The Rainbow's End

The hole in the backyard of the old house would fill with water every time it rained. A big brown puddle, that’s what it looked like. Blake Paisley would cut through that backyard on his way home, and was prone to jumping into puddles - a compulsion that had gotten him into a bit of trouble before. One day, hurrying home in the pouring rain, Blake was for a split second lost in the euphoria of finding a new puddle in the midst of an otherwise crummy day. His heart must have skipped as he leapt into the air and came down with both sneakers together into the water. He was never seen again.

Nobody knew how far down it went - you could drop a rock down it and not hear a sound. It just gobbled it up. As a matter of fact, in so far as anyone remembers, the hole has claimed a frisbee, three baseballs, two footballs (one Nerf), one RC car, and of course Blake Paisley. But it wasn’t a bottomless pit - if that were the case then the proper authorities could be called in to categorize it and deal with at accordingly. Easy. But no - a half a day of steady spring showers and it would fill right up. It had to have a bottom. But then, where was it? And where were all the things going?

Then one April day, April 24th specifically, it began pouring a rain like nobody in town had ever seen before. It was like a solid wall of water descended over the houses, swallowing up all the air. Stores were closed, people stayed home. The streets filled with water. Kids tried to race tin-foil boats from their front porches as parents nervously watched the water rise. It rained all through the night and into the next day.

And it was that morning that things started to rise out of the hole. They bubbled up one after the other - baseballs, footballs, something resembling a raccoon, an old fashioned lawn mower. Then came the skeletons. They spilled out over the lip of the hole, caked in mud like it was flesh. A pile of tangled bones began to form around the hole. It grew taller and taller, and fell over. The water washed the mud away, and the bones began to stick out bleached white in the pouring rain.

The next morning, the sun came out. A crowd formed in the street. Everyone in the neighborhood came out to see the big rainbow that cut a wide swath across the sky. In fact, somebody pointed out, the rainbow seemed to end in their neighborhood. Everybody got really excited - nobody sees a rainbow and doesn't wonder who’s neighborhood it ends in.

So they ran up the street, and over a block, and up another street. Finally, they saw that the big beam of light lead to right behind the old house. Around back, they saw the most surprising thing - the rainbow came down and hit right next to the pile of bones. Right into the hole. The bones had been bleached white by the water and the morning sunshine. They reflected all the colors of the rainbow so beautifully. Reds and purples and greens danced on the peoples faces as they followed the rainbow down into the darkness with their eyes. They were so close to seeing where it lead - at the bottom of that hole was the deepest secret left on the earth; what is at the end of the rainbow.

So they did the only sensible thing - they jumped down into the hole, after the rainbow, one by one.

The town remained empty for a few weeks, before new families moved into the houses. It was just too nice of a neighborhood to be so empty, the new neighbors thought. They wondered why anyone would leave such a place.

They noticed that the hole in the backyard of the old house would fill with water every time it rained. They thought it was the most curious thing.