Jet didn’t have to ask his parents’ permission, for his father lived many miles away, and his mother was driving a bus downtown. Victor never asked anyone’s permission, for his parents were dead, and his foster home enforced few rules. When Ava asked her mother whether she could go, the question was relayed to her father, who glanced only briefly from his pile of papers. “It sounds like a good lesson in disappointment,” he said.
That made three ready adventurers. They departed in the afternoon, under a warm August sun and a scenic sky. Victor wore a backpack full of water bottles and snacks. The others carried only their confidence, which could be heard in their footsteps as their shoes tapped the sidewalk and in their voices as they discussed their destination.
“I think there’s a pot of gold,” said Jet. “Maybe guarded by a leprechaun or something.”
“That would be wonderful!” said Ava, and she eyed the shimmering semicircle with a new fascination.
“Why would there be a pot of gold?” said Victor.
Jet thought for a moment. “Well, in the movies there’s always a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Sometimes there’s a leprechaun too.”
“So?” said Victor. “They can put whatever they want in movies. Movies are full of things that don’t exist.”
“Yeah,” said Jet, “but I still think there’s a pot of gold.”
The three came to a busy road and waited to cross. Ava was upset by something. Both the boys discerned this easily, for when Ava was troubled she scrunched up her face and stared hard ahead.
“What’s wrong?” asked Jet.
Ava’s complaint tumbled out at once. “My brother said the closer we get to the rainbow, the further it’ll seem, and eventually it’ll just disappear! He said there were angles and droplets…and prisms!”
“What are you talking about?” said Jet. “Those words even sound hokey. Your brother can tell some serious tales.”
But the mention of distance had clearly activated something in Jet, for now he was narrowing his eyes and focusing more intently on the left base of the arch. It touched down somewhere very far, beyond even the furthest buildings and streetlights. He wondered how long they had been waiting at the road.
“There’s nothing hokey about angles and prisms,” said Victor. “But they’ve got nothing to do with rainbows. We’ll reach it. We’ll see it up close and run around it. You’ll touch it, if you want. I don’t know exactly what we’ll find there, but it will be beautiful, and it can be reached.”
“You’re sure?” said Ava.
Victor looked firmly at the vivid streak against the azure. “Fifty dollars if I’m wrong,” he said. The statement was quite impactful because he had revealed to her only yesterday that fifty dollars was all he owned, and with the breeze stirring his hair dramatically, it was more than enough assurance for both his friends. The last car rolled by and he led them through the vacant street.
They continued on as their shadows grew longer in front of them and the houses changed around them. Once Victor stopped to announce that they were officially further than anyone had expected them to go. He said this with faint appreciation, and it invigorated the group terrifically.
Eventually their path came to the foot of a high hill. The slant obstructed the horizon so that the distance of the rainbow was difficult to gauge.
“Look there!” said Jet. He pointed, and the trio halted. “I think it’s falling on that guy!”
There was a man at the peak of the incline, standing slightly hunched and holding a large cardboard sign. From the angle of the children, he seemed directly within the rainbow.
“And look: he has a big black bowl,” said Ava. “It’s the pot of gold! We made it to the bottom! We really found the bottom of the rainbow!” She clenched her hands together and jumped up and down.
Victor spoke quickly. “No. I don’t think so.”
“Looks like the bottom to me,” said Jet.
“It’s behind him,” said Victor. “C’mon. You’ll see.”
Jet and Ava followed him up the hill at a brisk pace. Near the top, it became clear that Victor was right. They saw the arc landing far in the distance. Jet made a sound of exasperation. Victor said nothing and kept walking.
Ava sighed. “Not the bottom of the rainbow,” she said.
As they went over the hill, the man with the sign watched them curiously. He was old and missing teeth. Victor and Jet passed him with averted eyes, but Ava stole a glance into his bowl. It contained a five-dollar bill and a few grimy quarters. The coins dazzled in the late afternoon light, but no one would mistake them for gold.
“Definitely not the bottom of the rainbow,” Ava said when they were out of earshot.
Then three things changed. First, the sky was ablaze with the fire of sunset. From pink to orange to fading blue, it was a rainbow in itself. Second, the town was replaced with another, unlike any the children had seen. Here the houses were large and few, and they threw wide shadows over empty yards. Third, Jet began looking backward as often as forward, and he asked repeatedly about the time.
Finally, on one such inquiry, Victor had enough. “Why do you care what time it is?” he demanded.
“We’ve been gone for hours,” Jet said. “My Mom’s gonna kill me, and besides, the rainbow’s fading.” He pointed glumly. “Look, I’m sure Ava won’t make you pay the fifty dollars. Let’s head back before we’re in even bigger trouble.”
Something shifted in Victor’s eyes. “The rainbow’s only fading because it blends in with the sky, and you’re right that I won’t pay the fifty dollars—because we’re going to make it. Don’t you see? We have to!”
