet!"
I scoffed derisively. "Oh, please. Border patrol catching us this early?" I shook my head. "Bianco, you're being ridiculous."
"As ridiculous as chasing the end of a rainbow?" he deadpanned.
Yes, I was chasing a rainbow. I was raised by society to think it was weird and futile. It made sense that he would comment, but he'd been doing it for the last fucking hour. Why the hell couldn't he believe that I wouldn't waste my time on something so stupid unless I had a reason?
I turned fully to look at him, walking backwards. "Oh ye of little faith," I started sagely, "it's not– fuck!" I stumbled over a rock, almost bringing him down with me. Furiously frowning, I continued to walk normally. "Agh, damn it. It's not ridiculous. This rainbow is special!"
He muttered, "Just like you, I bet."
I shot him a quick glare. "I'm ignoring that. Besides, Haine was the one who wanted to do it."
My little sister had been the one to come up with the idea back at the campsite after the rain stopped pouring. Mom wanted me to watch over her, and Bianco was brought along because no way in hell was I suffering alone. At first I did it as a way to curry favor for later, but when I noticed something odd, I got into it for my own personal curiosity.
"Well she doesn't want to anymore," my brother said.
"Too bad, I don't hear her complaining!" I retorted. "Are you tired already? Our little sister has more stamina than you!" And she was ten years old, five and six years younger than my brother and I's fresh, active teen bodies respectively. I inwardly rolled my eyes. Talk about pathetic. "That's what you get for spending all your time reading your nerd books."
He yanked aggressively on the arm I was holding. "They're not nerd books, you fucking shit. It's called manga."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Your mangos and animoos," I mocked.
I could feel him bristling. "ANI–"
"And watch your fucking language, we have a baby on board." It was a futile effort to save her from our family's swearing anyway. It was almost hereditary.
Bianco scoffed. "She won't tell mom, we have a system." Calling back, he said, "Same deal like always, yeah? Stay quiet, and I'll give you, uhh, those shitty chocolate lollipops in exchange."
My little sis apparently already had a blackmail venture going on.
I'm so proud. I wiped away a fake tear as I marched on. Though why Bee's acting arrogant when he's being scammed by a ten year old is a mystery to me.
We trudged forward for a minute, me still occasionally tugging the resisting boy.
"Oh shit," Bianco said after a pause.
I didn't even look back. Him making up random reasons to stop and go back didn't even work on me the first time 'round. His failed attempts were all a source of amusement the first half hour, until it became an annoyance and only served to make me more insistent in bringing him along as a form of spite.
He fully stopped walking this time, and my pulling did nothing. Groaning, I turned around and put a hand on my hip, the other still with a firm grip on his wrist. "What now? If you need to go take a leak or something, you can hold it."
His panicked face put me on guard, but he was a pretty good actor when he wanted to be. It was a good attempt though. Looking at me straight in the eye, Bianco said, "Haine's gone."
I quirked an eyebrow. So he was going that route. At least it was more creative. "Oh, right. Okay." I truly doubted that she could have left without us knowing. She was supposed to be with us the entire time. Still, I decided to humor him, just to get it over with, and glanced behind him, expecting to see the blonde mop of our sister. Nothing was there.
I suddenly couldn't form a coherent thought in my head, and dumbly uttered out,"Oh shit. Haine's gone."
We glanced at each other.
"..."
"..."
For a long moment, we stared at the empty spot where our sister should have been.
"Fuck!" I suddenly dropped into a squat, and grabbed my head. "When did we lose her?!"
"I don't know! Haine?" he called out. With no answer, he swore. Loudly and repeatedly. "Mom is going to kill you!" he hissed out.
I looked incredulously at him. "Me? Why me? I told you to keep an eye on her!"
"But you're the oldest! You're supposed to keep us safe!"
"Keep you safe? Who do you take me for? I'm a goddamn teenager, not Superman!"
God, Haine was a little girl. Our little girl. What kind of big sister was I to not watch over her? She could get lost in the nearby woods. She could get mauled by a bear. She could have been getting eaten wolves while I was chasing after a goddamn rainbow! Then what Bianco said before drifted into the forefront of my mind.
Border patrol.
My breath came out rapidly, and my hands shook.
How did those things work again? Did they shoot on sight? Or was that only down by Mexico?Oh god I was terrible at social studies. Canadians were nice, right? That was a universal fact. But who patrolled the border? I prayed to God it wasn't Americans. Haine would be swiss fucking cheese. I did not want holes in my sister. Mom was going to freak if she came back having extra holes in her body. I was so dead. Just like Hain–
I cut myself off. I was getting hysterical, and panicking never did anything helpful in any situation. It took a few tries, but I forcibly took deep breaths and counted backwards from ten.
"Two." I let out a long breath. "And one. Okay." I stood up slowly, and pulled a face at my wet legs. Bianco wasn't joking about the dew. Speaking of Bianco...
"–aine's gone, and Chroma's losing her fucking mind! Fucking shit I can't handle this I'm so done please fucking holy hell shit damn god!" Bianco was ranting and swearing up a storm, stomping in a circle.
"Bee," I called out. He either ignored me, or didn't hear, as he continued his tirade. "Bee. Bianco!" He jumped at my hand on his shoulder.
"Freaking out isn't going to do anything. Breathe."
As he nodded, I stared at him.
He stared at me.
