Chasing Rainbows by Alfred N.Muggins

19/3/24 (25/3/24)

    Alfred Muggins saw a rainbow in the sky after a brief shower, after walking the dog in perfect sunlight for a while in a nearby park. He saw his chance to find the long awaited pot of gold and spend the rest of his life writing his novels, with enough money to afford finding ways of advertising them! It was only two days after St Patrick’s Day so it could be a sign that his life was about to change for the better!  He was also on a Lane, a full scale road really, called Green Lane, in Heckleshacklesfieldville!

    He pressed the accelerator and, cautiously at first, sped towards the end of the rainbow. Unfortunately he soon caught up with the rest of the traffic and had to fall in line behind it, under the scrutiny and control of traffic lights, those modern arbiters of traffic management, an early form of artificial intelligence, harbingers of the future they were all unwittingly travelling towards!

    The rainbow was still there, as he waited patiently, or perhaps more accurately, impatiently, in the stream of traffic. It hadn’t moved. If only the cars and vehicles turning right would shift a bit more to the right, he would be able to get past in the left lane to the lights and straight through to the left, up the main road and then right, through the village, which of course was nothing like a village anymore in this day and age, more like a glorified suburb in an ever expanding conurbation. As he turned off the main road he could still see the rainbow, but now it seemed further away, leading into the wooded hill, the Woods, which were raised over the settlements of Heckleshacklesfieldville and the fields of countryside.

    Sadly he realized he did not have the time to go chasing rainbows up the great hill. He had to drop his little dog off at home, give him some food, and the cat, and then speed on to a work job, before it was too late. As usual he would have to leave the chasing of his dreams behind, as the inevitable practicalities of the day took over.

    He imagined that if he lived in Ireland the rainbow might have stayed in place for longer, as it rained more constantly over there, so there must be a greater chance of reaching that pot of gold, and of course over there there were also leprechauns to help out too! Not for the first time he fantasised that he had been born in Eire. Inevitably nothing easy came to those who lived in Heckleshacklesfieldville!