At the end of the rainbow

At the end of the rainbow
By Alexandra Riera
© 2007 Alexandra Riera

"Have you got everything darling?" Nadine asked her husband as she examined the packed suitcases on their king sized bed.


"Yes, I don’t need much anyway; just a couple of t-shirts, an extra pair of underpants, some trousers, a toothbrush and definitely an extra pair of boots." Justin answered her as he stuffed all the mentioned items in a little rucksack.


"You’re going to need more than that where we’re going Justin" she said huffily.


"If you’re going to take all that stuff with you, I’ll need my energy just to carry everything you’ve got there; I don’t want to waste my energy taking more things than I really need. You should just take a rucksack with you, just like me. You see?" he said as he put his rucksack on his back. "I’m ready for action my love".


Nadine decided to ignore him. Men; they never thought ahead of the day they lived, she thought. She was usually left to do all the thinking and planning. She had spent two months planning this event. They would wait for a rainy day and then they would set off. They had to have everything ready for when it started raining; that meant that she, at least, would have to have two of every item she intended to carry, one for her personal use until the big day came and another lot to take with her. The trip might end up being short or long but she wasn’t going to take any chances. Today was packing day. The day everything was supposed to be ready and stored away in an accessible place in their house just in case they had to make a run.


"Right; we should put all this in the hall, just by the door" she said as she heaved one of her suitcases onto the floor.


"In the hall?"


"Yes, it will be the easiest place for us to get our things from if we have to come home to get it all first."


"But…" Started to say Justin.


"Shhh…, just leave the planning to me darling, you know I know best. Don’t argue with me honey, it’s no use. You know you’ll do exactly as I say.., there, there", she said as she stroked his hair. On second thoughts, Nadine kissed him and pinched his bottom for good measure. How easy it was to keep him happy, she thought. "Come on; help me get all this downstairs then".


Justin helped Nadine carry all her suitcases downstairs to the hall. What she had put in there, he didn’t know but what he knew is that at least the kitchen sink wasn’t missing because he saw it when he went to make himself a cup of coffee when he finished carrying all the luggage downstairs by himself.


"I’m making some coffee, darling, would you like some?" He shouted from the kitchen a few minutes later.


"No, thank you" she shouted back, "I’ll have a freshly squeezed orange juice and some cheese on toast please… You make it so delicious." She said as she got into the kitchen. She took a little wooden stool from under the kitchen table and sat looking at her nails as Justin prepared things.


"We should get some horses, now that I think of it, Justin. They would come in useful, you know?"


"Why would we need horses if we have cars?" asked a befuddled Justin.


"What if the car doesn’t start up if we’ve got to rush?"


"Can you imagine how long we would have to have the horses here? It never rains here Nadine. What about the neighbours? I don’t think we’d be allowed to keep a horse, never mind two horses at the front of the house. Or…. Do you intend to place them in our kitchen?


"We could build some stables, or better still; we could buy the pre-made stables I saw on one of those pamphlets we get through the door. Hang on, I don’t think I’ve thrown it away.." she said as she got up, "I’m going to have a look… I think I left it by the barbecue".


Justin was usually quite good at burning toast in spite of having a digital state of the art toaster so he didn’t follow her; he was in charge of the toast, he wanted to get it right this time, he didn’t want to have her nagging at his burned out toast when she came back.


"Justin!... Justin!..... Come….. quickly!" he heard her shout from outside.


Justin left the toast and ran outside, the strong wind hit him in the face and when he regained his composure he saw that the sky was dark and was getting darker by the second. "Nadine! Are you alright?" he shouted as he made his way towards the barbecue.


"Help me Justin, my dress is caught on the barbecue and I’ll break it if I pull away…" she told him as he came close to her.


Justin untangled her dress from the barbecue and she kissed him with an unexpected fury. He wasn’t about to complain about the kiss, he liked her kisses, especially because they came in small doses and usually only after an exciting event. This was an unexpected event for her. He was sure she felt as the typical lady in distress that is rescued from danger by her handsome prince; in this case her loving husband. Never mind if the toast was burning by now; he would indulge. He kissed her back and pushed himself against her as he started lowering the straps of her dress.


"Hey! What are you doing Justin? This is no time for kissing games…. Look at all those clouds, it’s bound to rain; come on, let’s get our stuff." She told him as she pushed him away and took him by the hand.


She led the way back to the house and when they opened the door they were hit by black smoke coming out of the kitchen. Justin swallowed hard; damn, he should have turned the toaster off before going to her rescue. Flames started to come out of the toaster so Justin threw a kitchen towel over the toaster to smother the flames but it had the opposite effect, the flames grew bigger.