Victor’s posture made it apparent that he would not turn around. Jet glanced miserably behind. The world was a labyrinth of ash trees, stop signs, and newly illuminated streetlamps. He did not know north from south, so he pushed aside visions of his mother’s wrath and forced more steps from his tired legs.
The world darkened and cooled. The sidewalk and neighborhood ended. After brief hesitation, the group abandoned the security of concrete for the rustle of grass.
As the houses shrank behind them, Ava made a game of counting firefly flashes. But her voice was sleepy, and soon, with a sigh, she stopped. Jet pointed out that the rainbow had vanished as the sun had gone down, but Victor countered that it was hidden behind the clouds. No one else spoke until they halted before a thick forest.
“I don’t like it,” Ava said. She peered down the narrow trail in front of them. In the darkness, the trees seemed to open around the path like the mouth of a cave.
“From the way the rainbow was falling, I guarantee you we’ll find it in this forest,” Victor declared.
“Really?” Ava asked excitedly, and the concern disappeared from her face.
But Jet was standing further back from the trees, watching them warily. “Victor,” he said, “we have no idea what’s in there.”
“I just told you what’s in there,” Victor said. “Let’s go.” He led Ava onto the path before Jet could say anything else.
Slowly, they wound their way into the woods. Jet helped Ava over fallen logs. In some places, they had to push aside the underbrush. Their clothes kept getting snagged on thorns.
Jet looked around uneasily, but as they got deeper in, he had to admit there was something magical about the forest. All around them, nocturnal insects hummed a strange and constant chorus, and moonlight pierced the canopy in geometric shafts.
“Well,” he said, “If we are gonna reach the bottom of the rainbow, I guess it makes sense for it to be in a place like this.”
“Exactly,” said Victor.
They pushed on.
Once, the branches above them opened, exposing the star-studded sky.
“I’ve never seen a rainbow at night before,” said Ava. But she had now, for it was clearer than ever—strikingly radiant and nearly opaque—before the navy backdrop of the sky.
“It’s because you have an early bedtime,” said Victor. “You’re usually asleep.”
Even Jet stared up at the rainbow admiringly. For a moment, it wasn’t obvious that he was tired and afraid.
Finally, the trio pushed through a wall of leaves into a grassy clearing, and just like that, their journey ended. Six shoes halted. Three jaws went slack. Six wide eyes reflected an otherworldly iridescence.
The rainbow was a tube rather than a ribbon. It was wider in diameter than Jet, Victor, and Ava standing side-by-side. Its nearest base rested on a slight hill, shedding a pool of soft white light that filled the clearing. The rest arced away into the distance.
Ava was the first to touch it. She ran without reluctance to the shining pillar of color and thrust her hand into it. Her expression was joy when she felt it. “It’s more amazing than anything!” she declared in a voice that was lilting and new. Jet and Victor exchanged giddy glances.
Victor threw off his backpack, and the boys ran up the hill to try it themselves. Their reactions when they touched it were just like Ava’s. Then each took turns running through the gleaming column, and what they felt and saw was inexpressible.
When they stood directly under the bend of the rainbow, they could hear exquisite music. It started off allegro and energizing, with a variety of instruments, but as the night progressed it slowed, and it featured more and more prominently a mournful violin. At first the children avoided entering the zone of the violin, for it was impossibly sad, but soon they sat together to listen, for it was also impossibly beautiful.
Only Victor stepped away for a moment, to stare into the heedless ocean of the sky, inhale the aroma of the dying summer, and shout a message to no one and everyone.
“I told you! I told you all!”
Before then, in all the time they had known him, neither Jet nor Ava had ever heard his voice crack.
When dawn finally broke and lent their tear-stained faces a fluorescent aspect, Ava whispered to the others, “It’s gone.” They emerged from their fantasies to find that she was right. The rainbow and its unearthly music had faded so gradually that neither of them had noticed.
For a while they stayed sitting, watching without speaking as the sky turned pink and the sunrise sparkled in the dewy grass. There were patches of bright white flowers growing where the rainbow had met the ground, which they didn’t remember seeing the night before.
Finally, Victor stood and stretched and took a deep breath. “Should we sleep before we head back?” he asked. “Or have some snacks?”
“It’s weird. I’m not tired or hungry at all,” said Jet. He and Ava got to their feet.
“Me neither, I guess,” said Victor. “Ava?”
“Nope,” she said.
For a lingering moment, they stood still and surveyed the clearing.
“I guess that’s it,” said Victor.
“Yeah,” said Jet after a pause. Then, with a look that said he had just remembered, “Geez, my Mom really is gonna kill me.”
The adventurers left the clearing in silence and started for home. As they made their way through the forest, they thought about how much walking they had ahead of them. The route seemed longer going back.
They were nearing the edge of the forest when Victor suddenly stopped. “Wait,” he said. He had his hand up to block the sun. He was squinting at something in the distance.
“Look.”
Jet and Ava followed his gaze through the trees, out of the forest and past the radio towers, to a faint band of light brushing the horizon. They traded gleeful smiles. Then Victor was running, and his friends were behind him.
