1Little Edward Young was a boy of four when he had his first experience with loss. He was playing in the yard just out front of his home. Mother and father were inside, having coffee and smiling as they watched him from the window with the door open. Skip, the young Cocker Spaniel puppy that was a gift for his birthday just a week ago, gave a weak bark before plowing into the little boy. They rolled and ran in the small yard for what may have seemed like an eternity together.
The pair found themselves playing with a bouncing ball just big enough for the pup to fit in its mouth. In the falling sun's rays, the bright green orb was becoming the only thing that Edward could find his friend by. He made a grasp for the ball and pup all at once. The dog, narrowly dodging the friendly swipe, dropped the ball into the swing, sending the little green thing flying.
Edward watched it arc through the air, landing just past the yard and onto the sloped driveway. It bounced once, twice, three times more, gaining less space with each bounce, but then on the fourth, it began to go in the direction of the street. The boy felt movement near his legs, and began to look about for his dog, but couldn't see him. He looked back to the driveway, and could make out a small blot that was darker than the concrete, hobbling after the green ball. He only smiled, then got to his feet and went after his little friend.
The entire neighborhood knew each other. This small community was one of the reasons his parents had moved there before he was born. Everybody was like family to him, and he was allowed to play at his leisure as was every other child in the area. It had been that way for years. Everybody who lived in this place understood that, and so understood very well how careful to be when driving the streets here. Today though, it wasn't the Robinsons, Smiths, Moores, Browns, or even the Coulters who came around that turn that they all knew. It was a pair of teenage friends who took a very wrong turn onto a street they had no business being on.
The green ball had managed to bounce clear across the street and into a neighbor's yard before Skip managed to snag it. Edward was at the top of the driveway calling to his pup and the two headed for each other at the same instant. If Skip had been a disobedient puppy, or even one who was hesitant, then it may have been his master in the middle of the street when it happened. As it all turned out, Edward was at the bottom of the driveway, and ready to take his step into the street to greet his black furred friend when a car rounded the corner at a speed far too fast.
The teens barely felt anything in their car. They stopped and looked in their rearview, but seeing that the boy was ok, they put on the gas, and continued their search as if nothing ever happened. Something had happened. Edward stared into the middle of the street as a little green ball rolled to his feet. He picked it up, and rolled it in his hand. Did the ball always have red on it, he wondered to himself. Looking on the still form of his dear friend, he clenched the little rubber mass hard and took two steps closer.
"Skip." He said.
The dog didn't make a sound.
"Skip." Edward whispered, taking one last step to be standing just over his fallen puppy.
The dog didn't crane its head to look at him. It just lay, strangely flat and stared ahead at the driveway, or something beyond it. Edward kneeled and tried patting his dog's head. It was still so hard to see.
The lights along the street and from each of the houses began to blink lazily on, illuminating the neighborhood in artificial brightness.
"Edward?"
He heard the voice of his mother, but it seemed very distant right now. He could feel the vibrations of both of his parents' foot steps coming down the driveway, but he was still distracted.
"Edward?"
He turned his head to face his mother. She gasped, as she got a full look at Skip, and the pieces of him that trailed a little further up the road. Her son's face was drenched in tears, sweat, and mucus. Once the lights had come on, he finally understood what had happened. His friend wasn't going to ever answer his call again.
The following days, he spent the most time in his room crying. His mother wept too, but she had his father for comfort. He didn't feel like either of them could comfort him. Oh she had tried, and he did feel a little better at that time, but now he was just miserable as he waited. On the second week of his mourning, his wait was over.
It had rained, and as the storm was subsiding, he spotted it. There was a rainbow. His hopes returned to him and he quickly put his shoes on, and went out towards the grove at the end of the street where the base of the rainbow hit. On and on he ran as fast as his tiny legs would take him. No matter how much he ran though, the rainbow didn't seem to get any closer. He didn't understand why. He ran on until he no longer could. Falling to his knees, he cried.
His mother had followed him out once she spotted the rainbow herself. Now she looked upon him and wondered if she had done the right thing. At the time it cheered him up, and it was just something that came to her to say. It was all to comfort her sweet little boy. She couldn't bear seeing him like this anymore. He must have heard her coming, for he wasn't surprised when he felt her arms around him. Instead he simply turned and buried his face in her breast as she carried him home.