"Just leave that Justin, never mind the toast!" she shouted. "We have to go!" she told him as she pulled him out of the kitchen by the arm.


"The house will burn darling."


"Never mind the house, we have to go!"


When they reached the hall they found that all of their luggage was soaked as water had come into the house. It had suddenly started raining heavily and they had left the door opened.


"It’s raining! Justin, it’s raining! Finally!" she said as she jumped up and down splashing water all over. "Come on, let’s get out, quick, the suitcases...We should have left them in the car; now they’re wet." She hurriedly put her little back pack on her back and motioned for him to do the same. Water was coming into their house more fluidly now and the suitcases were wetter and heavier.

"We should leave the suitcases Nadine, they’re too heavy." He said as he picked up two suitcases.


"No, no, come on, I’ll help you." She said as she dragged one of the other suitcases outside their house. She made her way towards her car and then heaved the suitcase in the back seat.


"Hey, the suitcases go in the car boot, you’ll get the seats wet." He told her as he came after her carrying the two suitcases.


"Yes, I know but I need to get changed; I can’t go traipsing around wearing this flimsy dress. I’ll only be a minute." She said as she was already getting clothes out of her suitcase. Her little rucksack already discarded on the car floor.


An hour; is what Justin thought. She was choosing what to wear and that would take some time; then she’d probably decide to re-do her make up for the special occasion too and that would probably take another half an hour. By the time they could leave, the water will probably have reached the top of the tires. It was simply pouring down. Most unusual. He decided to go on and bring the rest of the suitcases to the car; he would take his time as she tended to take longer if she was distracted. When he finished, he went into the car and sat in the driver’s seat. She still hadn’t finished. He waited… and waited with all the patience he could arm himself with.


"You should get changed too darling", she said as she handed him some clothes. "I’ve brought you some clothes."


"I think we should just go before it gets any worse." He said as he took the clothes and left them on the dashboard.


"Why did you start the car Justin?" she suddenly said angrily. "Can’t you see I’m doing my make up?"


"I didn’t, the water is driving."


"What?"


Justin was exasperated. Why on earth did he end up with this mad woman? Why did he have to agree to this silly idea of hers? He opened the car door and got out; then he opened her door at the back and pulled her out by the arm.


"We have to get out of here you silly cow!" he shouted at her.


"Who did you call a silly cow?" she asked him as she struggled to break free of him. "How dare you?"


"I did and I’ll tell you again if you like", he answered angrily. "You…."

Just then the water moved the car a bit further and the car door almost hit Nadine. Justin pulled her away seconds before she was hit.


"I’ll forgive you anything Justin," she said as she clung onto his neck, "you’re my hero!"


This time it was him who tried to pull away from her. "Nadine, this is no time for kissing and games, we have to go" he said as he pointed at the water that was now reaching their knees.


"What about the car?..... my suitcases….. my make up?"


"Never mind all that, here, put this back pack on your back and let’s go, we’ll have to walk."


"Swimming would be better, if you ask me."


Justin led the way until Nadine overtook him, she had plunged into the water and half swam, half ran until she was in front of him. "Look, look, Justin, a newspaper," she said as she struggled to reach the floating newspaper before it went away.


Justin still couldn’t figure her out. Here they were in the middle of an unexpected flood and instead of trying to get out of it she was reaching for a newspaper as if it was the most important thing in the world. The most important thing was getting to where they were going to. But he followed her.

Aproximately an hour later, the heavy rain turned into a drizzle and clouds suddenly became lighter. The sun appeared shyly from behind the grey clouds and sent its tentacly beams towards them.



"Yeeeee haaaaa!" Nadine shouted, "The rainbow should be here any minute now." She was waiving the wet newspaper about as if to call onto the sun.



"What are you doing Nadine?"


"I’m calling the rainbow."


"What? With the newspaper?"


"Why not? I don’t have anything else at hand. Look, look it’s forming over there, let’s not waste anymore time darling, let’s follow that rainbow and find the coffer full of gold."


"Yes darling, you lead the way; I’ll just follow you." He said quietly.


Nadine waddled in the direction of the rainbow, intent on getting to the end of it but Justin simply turned around and left her to pursue that silly dream of hers. When she had told him that she wanted to go to the end of the rainbow and find that legendary chest of gold, he had thought she was speaking metaphorically and now he felt a fool. He had played along her games for so long that he had actually thought this idea was just another way of making their lives more exciting. He hadn’t realised she was actually serious about this one.


The end
(2047 Words)
© 2007 Alexandra Riera