The Sunset's Vibrant Echo

"Look at the rainbow!"
The shout comes from my dad, mid-movie. I glance up from my sewing, my aunt from her cross-stitching, my brother from his computer, and my mom from her coffee. A collective gasp issues from myself and all six family members in the room. A pause of wonder and awe passes, then a stampede.

I sprint downstairs to fish my camera from my suitcase, one aunt runs to her room, the other scrambles through the contents in her purse. Everyone is yelling.
I shove my feet into my little sister's extra-small abominable snowman slippers and sprint into the rain. The rainbow stretches like a colorful math-compass curve, measuring the sky. A lighter rainbow lurks behind it like a shadow of paint. One side ends in my neighbor's yard--I almost see the pot of gold. Instead of chasing the leprechauns, I turn the other direction and leave the shelter of the porch. I'm determined to capture the entire rainbow span in a single photo.

Across the soaking yard, into the sunlit rain, and through the mud-covered alfalfa field. It takes me ten steps to realize my sister will make me eat her slippers for my impulsiveness, so I leave them behind. As she puts it, "You left them in the pouring rain in a pile of mud!"
I'm so thoughtful...

In slipperless wonder I continue my escapade in my white No Nonsense socks. I trip over collapsing mole-tunnels and sacrifice my soles to half-grown crunchy alfalfa stalks. I'm reminded a half-acre later, that my lungs can never keep up with my feet so I slow and turn around to catch my breath and my rainbow. Sadly, as I ran, so did the sun and my rainbow arch grew twice its size. I'm in danger of losing my picture.
With a desperate breath, I continue the sprint and I learn a lifelong lesson--you can't outrun the sun. As the sun curls under its covers, it takes with it my rainbow--silencing it's vibrant echo. All that's left behind are grey clouds and drizzle.
Multiple snaps later, I trudge back to the house muddy, soaked, and suffocating, but exhilarated. Though I missed the magnificent, artshow-worthy photograph I envisioned, the sunset in itself almost matched the glory of the rainbow.

I peel off my mud-coated socks in the entry-way. My family has returned to the sappy Hallmark movie and my mom to her coffee. I trudge downstairs to spew my thoughts and euphoria onto my blog when my iPhone dings a hello. The message holds a picture caught and dominated by my dad's panoramic expertise. He had the decency to send it to me and I wish I could claim it as my own. Still, he caught what I chased and, as long as it's captured for eternity, I won't complain. Ten minutes later, I still can't breathe, but I count the sacrifice worth the prize as I stare at my personal rainbow.