The Rainbow and the Puddle

The rain stopped! Michi and Mikke dashed out from under the eaves — and there, across the sky, stretched a great big rainbow. "Mikke, look! I know the hill where rainbows look their very best!" Michi flipped open the folded map from his little satchel. "But we have to hurry. Before the rainbow melts away!"

"Straight down this road, through the park, and up the slope. Right!" Michi's foot stepped forward, one brave step. Mikke trotted along behind — when suddenly, Mikke's ear went twitch. A tiny sound, from somewhere. But Michi was already marching on ahead.

"Right at the next corner, then left." Michi followed the map, swish, swish. But Mikke kept stopping. The sparkle of wet leaves. A little flag fluttering in the lane. "Mikke, later, later! The rainbow will disappear!" Mikke's long tail curled, just a little, into a question mark.

In the middle of the park, Mikke stopped — completely still. First the ears turned, then the eyes, then the whole body. And then one paw pointed. "Found it!" There it lay — a great big puddle. A mirror of the sky, left behind by the rain. Plip — one last raindrop fell from a branch, and rings spread across the water.

"A puddle? But the rainbow…" Michi looked toward the hill. Then he looked at Mikke. Mikke crouched at the puddle's edge, gazing and gazing. Michi came half a step back. Inside his chest, two feelings pulled against each other. We have to hurry. But Mikke found something.

Michi looked up — the edge of the rainbow was growing pale. "Oh no, it's fading!" His paws fidgeted. Mikke was still peering into the puddle. Then Mikke turned, looked right at Michi, and pointed once more — slowly, this time. "Found it."

If they run to the hill, they might still catch the big rainbow. But at the tip of Mikke's paw, something seems to be waiting. The road on the map — or the find that no map shows. What will Michi do?