In the years that followed, Edward's mother would wonder ever more about what she told him as a child. She had only wanted to comfort her boy in any way she could think of. She said that rainbows were like a bridge to heaven. They held hopes and dreams and wishes, and helped the souls of the people they loved get to the pearly gates. Since that time, he developed a strange obsession with rainbows. The state of this obsession began to lessen over time, but only became worse with the passing of the eleventh day in September.
It had happened early in the morning. His mother shook him awake and kept him home from school. They both sat in front of the television, entranced by what they saw. Flame and smoke and crumbling buildings. They grasped each other watching each story collapse on another below it. Their cordless phone was sitting on the table in front of them. They had been calling people ever since they first received the news, but now, they were waiting. Fear grew with every passing minute. When the footage repeated itself for what may have been the twentieth time, the phone rang.
Edward's mother couldn't move at first. They had been waiting for the phone call, but, almost dreaded it all the same. She was frozen. Edward made a move for the phone by the fourth ring, which roused his mother into grabbing it. She listened closely, and the boy merely watched her face as it grew more dark. Tears flooded her eyes, and she didn't bother talking, but just dropped the phone and buried her face in her hands. Edward, now nine, knew what had happened, and broke down as well. The two spent many hours locked in each others arms, sharing the agony over losing their husband, father, their beloved.
Edward got made fun of a lot in school. Since his father died, his obsession with rainbows became an oddity to his classmates. Even, or perhaps, especially, on the day of his high school graduation, it had rained hard before the actual ceremony, and it was all that he could do to not leave entirely for the first rainbow he saw. It just looked so close, but to his mother's relief, he was stopped. If it had only been up to him, the ceremony would have been a lost cause. But he wasn't alone. Sitting next to him waiting for his name to be called, was Rebecca White. Ignoring the alphabetical order of things, she arranged to have her seat next to him for this time. At that point, it somewhat seemed a moot point to begin with as their names were going to be one relatively soon anyways.
She saw the look in his eyes when he spotted the tail of a rainbow seemingly appear at the top of the bleachers of the football field. They had already talked about it all before. Unknown to Edward, she had even talked to his worrisome mother about his "condition" to great lengths as well. It had mostly been subdued, due in no small part to Rebecca's role in his life. However, it was understandable that this one seemingly so close, would have an effect on him. Still, he understood that it was going to soon be time to forget about the pursuit of rainbows.
He was now twenty-three. The roads were slick with rain, and his windshield had fogged up considerably. Water ran down the glass as it did his own eyes. He wasn't heading anywhere in particular. He just had to drive. He just needed to drive. All the while he was still going over the events in his head. He heard the doctor's voice over and over again.
"Nothing we can do."
Edward couldn't grasp the idea that in this day and age, there was no way to save her. How in today's world, with all the technology, and science at our disposal, could a woman still die during childbirth? Now he was alone. His mother tried again to comfort him once Rebecca was put to rest, but he couldn't give her the chance. It had been years since he last even thought about a damned rainbow. He had to get away.
He could still see her face. The last look on his dear Rebecca's face was full of sadness, and pain. She was bleeding so much, and so very afraid. She kept asking about the baby. He could do nothing but stand by and watch. He ran through that day endlessly. He wanted that day back. He wanted his wife, he wanted his father, he wanted all the things he had lost, that he loved so much, to come back. As he raced up the slippery cliff, there was a light coming from the passenger side window that caught his eye.
He was in a state of disbelief. What little concentration and mind he put into the road and his driving, had totally drained from him, just long enough to drift into the other lane. A loud honking noise entered his ears, and he jerked the wheel moments before he would otherwise have plowed right into another car. He lost control, and hydroplaned. The barrier at the side of the road broke apart like it wasn't even there, and now, Edward was looking straight at what had distracted him once again. His eyes fixed on the prismatic colors moments before blacking out.
The first thing that roused him, was a smell. The smell of wet grass, and a fresh rain. Next came the feel of soft earth beneath him as he was laying out in a field. He could taste something that felt very much like jam. There was a sweetness that tingled all over his taste buds, revitalizing him. Next came a sound. There was the melodic chirping of what seemed like hundreds of birds. Then, a laughter. Something seemed familiar about it at first, but then what brought him around fully, was the laughter, of a child. He opened his eyes quickly now, and through blurry vision, saw first his hand laying next to his face.
