Buch lesen: «Chasing The Rainbow»

CHASING THE RAINBOW

PROLOGUE

Once upon a time there was a child named ... in reality his name is not really that important, because everyone knew him as ‘Spring Onion’. He had earned that nickname since the first day of school, more precisely at the time of the snack on the very first day of school! At the sound of the bell, his classmates had pulled out of their backpacks crackers, apples and bananas, snacks with all kinds of surprises and fruit juices. Instead he had placed on the counter a nice stuffed sandwich, crunchy and fragrant. He had unwrapped and had bit it, smiling, while everyone else looked at him in disgust. The acrid and intense smell of the freshly picked Onion had quickly invaded the classroom, the teacher and her companions ran while crying to open the window to catch their breath.

Spring Onion was rather skinny. Her hair was long, straight and thick, full of rebellious tufts. They were of such an odd reddish color that at times, depending on the light, they looked almost green. Her eyes were light brown, her face awash with freckles.

He had a close friend whom everyone called ‘Little Wheel’ ever since he was hit by a buggy a long time ago. But people didn't call him that because he ended up under the wheels of the cart, his nickname was due to the fact that since then he used a wheelchair to get around. In fact, even though a long time had passed since the accident, he said he had not yet recovered well. He said that his legs did not support him because they were stubborn and did not want to do their duty.

Little Wheel had a chubby face and a large cascade of black curls that almost completely covered his very dark eyes. He had also a plump body, in fact in addition to making little movement because he did not walk he was also a great glutton. Unlike children of his age, he ate everything, even salads and vegetables, and had not yet found a single recipe that he did not like.

Little Wheel and Spring Onion were good friends; they were always together and helped each other with their homework. Often they also had to defend and strengthen each other, when the other children made fun of them for their appearance or played some unsympathetic joke.

As in any school class, of course, there was also a slightly rascal child. He was tall enough, neither thin nor fat, his fine hair was very blond and his blue eyes so clear they looked like a patch of sky.

His classmates had nicknamed him ‘Little Spiteful’ because he was quite a scoundrel!

THE TEMPORAL AND THE RAINBOW

Spring Onion also had a five-year-old sister named Josephine. She had two beautiful blonde pigtails and a pointed nose, and above all her eyes and smile were those of a very sly. He always carried Emma, his inseparable favorite rag doll.

Spring Onion and Josephine lived on a beautiful farm on the top of Battered Knoll, a gentle hill on the edge of a beautiful wood that housed a pond teeming with minnows, ducks and frogs. However, we must say that the farm was no longer as beautiful as it once was. It had once been really beautiful, but lately Spring Onion's parents had neglected it a bit because they had less and less time and less money to do the maintenance. In fact, in the last few seasons the sky had turned out to be rather stingy with rain, and so, as if out of spite, the soil had refused to produce luxuriant plants and abundant crops as it once was.

But even if the fence was no longer as new and straight as it used to be, even if some windows were broken and occasionally it rained from the roof, Spring Onion and Josephine would never leave the Battered Knoll farm!

They wouldn't go away for anything in the world, they were delighted to live there and they knew they were very lucky. In fact, their school and playmates all lived in the nearby town called ‘Big Factory’, born a few years earlier together with the large car factory. They lived in small apartments located inside large buildings with small windows, like many bees in a hive, and most of them had never seen a hen or a hedgehog up close. And they probably hadn't even seen a nest in a tree, or a porcini mushroom. Indeed, they had certainly seen mushrooms: in the refrigerated counter of the huge supermarket that someone had thought seen fit to build together with the factory, the petrol stations and their beehive houses.

However, even though it was no longer new, their farm still had everything a real farm needs to have: there was a nice wood oven for baking bread and a small oil mill for making oil, there were the stables and a large barn, there was the stone well and finally there was the granary, from which the country mice peeped out from time to time. And then there were the tractor, the tool shed and many trees that gave them the sweetest fruits of all kinds and colors. But above all there were the animals, many animals.

There were two geese and a horse, two pigs and a spotted cow that gave them fresh milk every morning. And again goats and rabbits, a dog and a cat, birds of many breeds and hens who gave them eggs at will. And all around there were the cultivated fields, which changed color every season: from the burnished green of the spring cabbages to the bright yellow of the summer sunflowers, ending with the September orange of the Halloween pumpkins.

But although for the children this was a real paradise, lately their parents didn't seem very happy to be living in Battered Knoll! A few years earlier they had decided to leave the city to live in contact with nature; they had found that place and immediately fell in love with it. But that kind of life required many sacrifices, so they began to be tired of going to sleep in the evening and then get up before the crowing of the cock. Especially since getting good harvests was becoming more and more strenuous each year, so their enthusiasm diminished more and more as time passed.

