Day 69: The Rainbow Hunters

The Rainbow Hunters
by
Matt Zurbo

 

“Okay, Checklist,” said Timmy.
(Timmy holding up a list)

1 – A good checklist.
2 – A lookout.
3 – A two way radio in the garage.
4 – A cut lunch.
5 – A bag for the gold.
6 – YABBIES & VEGETABLES!
(6 is and written in bold, sloppy letters)

“Yabbies and vegetables!?” protested Timmy.
“After we take the gold out of the pot I’m going to cook in it!” insisted Vinnie.
“The weekly Rainbow Hunters Club meeting is OPEN!” smiled Samantha.

“Now, first we have to-“ started Timmy.
“How do you know there’s a pot of gold at the end of it?” demanded Hatrack.
“There must be!” insisted Samantha.
“But how do you know?”
“Well, when my tooth fell out, the tooth fairy-“

Bshk!
“Hello? Kieran to the Rainbow Chasers! Do you copy?” the voice on the two way radio said.
“Rainbow Hunters!” insisted Hatrack. It sounds cooler.”
“Well, it’s drizzling down back of Old Mike’s valley…”
“And…?” said Timmy.
“There are patches of sunlight.”
(Everyone gathered around UHF device on wall.)

(Kids bolting out from farmer’s shed, across yard over cattle yard fence.)

(Samantha jumping on a horse. Hatrack jumping into his peddle billycart, others running across paddock.)

“Look! There one is…!” shouted Samantha.
“We’ll be rich!” said Hatrack.
“Food!” roared Vinnie!
‘Adventure…’ thought Timmy.
(Samantha pointing at brilliant rainbow, hazy at the edges as it bleeds into the mist/drizzle, making the air around it red. Kieran is nearer to it, waving with both hands.)

(Beautiful valley, rainbow in middle, landing on some cows from the heard. Most ignoring it. One looking up. Kids to the left, running, riding, etc, towards it…)

“So close…!” yelled Timmy.
“Gold…!” gasped Hatrack.
“My belly hurts…” huffed Vinie.
(Close-up of the kid’s faces as they run, desperate, tongues out, huffing, reaching for rainbow, sweating, Samantha out front on her horse, Hatrack carrying his billycart through the mud, etc…)

(Same beautiful valley image, but rainbow now to far right, kids in middle, hands on knees, lying on backs, etc… exhausted.)

“I don’t get it,” wheezed Samantha.
“Yeah,” groaned Hatrack. “The closer we get, the further they seem to be!”
“I’m hungry!” complained Vinnie.
“Well, I’m not giving up,” said Timmy. “It’s going to drizzle all day. We’ll just have to stay outdoors.”
(Front on image. Others still sprawled on backs, hands on knees, Timmy standing, scratching head, looking past reader.)

(Kids on ladders, or ground, throwing each other pears from an orchid. Vinnie eating, Kieran watching the sky)

(Kids jumping off dam jetty, swimming, laughing, Kieran still watching sky. Vinnie still eating a pear.)

“Look! A beauty!”
(Kieran shouting, pointing through trees behind kids, who are walking along a bush track.)

“SO CLOSE!”
“Gah!”
“Gold!”
“I’m hungry again…”
(Similar image of another beautiful valley, this time with a river running through it. Rainbow is on the left this time, kids are running after it other way to before.)

(Image of rainbow fading into billowing black, grey and white clouds. No ground. Only a few tiny, tiny birds for size reference.)

“Tomorrow…” said Timmy.
(Similar image of exhausted kids, Timmy hands now on knees, looking up at sky, determined.)

“Well, phone your parents. You may as well have a sleepover,” said Timmy’s Dad.
“Food!” shouted Vinnie.
“Exhausted…” sighed the others.
(Kids coming through door of farmhouse. Dad carrying some food.)

(Dark, moon and clouds in window, half lighting the room, other kids asleep on floor, couch, etc… Timmy wide awake, thinking.)

(Timmy leaning out window watching full moon and the sliver ring/rainbow, it is making in the mist.)

“Right, we have to have a plan! While you lot were sleeping I did some research,” said Timmy.
(Kids in farm shed, except for Kieran. Hatrack, Samantha and Vinnie sitting on hay bails, work benches, etc, watching Timmy, who is in front of diagram sticky-taped to Dad’s milk orders, board.)

“Rainbows are the sun’s light reflecting through small drops of water.
We have to stay a certain distance away.
Once we get close, the angle of light changes, and the rainbow fades.”
(Timmy using cattle prod to point at his diagram.)

“Boring! Get to the gold part!” moaned Hatrack.
“And the pot it’s in!” said Vinnie. He was hungry again.
“So, if the pot of gold is at the end of the rainbow, we send Vinnie to where it is. He can’t see it, but we still can! He will get the gold for us.”
(Timmy pointing to next page of diagram)

“Genius…!”
(Hatrack, Vinnie and Samantha all open-mouthed, dumbfounded.)

Bshk!
“Rainbow Hunters? This is Keiren. A Class 5 rainbow appears to be forming on Hyder’s Ridge. Copy?”
(Kids around radio, jumping with joy, Timmy running for the farm-shed door.)

“C’m’on! Quick, quick!”
(Whole gang running, balancing along big, fat tree trunk over river, trees and ferns everywhere. Part of rainbow can be seen through trees.)

“Hurry!”
“Gold, gold!”
“Yabbies and vegetables!”
(Whole gang running out of bush into clearing on ridge, overgrown abandoned mill in background.)

“Go, go, go…!”
“Close your eyes, or it will move away from you!”
“We’ll direct you!”
“My vegetables…”
(Side on of other kids pushing and cheering Vinnie into motion. Vinnie’s vegies spilling into the air.)

(Vinnie running, eyes shut, hands out, vegies and yabby or two in the air.)

“Go! Go!”
“Left more!”
“Right more!”
“Gold!”
(Close-up of others barracking)

“Yes…!”
“So close…”
“Almost…!”
(Vinnie, eyes shut, reaching for rainbow, not three feet from his hands.)

“NO!”
(Vinnie’s foot getting caught in an old tree root.)

“That was so good!” smiled Samantha.
“You almost did it!” cheered Kieran.
“Our gold…” said Hatrack.
(Other kids running to Vinnie, who is sitting on arse, legs out, baffled. Rainbow is fading. Now stops 15 feet above kids, and to the right. Hatrack is standing, watching it go.)

(Kids walking back over fallen tree over river. It is dusk, They are animated, talking, Hatrack is holding his fingers close as if to say ‘almost’)

“Next time…” said Timmy.
(Dark dusk, kids going their own ways, Samantha on horse, Hatrack on billycart. Mood sombre.)

“So, are we rich yet?” Dad asked, at the dinner table.
“No,” said Timmy.
“Another failure, then?” Dad said, warmly.
“Yes and no,” Timmy told him.
(Dad, still in work gear, putting food on the table, as Mum approaches with more food, and Timmy sits there.)

(Timmy above stairs, opening door to his room, can just make out moon through window.)

(Timmy reading a piece of paper. Can just make out original checklist behind it.)

Checklist 2
-Top secret-
1. Great friends.
2. Adventure.
3. Time of our lives.
(Timmy’s hand/pen is ticking the last box. The others are already ticked.)

(Final image of Timmy smiling, face lit by moonlight.)

 

The End.