Edward slowly pushed himself off the soft earthen floor, and stood up. He didn't understand where he was. It looked familiar in so many ways, yet he knew he had never been to this place before. It was very much like the grove back in his childhood home, but with so much more space, and trees that it took his breath away. The sound entered his ears once more, and he locked onto it.
As he made his way through the grove, it turned into a forest. This too was familiar. It seemed so very much like the one he had made his proposal to Rebecca in. He made his way through the trees, noticing as he touched some, that a great warmth was put off by each. As he looked to his feet, he noticed that things were not of a normal color. Actually, the grasses he walked through, and even most of the leaves of the surrounding forest were all an amazing array of multiple colors. With each step he took, a ripple seemed to shoot out among the grass like water, changing the color scheme along with it.
He had no clue how long he had been walking, but finally, he was coming into a lighted area as he made his way through the trees. He was blinded temporarily and as his eyes adjusted to the incredible luminescence, there was a cool breeze that drifted across his face, sending a tingle through his body. The trees faded away, almost as if they were never there to begin with, and the grass at his feet transformed instantly into a meadow of colorful flowers of every genus. He had never seen a display so beautiful. He ran his hands through the flowers and breathed deeply the fresh air that blew all around him.
There was a shuffling that came from behind, causing him to turn. The wind stopped glowing, and everything in the meadow grew very still. Edward's breath was caught in his throat, and his eyes began to flow freely with tears. He took one step forward, and began to reach a hand out. As it was suspended there, in mid air, another hand came forth, and joined his. He grabbed onto it tightly, to make sure that it was there. When he felt flesh, his knees buckled.
He looked up into those deep brown eyes, as he used to when he was young, and saw wisdom, and power, and warmth once again. He was nine years old again, and his father wrapped his strong arms around his boyish frame and held him. He wept freely now and kissed his father. His father broke their embrace, and held his hand down to Edward, who was now a man again, to help him to his feet. He smiled, and accepted his father's hand. Now standing, they were eye to eye. Both men held large smiles on their faces, though Edward was the only one who had tears in his eyes.
His father put one powerful hand on his shoulder, and nodded past him. Edward was reluctant to take his eyes off of his father, but did as he called for. He turned, and his eyes grew wide. His father's hand slid off his shoulder, but he didn't feel it. He broke out into a run, up a small slope, faster than he had ever run in his life. When finally he came to the top, he threw his arms around the figure standing there. Rebecca responded in kind. Together they circled in each other's arms. Edward would have gladly remained like that for the rest of his days, but being the sensible one as always, she broke away a little. He felt his father's presence just behind him and looked over his shoulder with a smile, as there he was.
Edward's gaze traveled back to his lover. Their eyes met, and his wife guided his own down. His eyes followed the line from her neck to her shoulder, then down her arm, past the elbow and down to her small hand. There was something there that she held. He looked closer, straining his eyes, then suddenly, Rebecca shifted to one side, and he could see more clearly what was in her hand. It was another. Her hand held that of a smaller one. He followed this little hand, to a thin arm that led behind his lover's back. He looked back into her eyes and then down again. From behind her, stepped a girl. She couldn't have been more than five years old. Her blond hair fell about her fragile shoulders and she smiled at him.
"Daddy." The girl said.
He held his arms open, and she eagerly jumped into them. He squeezed her tight, and soon his beloved wife, and dear father both joined in the family embrace. He felt a small wiggling thing between him and his daughter. He looked, and bundled in her little white gown, there was the form of a small black puppy. Skip looked up at him with the same eyes it had when he first met it, and gave a weak bark. Tears came to his eyes again, and he laughed and wept all at the same time. They were all there. They were all together. His hopes, his prayers, his wishes, in an instant, they were all granted. Finally, the family was whole. This time forever.
Edward's mother had exhausted herself the first few days in the hospital, crying over her son as he lay comatose in a bed. There were tubes protruding from all over his body, and his face had grown pale but for the wild growth of unchecked facial hair. She was left to wonder what she could do to have comforted him. She was left to wonder what she could have done different, to keep her son, to keep her family. Before being overtaken by emotion once more, she looked out the window and paused. She got from her seat, and closed the distance to the glass, and looked out. It hadn't rained since the day Edward had his accident. You would never guess such a thing at this moment though. She marveled at the sight of it. Never before had she seen such a beautiful rainbow. And never before had she ever seen one that appeared so close as this one did at this very moment.