"...Bee, you're holding your breath."
I demonstrated an inhale and exhale. "Breathe."
A shaky exhale left his lungs.
"Good." As he did his breaths, I said, "Look, Haine's probably fine."
Bianco opened his mouth, but I continued. "Like you said, there were border patrols coming soon. They'll find her, and take her back. She's just a kid, she won't get shot."
He made a weird face. "Of course she won't get shot, why would you think that?"
Mace slightly burned, and I pretended I didn't hear that. My mind tended to jump to extreme conclusions when stressed. "Besides, that little sister of ours is smart. So she could have already made it back to the campsite! We'll see her when we get back, okay?"
"Yeah, okay." He was visibly relieved, and I smiled warmly. As mush as we three snarked and riled each other up, we pulled through when one of us was in trouble. It was nice to know we could count on each other.
He startled, as if he could hear my thoughts. His face grew increasingly red and he spat, "Don't get your hopes up. With her being related to you, she could have been stuck all this time walking in a circle!" With a huff, he stormed off. "I'm going to go make sure she didn't trip in a ditch or anything else idiotic."
I laughed. "No need to be so shy! Acknowledge we had a moment!"
"No! Shut up! Nothing happened!"
I started to go after him to badger him some more, but he must have had eyes on the back of his head. "And don't follow me! Go back to chasing after your goddamn special rainbow!"
"Bee~~~!"
"Shut the fuck off!"
He was almost a smudge in the distance when what he said registered in my brain. Shut the fuck up... combined with fuck off...?
I burst into snickers. "Pfft...kyahahahahahahaha! Are you serious?" I was going to tease him about that for years. Who knew Bianco could have an adorable side?
My laughter eventually died out, and I looked around the field I was in. "Now what the hell was I doing?" A shimmer caught my eye, and my gaze moved up. Right. The rainbow. I was following it.
I started after it. Bianco could tease me all he wanted, but no ordinary rainbow sticks around for an entire hour after rain. I didn't have to be a meteorologist to figure that out.
The scenic walk I took for the next fifteen minutes consisted of:
1. Grass
2. Rocks
3. A used condom (what the fuck this is in the middle of nowhere why)
4. Something that looked oddly like a body bag but I was not willing to check
5. More grass
6. A moose carcass
7. More rocks
There were also low hanging branches that tore at my clothes and hair, and biting spiders that I fiercely made a point to believe were nonvenomous.
All in all, the end of the rainbow better be worth it or I would have to stab a bitch.
When the rainbow arch came down to end at the mouth of a cave, I couldn't believe it. Sure, I knew there was something with this rainbow, but seeing a myriad of colors fading out right before my eyes was something else.
"But really, could this get any more cliche?" I eyed the scene that looked like it was brought over straight from a picture book. The darkness of the cave seemed pitch black, with not a single ray of sunlight touching it. Grass growing in the location was brightly green, and showed no signs of having been trampled on recently.
"I sure would hate for a leprechaun to leap out at me from that cave," I called out. Then rethinking the statement, I added, "Of course, I would be fine with just the pot of gold he comes with."
There were no signs of green sprites or gold, so I moved my attention back to the mysterious colors, walking with trepidation to the edge of the rainbow. The air was average, not too dry and not too humid. There was no explanation for how a large refraction of light could occur so clear for so long. With a frown on my face, I drew my hand close to the enigma, and after a moment of contemplation, stuck my hand into the colors.
Nothing.
I let out the breath I unconsciously held. I didn't really know what I was expecting. For my hand to disappear midway in between, going through a portal of some sort? A laugh left my lips as I absentmindedly waved my hand through the wide band. It was mildly warm, but it was probably just absorbing the sun ray's heat. Somehow. I wasn't a science girl.
I looked back at the cave. It was sort of creepy, because hello, pitch black, but nothing my phone's flashlight couldn't fix. My curious gaze was on the abyss as I made to draw my hand back out, but when my fingers brushed against something smooth, my attention moved to what I held in my palm. Something had, somehow, materialized in my grasp the moment it got taken out of the rainbow, and I hadn't seen it with my mind distracted. I held it up to the sky in order to look at it better. The thing was small, and pale pink. Observing the object and mildly pinching it made me realize it was a cherry. A weird one. The fruit was covered with swirling veins the colors of a rainbow, and seemed to glow faintly.
I had never been one for caution, and curiosity and impulse basically ruled everything I did. So of course, it's no surprise for my next move to be popping the cherry thing in my mouth and biting down.
"Mnngh!"
I couldn't decide whether the cherry was more bitter and sour, both tastes battling for dominance on my tongue. My face crumpled into a pinched expression as I chewed through it, and when I was done, the only thing I spat out was the seed.
"That was...disgusting. And the aftertaste...blegh." Shivers ran through me. "Too unripe?" I wondered with a tilted head. After ruminating over the entire experience, I belatedly noticed two things.
One, the rainbow that had been there for the last hour and a half was gone. Understandable, because rainbow fruit was somehow related to magical rainbow.
Two, there was something glowing pink in the dark spooky cave.
"What is that?" I peered at it, then struggled for my phone to get a better look. "Ugh why the hell did I put it in my front pocket anyway damn i– got it!" With the phone liberated from my pants, I looked up–
–only to register a large blur slam into my body.
AN:
First story on this site, glad to be here, read and review thanks.
