arco iris

The boy watched the rise of the full moon across the little river, deep in the forest behind his home. He always loved watching the moon on the water, and the way the air turned silver under its light. It brought on a calm
unmatched by any other, a clear form of thought that wove its way into his being. He started out of his reverie at
the sound of a tiny twig snapping. His eyes roved over the trees by the river, searching for the source. He glimpsed the dark reddish-brown of a fox-tail for a second, before it slunk away. He blinked, for a second he
thought he'd seen a shimmering rainbow flow through the bushes, but on a second glance there was nothing
there. He thought his mind must be playing tricks on him.

      Back in his house, sitting in the kitchen the boy spoke of what he thought he might have seen, to his mother. She snorted, telling him "don't be ridiculous, my dear boy, there's nothing of the sort in our forest". He finished his
dinner and went to bed without another word about it. That night his dreams were filled with rainbow coloured
moons, and red-brown coloured skies. He woke confused and bedazzled all in one.

      He spoke about it again to his father at breakfast, and his father said, irritated "I would shoot one, as soon as I
saw one, m'boy! Eating our chickens, and what not". His mother rushed him off to school, bustling about his
packed lunch, making sure his uniform was clean.

      At school his thoughts were not on the calculus, or the english novel they were reading "1984", in his first two classes. Neither were they on his mates discussions during recess. By lunchtime his best mate Markus asked
him what was up. He felt somehow ashamed at the lie he told about his mother being sick, he felt that Markus would turn the events of last night into a joke, and he would do anything to avoid that. Markus remarked "I
thought you mgiht be in love, mate" and he smirked. The rest of the day passed quite slowly. The boy thought of all the memories of the forest where he and Markus had hung about countless times. Never before had he seen
anything so beautiful. He thought maybe he was in love, but it made him feel stupid, how could anybody love a
glimpse of something in the dark?

  The days and weeks passed, as the boy went to school, kept his grades up for his mother, helped his dad set the traps around their property, and generally watched time slide past. That glimpse of ethereal beauty slipped his mind, until one night when the moon was out again, and all was calm inside, he went for a walk through the forest. The trees were tall and silent as usual, and the wind whispered through the leaves. And then all at once, he came face to face wtih a pair of strikingly clear green eyes, and he couldn't pull his gaze away. The fox's eyes bled wisdom and beauty like the moon instilled calm. Her fur was such a deep red brown colour, she almost blended entirely with the trees, and night air around her. Then she vanished around the closest tree, and somehow in doing so her body turned into a water-like ripple of the brightest rainbow he'd ever seen. After the fox had left the boy stood there, rooted to the spot, unable to believe what he had just seen. It took some time
before he turned around to head back home. This time he resolved to tell no-one about what he'd seen, he
would sound crazy, and he didn't want that. Yet because he told no-one, his mind was so full of the experiences
he'd had, that nothing else seemed important. The boy began to forget his homework, forget to listen in class, or
to his mates at school. All that seemed important was planning his next trek out into the forest while the moon
was up. He began to live for the moments in the forest with the fox, his thoughts began to centre around
nothing else. You could say he was obsessed, or perhaps possessed. Who knew? He certainly didn't know what
was happening.

     The years passed and as the boy grew more and more attached to the encounters with the fox, so he began
to grow into a strong young man. His shoulders broadened, his voice deepened, and his muscles began to fill out.
However as he grew, he began to see less and less of the fox. And as the fox slowly began to dissappear from his
life, and the forest, the little boy's heart still lived within, aching for another sighting of the fox, if that was what
she was.

     It became expected of him to get a girlfriend, but no beauty in this world compared to waht he'd seen. He
went through girlfriend after girlfriend as he knew he should, but felt no true love for them. It was a lonely life.
He followed his father and became a carpenter.

     But then one day at the hairdresser, his eyes locked with those clear green eyes again, except this time they
were in the face of a woman. The new hairdresser. Her face was sharp, and her hair that same deep red-brown.
The boy almost couldn't speak, he couldn't believe it. Yet no one else at the hairdresser seemed to be aware of
her beauty. They treated her like any common hairdresser. As she cut his hair he watched the smooth ripple-like
movement of her hands, and listened to her deep voice, and her bark of laughter. He was enthralled, he'd found
her again!

     He asked around, to see if anyone knew any more about her than he did. No one seemed to know anything,
and no one seemed to care either.

     Next time he was due for a haircut he made sure the appointmet was as late as possible, and the rest of his
night was free. After she'd finished with his hair he paid. Somehow he managed to linger behind, talking to her
about his life and so on, until she was closing up shop. He walked out of the shop with her and asked if she'd like
to go for a walk with him. It was a clear night, with a full moon, and everything was going to plan. The man
wanted to see if this woman had the same rainbow magic as the fox had at night. While they walked he did his
best to find out about her background. But all his questions were met with unsatisfactory answers. She'd moved
around a lot, so ahd no home town, she kept no contact with any family, or friends, in short he came to the
conclusion that she was just as lonely as he. Then as she bade him goodnight and walked away, he noticed the
water-like shimmer of the rainbow between her slim fingers as she moved, and he shivered as a peculiar feeling
rushed through him.

     Again the man's life changed, he began forgetting all sorts of things, stopped listening properly to his friends,
or his parents, and once again he lived for the times he spent with the woman.

     After his sixth or seventh haircut they began dating, and he began to get to know her likes and dislikes, her
ups and downs, and she his. This time he was truly in love, and he would have done anything for the woman. She
loved the way he treated her, as no one else seemed to give her a second glance. His mother didn't much
approve, as she couldn't find any information on her background or her family at all. His father could see how
happy they were together and wasn't much fussed about anything else.

     The time soon came when they were to be married, and by then the man's mother had all but adopted the
woman as her long-wished for daughter. The bridesmaids, and the flower girls all of course came from his side of
the family, and the ceremony was to be a traditional one, inside a church, as his mother wished. The woman
managed to find a dress made of the most beautiful silk the man had ever seen. It seemed to be the closest
physical thing, except the woman herself, to the ripple-like rainbow of her movements. The day the family shared,
was one of the most joyous in the man's life. His parents were very proud.

     As the man and woman's life together passed, the closer they grew. They had children, and they watched
them grow up. They let them move out, and find their own lives to be lived. And through it all the man and
woman lived with grace. They shared their secrets lovingly, and their wisdom grew. The woman never lost her
clear green beauty, or her wisdom, and the man never lost his calm, as they endulged themselves from time to
time with a walk through the forest at night under a full moon.

Fin.