In the evening, in front of the lit fireplace, Spring Onion had heard them talk more than once about the possibility of selling the farm and moving back to the city. But in the end they couldn't do it because they were too fond of the place and their animals. However, in short, life on the farm was no longer as peaceful and carefree as it once was.

Spring Onion and Josephine had understood the situation, so they did their best to help their parents. They had learned to milk the cow and groom the horse, to feed the pigs and chickens and to collect the eggs. They had even learned to make bread. For this reason, at times, Spring Onion was a little behind with the homework that the teacher assigned him.

Sometimes she scolded him for not having prepared properly but he did not get angry, on the contrary, he was happy because he knew he had taken some of the effort out of his parents. ‘It will be better next time’ he said to himself shrugging as he walked home pushing Little Wheels wheelchair.

But despite the help of Spring Onion and Josephine, lately their parents were more and more tired and nervous, in fact they sometimes quarreled in the evening. Not that they had become bad or that they no longer loved each other, or that they no longer loved him and his little sister. But that life, so tiring and stingy with satisfactions, had made them a little harder. Above all, they were disappointed, because their efforts were not rewarded by the results they expected and deserved.

Sometimes a small tractor failure was enough to put them in serious trouble, then all the heavy work fell to poor horse ‘Horace’, who was also a bit old. When he saw Spring Onion's father enter the stable dragging the yoke, he sighed in resignation, shaking his head slightly. ‘Again? When will you decide to buy a new tractor?’ he seemed to think looking at him.

Spring Onion would have liked to help his parents more, but he knew that his first job was school because he was still young. His father and mother had explained to him a thousand times that, if he had committed himself to school, when he grew up he could have chosen an important and satisfying job. Then, since he liked it so much, he could have bought his own farm if he wanted to. But he shouldn't have got up at dawn to look after the animals; there would have been people who did it for him. And he just could not understand this fact: ‘why spend so much money to buy a farm if you then pay someone to have fun with your animals in your place?’ he thought!

Sometimes he wished he was already grown up, he would have liked to earn a lot of money already to be able to help his parents. So they would work less and smile more. But even if in some moments he really wanted him so intensely, even if he tried to find an idea from time to time, he just wouldn't know how to get money.

His friend Little Wheels too would have liked to know how to find a lot of money. His parents both worked in the car factory, they were making great sacrifices to save the sum that would allow him to go to America for therapies, so that he could recover completely and walk normally again.

But the doctors who had examined him had all repeated the same thing: they were convinced that his legs worked perfectly, that the only thing not healed was his fear. Put simply, according to the doctors, Little Wheels legs refused to move because he feared that by walking again he might be hit again by a buggy.

The wheelchair, that now Little Wheels handled skillfully, had become his tank. For him it was his indestructible fortress, he felt sure of himself only when he was on board. However, his parents loved him so much that in order to see him go back to walking and running like other children they could really do anything. If someone had told them that to make him heal it was necessary to take him to the moon, they would have to take him there without hesitation!

As for Spittle ... well, he was a perfectly normal child. He did not live in the beehive but in a pretty house just outside the town. In fact, his father was a manager of the car factory and his mother was employed as a secretary in the same factory. So they had a nice house and a good job, and they didn't lack anything. At school, some said that she even had a large room of her own full of games, even the most modern ones. But no one had ever seen them, because he had never invited anyone to his house to do his homework and then play together.

And to be honest, if he invited some children to his house, he wasn't sure that they would accept the invitation. And so he spent most of his time alone, even Christmas and his birthday.

It was probably for this reason that he had a somewhat rogue character: although he had everything a child could wish for, he was bored to death. He had no brothers or sisters and had grown up with a slew of babysitters, who promptly quit their jobs after a while with an excuse, because he was too temperamental and spiteful.

Due to his way of doing, therefore, Little Spiteful had not yet managed to make friends. So, when he looked at Spring Onion and Little Wheels, he felt a little envious because those two seemed to him really inseparable. In those moments he realized that for him friendship with a capital ‘a’ was a real mystery, still to be discovered and tested. He would have liked to have a true friend too, maybe even more than one ... but he had no idea where to start making friends!

In short, for our friends, life in the town of Big Factory flowed fairly quietly, between ups and downs, until one morning something happened that would have prompted Spring Onion and the others to experience an unforgettable adventure.

