Omie & Irie and the Vanishing Rainbow
All morning it rained. The rain drummed on the roof, splashed in the puddles, and made the whole backyard smell like wet earth and fresh grass.
Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the rain stopped. The sun peeked out from behind the clouds. And Irie, who was looking out the window at exactly the right moment, gasped.
"Omie! Come and see!"
There, arched across the whole sky like a giant painted bridge, was a rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet, all in a perfect curve, from one end of the backyard to the other.
Omie pressed his nose against the window. "Rainbow!" he shouted. "Big rainbow!"
Chasing the End of the Rainbow
"Let's find the end of it," said Irie, pulling on her rain boots. "Everybody knows there's a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow."
Omie pulled on his boots too. One was on the wrong foot, but he did not care. Off they went, splashing through puddles, following the rainbow across the garden.
They ran past the oak tree. They ran past the vegetable patch. They ran all the way to the back fence, where the rainbow seemed to touch the ground.
But there was no pot of gold. There was only a puddle, and in the puddle, a very small reflection of the rainbow.
"Where did it go?" asked Omie, peering into the puddle.
Irie looked up. The rainbow was still there, high in the sky, but its end had moved. Now it seemed to end somewhere behind the neighbor's house.
"It moved!" said Irie. "Every time we get close, it moves away. It's like it doesn't want to be caught."
The Secret of the Colors
Irie sat down on the wet grass to think. She remembered something from science class — something about light and rain.
"Omie," she said, "I think I know the rainbow's secret. Sunlight looks white, but it's really made of lots of colors all mixed together, like all the crayons in a box melted into one."
Omie nodded. He liked crayons.
"And when sunlight shines through a raindrop," Irie went on, "the raindrop works like a tiny piece of glass. It splits the white light apart, and out come all the colors — red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet. Millions and millions of raindrops, all splitting light at the same time, make a rainbow in the sky."
The Rainbow Lesson: A rainbow is not a thing you can touch or stand on. It is light, bent and split by rain. You can only see one when the sun is behind you and the rain is in front of you, which is why rainbows always show up after a storm, when the sun comes back out. And the end of a rainbow? It moves when you move, because a rainbow is made just for your eyes, right where you are standing. Everybody sees their own rainbow, in their own place.
"So there is no gold?" asked Omie, sounding a little disappointed.
"No gold," said Irie. "But wait — I have an idea. If a rainbow is just sunlight and water, maybe we can make one ourselves!"
A Rainbow of Their Own
Irie ran to the garden shed and came back with the hose. She turned on the water, held the hose up high, and sprayed a fine mist into the air — with the sun right behind her back.
And there it was! A small rainbow, right there in the spray, arcing over the garden like a tiny bridge.
"Rainbow!" squealed Omie, clapping his hands. He ran through the mist, and the rainbow danced around him.
Irie sprayed again, and again, and each time the rainbow appeared, bright and perfect, just for them. Omie tried to catch it with his hands. The colors slipped right through his fingers, like light always does.
"Again! Again!" he shouted, and Irie laughed and sprayed one more time.
The Vanishing
But then the clouds drifted back across the sun, and the big rainbow in the sky began to fade. First the violet went, then the blue, then the green, until only a pale smudge of yellow was left. Then that was gone too.
"Rainbow gone," said Omie quietly.
"It didn't really go anywhere," said Irie. "It's just waiting. The next time it rains and the sun comes out, it will be back. Rainbows are like that. They come and go, but they always come back."
Back inside, they sat at the kitchen table with paper and crayons. Omie drew a big arc in red. Irie drew orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet, one stripe at a time, until their paper rainbow looked just like the one in the sky.
They stuck it on the fridge, right where everyone could see it.
And Irie never forgot the secret of the Vanishing Rainbow: a rainbow is not a bridge you can walk on, or a place where gold is hidden. It is sunlight, split into colors by the rain — a piece of magic that the sky makes just for you, whenever the sun and the rain decide to share the sky.
"Rainbow tomorrow?" asked Omie hopefully, as he climbed into bed.
"Maybe," said Irie. "If it rains, and then the sun comes out. Keep your eyes on the sky."
The End. The next time you see a rainbow, remember to check: is the sun behind you, and the rain in front of you? That's how you know it's real rainbow weather.