THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RAINBOW
Part 1
Titbit the tiny Teddy loved gazing out of the playroom window, dreaming of big adventures he would have some day.
Even though Titbit was small for his size, he never ever believed that it would stop him from exploring something great one day. He always told his friends many tales on how he would go out into the wild world and climb the highest mountain and swim in the deepest seas. Everyone enjoyed his stories, believing them to be nothing more than his colourful imagination that would not amount to anything real.
Then one rainy and gloomy afternoon Titbit saw something out of his window that changed everything for him. He ran around the playroom anxiously, looking for Choo Choo the steam engine; the oldest toy there would surely know more about the thing he just spotted.
Dragging him out of a corner of the room he was napping in, Titbit pulled Choo Choo up to the window and pointed at the band of colour that was curving over the sky.
“What is that?” he asked anxiously as old Choo Choo squinted and tried to see what all the fuss was about.
“Oh that’s a rainbow,” Choo Choo yawned sleepily.
“A rainbow?” Titbit asked.
“Yes, it is something that happens when the rain and sun come together. Some say there are pots of gold at the end of it, some say you can find fairy land or something magical if you get to the other side,” Choo Choo explained hurriedly hoping that he could go back to his nap.
Titbit stared at the colours across the sky in growing wonder. “Pots of gold? Fairy land? Magic?” he thought to himself. “I don’t think I can ever miss this chance! I must go now.”
With that, Titbit, wrapping a few of his odds and ends into a piece of cloth, bade goodbye to his friends and jumped out of the window. “I’m going to get to the other side of that rainbow!” he called out to the world around him joyfully.
And just then he heard a giggle. Looking around him he spotted a butterfly flitting around from flower to flower.
“How on earth do you suppose you are going to do that?” asked the butterfly still giggling.
“I suppose I just keep following it,” Titbit smiled happily.
“Well let me tell you young bear, there is NO end of the rainbow, it’s just a whisp of colour and smoke, nothing real,” the butterfly flapped her colourful wings.
“How do you know?” Titbit asked.
“Well I just know, everyone does!” the butterfly frowned.
“Don’t you think you could be wrong? If you haven’t really seen the end of the rainbow then you wouldn’t really know,” Titbit said thoughtfully. “So I could be right too.”
The butterfly had no answer to that, so Titbit waved goodbye and carried on happily. He passed the wood beyond his house, walked up the little hill and found a well-worn path that he began to follow. He kept looking up at the sky and felt comforted when he saw that the rainbow was still there where he could see it clearly.
When it became too dark to travel, Titbit took a rest in a tree and in the morning when he woke up and looked at the sky there was no rainbow any longer. His heart sank and he began to cry. “How will I find my way now?” he thought unhappily when he spotted a bird pecking at something on the ground below him.
“Bird-friend!” he called out, scrambling down from the tree. “Can you tell me which way I have to go to find the other side of the rainbow?” he asked anxiously.
The bird looked at him curiously, cocking her head to one side. “Well, I’ve heard you can find a rainbow wherever the rains are, so I would ask you to follow the rains,” she said, pointing her beak in the opposite direction. “As you are small and light enough, I could carry you half-way there,” she said.
The little teddy felt very happy and very grateful as he climbed onto his new friend’s back. They soared into the sky and Titbit saw the world below him laid out like a colourful map, the wind ruffling his brown fur.
He would find the rainbow! He would get to the other side! And he would come back and tell his friends all about it!
TO BE CONTINUED…