That spring morning, while the teacher was doing a boring math lesson on the multiplication tables, the sky beyond the windows suddenly turned black. A carpet of dark threatening clouds, swollen and low, covered the entire horizon in a few minutes. A strong wind shook the trees for a while, frightening the birds, who went to take refuge under the sloping roofs. Then, suddenly, a strange silence fell and everything seemed to stop. The teacher, turned towards the blackboard, had not noticed anything. The children continued to look out the window with bated breath, worried, until out of blue they heard a tremendous roar. It had been so strong that those children had never heard of it in their entire life. That thunder had been the only warning of the terrible storm that broke out immediately after, which raged over the town for a few minutes: repeated thunder and lightning, and a rain so dense that prevented to see at an inch of the nose.

The teacher sighed resignedly, interrupted the explanation and went back to sit at the desk, in fact the rain was beating on the windows so hard that it even covered her shrill voice. The children were delighted to look outside; the whole country seemed to have disappeared. In a few minutes the deserted streets were covered with water, the school garden had become one large puddle and the Swing was moving by itself, pushed by the wind. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the storm ended. The wind blew away the few remaining clouds, while the first timid rays of the sun timidly returned to the world, making everything shine. The children continued to look outside for a few moments, fascinated, until the teacher called their attention with a cough.

She explained to the children that thunderstorms like that were rare, but that even though it frightened them, they were important and useful, especially now that it was spring. In fact, that was exactly the time when Mother Nature needed more water. Many animals were awakening from hibernation and were thirsty, the plants needed water to bloom, and those wonderful flowers were fed to the bees, which then made honey. Those same flowers in the summer would later become good and juicy fruits, and so on, in an endless chain. But Spring Onion already knew these things, so he got distracted and went back to looking out through the windows.

And unexpectedly, as if by magic, a rainbow materialized in the distance, it was so large and colorful as he had never seen.

"Ooooh!" he exclaimed aloud in astonishment. All the children turned to admire that riot of colors, fascinated, and began to comment on each other. The teacher understood that the math lesson was now over because she would not be able in any way to bring the children back to planet Earth, but instead of getting angry she decided to take advantage of the opportunity to teach them something new. So she took the selvedge and cleaned the blackboard, then took the colored chalk and drew a rainbow, the ends of which ended in two large pools of water. She took a step back and admired her drawing with satisfaction, then immediately took a breath and launched into a scientific explanation so complicated that it gave everyone a headache. The teacher talked about reflected light, the decomposition of colors and vaporized water drops, and they didn't understand anything.

Fortunately, after a few minutes the janitor Mario came to save them.

“Good morning, teacher, and sorry if I interrupt you. The secretary asked me to come and tell her there is a phone call for you," he said.

“Thanks Mario, I'll go now. Do you watch the children for me?" the teacher answered.

"I'll take care of it; don't worry ... even if there would be no need to check them because they are really smart!" Mario answered giving them a wink.

The teacher ran out and Mario looked at the children one by one with his usual mysterious look, smiling. Some of them looked down, they were a little afraid of him because they found him really strange. At first glance he looked very old, but his lively eyes that constantly ran here and there seemed like those of a young man. They only knew about him that he was always very kind and that he had worked there ever since the school was opened, many years ago, when the town was still only a very small country village. He lived alone in a small house in the woods just outside the town and he came to work riding a donkey named ‘Dunce’. This increased the aura of mystery that surrounded him.

"What do you think?" Mario asked pointing to the explanation of the rainbow on the blackboard.

"We didn't understand a dry fig," Spring Onion answered on behalf of all.

"It doesn't matter, that explanation is all wrong," Mario replied, looking at them seriously.

"What do you mean?" a little girl then asked, taking courage.

"Can I trust you?" Mario asked scrutinizing them again one by one, seriously. The children all nodded, curious and frightened at the same time, and then he told them about the pots overflowing with gold coins placed at the beginning and at the end of the rainbow.

"Come on, everyone knows it's just a legend!" said Little Wheels disappointed, he had expected who knows what.

"Do you really think so?" Mario replied, looking at him with conviction, then resumed telling. He told them that the rainbow was born every time the rain made the gold coins contained in the pots shine, and that those pots contained so many that it would take days and days to count them all.

Little Wheels asked him why no one had yet gone to take all that money, Mario replied that many had tried but that until then no one had succeeded. And this was logical, because if someone had taken all the coins, then that morning the rainbow would not have been there! So, until then, the gold coins still had to be safe in their ancient and huge pots.

