Oranges & Roses

Rainbows & Mud

Unedited.

Chapter Forty-One

For the rest of the afternoon, it was a rush to get everything finished before everyone got there. When Lan got back from the store, she looked a little irritated but Tiny looked triumphant. Something obviously happened but when asked, Lan just handed me a gift bag, told me not to open it yet, and went on to something else. Tiny, who was helping her mother by carrying in the rest of the groceries, just smiled at me and told me I would like it.

It. What the hell was it?

Trying to be sneaky, I attempted to peek in the bag but Lan came right back and snatched it out of my hand.

“I knew I couldn’t trust you,” she joked. “You’re just like my kids. Ridiculous.”

After that, I didn’t give the bag, or what it might possibly hold, any thought as I rushed around the house with Lan, trying to help where I could even though I was a guest and she tried to persuade me not to.

I regretted it. Seriously. The woman was a machine and I could barely keep up with her. Cooking, cleaning, setting up stuff outside…

It was controlled chaos and I loved it. The house smelled amazing from the food. Spices I’d forgotten permeated the air and reminded me of the way my abuela’s house would smell when I visited her during the summer. It made me miss my own family and wonder if this was something we could’ve been if I’d never gotten sick. My brother wouldn’t have joined the gang…everything could’ve been normal…

Right?

I was outside when I was thinking about that, spraying down the several dozen lawn chairs Lan had me drag out from the shed that also happened to be where Rey’s motorcycle was kept while he was on a case. The spray from the water hose made a rainbow and for some reason, I quickly compared it to my experience of normal. The rainbow came from the combination of the light and the water and once you take one away…the rainbow was gone. The same could be said about the experience I was having here. So many factors went into making it happen but the most important two were Rey and these two days, including the place and all the people that went with it.

You take one of those things away and it would be over.

One would be up tomorrow and the other would be taken away shortly after that.

As if I’d caused it, a cloud drifted over the sun, blocking out the direct sunlight. The rainbow was gone even though the water still came out of the nozzle. I released the trigger and the water stopped even though the cloud moved on and the sun came back out.

Without both, the rainbow wouldn’t come back…

I didn’t want this weekend to end because I didn’t think I would ever feel like this again.

When I was grabbed up from behind this time, I wasn’t expecting it. Total surprise and it showed with me releasing a rather girly cry and my hand tightening around the grip of the nozzle. Water came spraying out, the rainbow coming back for a split second before Rey overlapped his hand with mine and turned it on me.

Within seconds my whole front was drenched and I was squealing and trying to get out f his grip while he laughed at me.

“Rey! Oh my god, it’s so cold!”

“That’s not what I imagined you saying but it works.” He released the trigger on the sprayer and held it out of my reach. “Now…” he twirled us around so the play set was in full view, “tell me what you think.”

All day I’d been getting glimpses of the thing but I hadn’t been able to actually look at it. Now it was completely done and just like everything else in the backyard, the monstrous structure fit in perfectly. Like it’d always been there. The roof was rainbow mesh tarp stretched over a central beam.