A/N: Not exactly a fantasy story, but it does touch on fantasy themes.
"And some day we'll find it, the Rainbow Connection. The Lovers, the Dreamers, and me," I sing as I sit in the park. It's getting late. Mom will probably wondering where I am now. I never told her that I was going out after dinner was over, but I had some thinking to do. And that dratted song keeps running through my mind!
What is the Rainbow Connection? I can't stop asking myself that question. I love rainbows. Nothing more beautiful than a rainbow at the end of a big storm. But the Rainbow Connection has always confused me. And what did it have to do with lovers and dreamers? Am I a lover or a dreamer? Maybe I'm both. But I just don't get it.
The sky is getting dark down, and there's the slightest chill in the air. That's okay, though. It's always too hot until around seven in July. The only good thing about Summer is that I don't have to do any work. I can just walk through the park and sing my songs. Except that I can't stop thinking about this one song! I just can't figure out what the Rainbow Connection is. I know it's something important. Real rainbows don't actually touch anything. I always tell people that the pot of gold is meaningless if you can't enjoy the rainbow. What's all the money in the world worth if you hate what you have to do to get it?
"Some day we'll find it . . ." Find what? What do I have to find? I didn't even know I was looking for something. Did I lose it, or did I ever have it? Are rainbows really only illusions? I refuse to believe that. I mean, there's always Rainbow Bright. And the My Little Pony Rainbow of Light. Those rainbows do things. They are not illusions. But those are only cartoons. A shadow of the 1980s.
But wait. Does it really matter if they are just cartoons? Does it really matter if that those rainbows are things out of a person's imagination? Because you can't picture what a four-sided triangle would look like. But people can imagine Rainbow Bright and the Rainbow of Light. If you can imagine it, there's a chance that it can exsit.
As the sun sets, I walk to an area where hardly anyone ever goes. I've only ever seen two other people there. They were on a date. Luckily they didn't see me. I knew what they were about to do as soon as I spotted them. I don't know why, but I watched them. For some reason, while I was watching them, I started thinging of the Rainbow Connection, and I wondered if they were really connecting, or just having fun.
"Why are there so many songs about Rainbow and what's on the other side?" I sing, starting from the beginning of the song. One the other side of the rainbow is supposed to be a pot of gold. Like the gold rush so long ago. They only wanted the gold, so they probably didn't stop to take in the beauty of the mountains and the animals. Animals back then were good for two things: food, and selling the furs. I guess that tells you a lot about people's priorities. Too many people singing about the pot of gold and not the rainbow.
That's it, isn't it? That's what the Rainbow Connection is. People who love each other and don't need money to be happy. Believing in whatever kind of magic we want to believe in, knowing that dreams can come true. Those voices that you hear when you're half-asleep. Those are the voices that will tell me how to make my dreams come true. Those are the things and I must do.
"And some day I'll find it,
The Rainbow Connection
The Lovers, the Dreamers
And me."