Little Wheels asked how it was possible and Mario explained that, first of all, the treasure hunters had gone to look for them in the wrong place. They had searched for them on the surface when in reality the pots had been hidden in an underground world, just to prevent anyone from finding them.

They were kept in a secret place in the magical land of ‘Manymoney’, and finding the passage that led to that world was almost impossible. But even if someone had succeeded, to reach the pots he would have had to cross dangerous places and bewitched forests, populated by the strangest beings. And if that someone were lucky enough to be able to get to the pot, at that point he would have to contend with the elves that have always guarded the gold coins.

"Then finding the pots is impossible ..." Spring Onion commented disappointed. For a moment he had imagined going to get a lot of those coins, so he had could help his parents!

“It is not impossible but almost. There are many passages leading to that underworld, even in the woods around here. But assuming that you would find one, to succeed in the enterprise you would need to be determined and very courageous, because it is not a question of just taking a walk. For sure, the few who managed to find the passage returned empty-handed!" Mario explained.

"Have you ever tried?" asked him a child.

"For what? I have my donkey and my little house, I really wouldn't know what to do with all that money!" answered the janitor.

Immediately afterwards the teacher returned. Mario left and the children returned to look at the rainbow with dreamy eyes. That vision gave Spring Onion a beautiful feeling of lightness, which made him deeply happy for the rest of the day.

Unfortunately, however, that same evening something happened that made very sorry Spring Onion, that good feeling with which he had cuddled himself all day ran away like sand between his fingers. When they sat down to dinner, Josephine immediately had the feeling that something was wrong and looked worried at her brother. He thought that the atmosphere was due to the usual tiredness of the parents, so he told himself that there was nothing to worry about and smiled trying to reassure her. But Josephine had been right, because shortly after her parents began to quarrel. From their expressions and from some words, never heard before and almost incomprehensible, Spring Onion understood that it was not one of their usual passing outbursts. So he finished his dinner quickly and with the excuse of checking something he took Josephine away, he didn't want her to witness that bad fight.

Their parents continued to argue almost without realizing that the children had risen, Spring Onion took Josephine by the hand and accompanied her to her room. He closed all the doors he found along the way because he didn't want her to hear the noise her parents were making, he feared she would be frightened and have nightmares. She asked him questions; he minimized and tried to change the subject to reassure her. But in reality when she heard the sound of something breaking, perhaps a plate, he worried a little. To cheer himself up, he thought back to the rainbow of that morning and told himself that there was nothing to worry about.

If something so beautiful had been born from such a frightening storm, probably the same would have happened downstairs: maybe, after that outburst, his parents would have discovered that they loved each other more than they thought and that they were part of a beautiful and colorful family. Like that big rainbow.

Reassured by that thought, he involved Josephine in a game, and then told her the story of the pot full of gold until she finally fell asleep. Spring Onion realized that the noises below had stopped. He smiled at the thought of how adults were sometimes similar to children and fell asleep happily, sure that in the morning all things would be back in their place.

But the next morning, when he woke up, he found a nasty surprise!

Even if beyond the window the noises of the countryside were the same as ever, Spring Onion immediately realized that there was an unusual silence in the house. Thinking he had woken up too early, he checked his watch, saw that it marked seven o'clock like every morning and then he got up worried.

Josephine was still sleeping heavily, because she had fallen asleep very late the night before, so he went downstairs to see what had happened. He went into the kitchen and found that the table had not yet been set: instead of fruit juice, honey, biscuits, and everything else, there was only a letter on the bare table.

Suspecting it meant nothing good; he took it and ran to lock himself in the bathroom to read it. He opened it with his heart pounding, he wanted to read it quickly and put it back where he had found it because he was not sure he had permission to read it. On the paper, which his father had left for his mother, there were written several difficult sentences. After the first reading he rubbed his eyes and reread it again, because he wasn't sure he had understood correctly. After the second reading he sat on the toilet and swung his legs for a while, incredulous.

Then he shook himself and told himself that he should immediately take the letter back to where he found it, and then he would think about what to do. He folded the paper and put it back in the envelope, then left the bathroom and went into the kitchen to put it back in its place.

He reached out towards the center of the table, to place it exactly where he had found it, and there he found another surprise! Next to the letter he had just put back in its place, now there was also another one. He took it and ran back to the bathroom, and when he finished reading he swallowed several times to keep from crying. In practice, his father had left his mother a letter saying that since she accused him of thinking only about work and not helping her to do anything else, and of many other things as happens in quarrels between adults, then he would went back to live for a few days with her parents, so that she would notice the difference. And just at the same time, his mother had written his father a letter that said the exact same things.

‘And now who will think about the farm? And to the animals? And to repair the tractor? What about me and Josephine? Who thinks of us two?’ he wondered, but soon after he realized that those were too many questions all at once and that he shouldn't let fear take hold of him. ‘Now I have to take Josephine to kindergarten and then go to school, it is better for no one to notice what happened. They will certainly think again and they will both go home for lunch, if not, I will think about it when the time comes’ he said to himself to reassure himself. He thought that maybe, at worst, it would be enough to make two phone calls and his parents would go home.

‘What nonsense! Thinking about it, it is usually the children who run away from home, not the parents ... and then both together!’ he concluded shaking his head.

Meanwhile, it was very late and they still hadn't had breakfast. Spring Onion wanted to make sure that Josephine didn't notice anything, so as not to scare her, so he ran to prepare breakfast and snacks for school. He prepared everything exactly as his mother did, or at least that was what he thought he had done, and then went to wake Josephine. When they went down to the kitchen, Spring Onion realized that he had forgotten to remove the letters from the table.

"Where are dad and mom?" the girl asked puzzled.

"Instead of coming to have breakfast with us, they stayed out to work, because later they have to go to town for some commitment," Spring Onion replied. "But Mom left us breakfast ready," he added, pointing to the set table.

"Are you kidding me? Even Horace, that is a horse, would notice that mom has not prepared that breakfast!" she replied.

Spring Onion blushed, he was embarrassed and upset at the same time because he had worked so hard and believed he had managed to do a good job.

"What is written in those letters?" the little girl asked him.

"Nothing important. Come on, eat now or we'll be late” replied Spring Onion, but Josephine didn't take a step, she stood staring at him with her hands on her hips.

"I just told you, it says that mum and dad don't come for breakfast because they are busy," Spring Onion repeated, thinking that it was a real good thing that Josephine still couldn't read. To get her to stop thinking about it, he took the letters and threw them into the trash basket. "Now let's move, surely Little Wheels is already waiting for us and if he doesn't see us coming he will worry unnecessarily," he added then, but Josephine continued to study him seriously, without batting an eye.

"What have you got this morning? Come on, please ..." Spring Onion urged her again. Looking at her face he realized that her eyes were moist and her lips were trembling, she was about to cry because she was scared. Then Spring Onion bent down in front of her, but he didn't know what to invent to reassure her.

"They aren't gone forever, are they?" she asked him, thinking back to the last night's fight.

"What are you saying? Of course they haven't gone away forever! When we return from school we will find them here at the table waiting for us for lunch! Where do you think them could to go without us?” he answered.

"Do you promise me?" she insisted.

"I promise you," Spring Onion solemnly confirmed.

"Good!" then Josephine said, reassured, running to the table. A minute later she was humming and smiling as she fed Emma, Spring Onion wondered how she could change his mood so quickly.

CHASUNG THE RAINBOW

Every morning Spring Onion and Little Wheels met at the only crossroads that led to the village and went to school together, on the way they deviated a little to leave Josephine in kindergarten. Spring Onion saw Little Wheels at the usual corner at the end of the street and accelerated.

"But don't have you seen what time it is? I was about to leave alone!" his friend scolded him when they reached him.

"Sorry, it's my fault," said Josephine, then walked along the road hopping and throwing Emma into the air. Spring Onion grabbed the handles of the wheelchair and began to push hard.

"This morning you're silent, is there something wrong?" Little Wheels asked him.

"Now I can't talk about it, I'll tell you later, when Josephine isn't around," Spring Onion whispered in his ear.

Arriving in front of the crossroads that led to the kindergarten, Spring Onion stopped and looked thoughtfully at the clock, then checked the few meters that separated them from the entrance. The road, so narrow that cars could hardly pass it, was as empty as usual.

"You can count three times to ten, can't you?" he asked Josephine.

“Of course I can count to ten; I'm almost six year old by now! Why do you ask me that?" she replied.

"We are late; three times ten is precisely the number of steps missing at the kindergarten entrance. Do you feel to go alone?" asked Spring Onion to her.

"Okay, but please stay and watch me until I enter!” she asked him.

"I promise you," Spring Onion replied. Josephine walked off hopping while she counted aloud, keeping the sign with her fingers.

"We can go," Spring Onion said as soon as Josephine disappeared into the kindergarten garden, starting to push the wheelchair again, but as soon as he finished the sentence the sky darkened. The two realized that exactly what had happened the morning before was about to repeat itself, so they hurried to seek shelter.