The Secret of the Double Rainbow
5.
David entered. At last the thing he had been dreaming of the past couple of weeks was about to happen. He was going to see what was behind the door. He shone his torch around the room. It could have passed for either a large closet or a very small bedroom. At first glance, there was no sign of any furniture and boxes packed away. He had at least expected to see at least that much. He looked at the floor and checked for any loose boards. Carefully, he walked around, listening for any squeaks or movement but all appeared to be completely normal. Feelings of disappointment started to appear. Was he missing something? Had he found a way only to find that Ben had been right all along; that the room had nothing of value in it?
He shone his light onto a wall and gasped as it lit up an enormous painting that took up half of room.
He immediately noticed two things. The portrait was of two girls; the same that were also in David’s room and the other was that it was shimmering with an eerie silvery light.
He gently stretched out a hand to touch it but pulled it back, as if stung, for he had felt nothing there. No resistance at all. His hand had almost appeared to pass through it. Now he was sure he was dreaming. This was surely impossible. Come to think of it, he no longer felt cold or feverish, and his throat had stopped hurting. What he couldn’t get past was that it didn’t feel like a dream, but what other explanation could there be, unless…
Suddenly, he almost jumped out of skin as he felt something rubbing against his legs. He jumped back and shone his light at the floor. It was the cat. It seemed to give him a meaningful look and then jumped right into the painting and vanished.
David gave a startled yell. What he just witnessed was impossible, unless, and a strange thrill of fear went through him, unless, and he had to admit this was most likely the case, the cat was indeed a ghost. A panicked thought occurred to him and he spun towards the door half expecting it to be locked once more. To his relief, he found that it wasn’t. Well, now he had some real proof that something strange was happening. If he woke up his Aunt and Uncle now, they would have to believe him. However, he had a sneaking suspicion that the door would become locked again should he do that. Maybe he could just put his torch so it would wedge the door open, but even then he suspected that this wouldn’t work. What if he just yelled out as loud as he could? They would surely hear him and come. This sounded like an appealing idea. He hadn’t stopped to think what he was going to do after he called them, but he would work that out later.
He held the door open and yelled out. His throat wasn’t hurting any more, and he was able to bellow out loudly their names. “Aunt Mary! Uncle Ben! Anyone! CAN YOU HEAR ME!” The sound echoed all around him, amplified by the confined space, and made him feel nervous. Surely they must have heard him. Mary seemed to be super sensitive to anything out of the ordinary, and he could not imagine that would not wake her, especially as she would be on the alert with him being sick.
He turned back towards the painting and noticed that it wasn’t glimmering as brightly. In his head, a tiny voice seemed to cry: ‘Hurry, hurry, time is running out. Enter now or forever wonder at what might have been.’
His heart was beating heavily. He couldn’t risk leaving this room to rouse them and he couldn’t go back to bed with things as they were. He would never be able to get back to sleep, not when he knew something incredibly strange was happening. He wondered if he could follow the cat through the painting. He reached out to touch it again and felt an odd tingling, as though he were passing his hand through static electricity. It was quite a pleasant sensation and before he could stop himself, he found himself moving right through to the other side.
He emerged in another place. It wasn’t within the house, or even in another room. What he did see he was finding hard to grasp. It should have been dark and cold, but instead it was warm and sunny. The air felt vibrant and alive, as though it was charged with energy and the smell of perfume from a multitude of flowers and the scent of healthy grass wafted into his nostrils. He was in an enormous field. He couldn’t decide if it was a park or an extremely large garden. It couldn’t be a garden because it seemed to stretch on for miles.
He looked around for the painting, but found that where it should have been, there was, instead, a slight shimmering. What if I’m stuck here? he thought in a panic. Quickly he stepped through the light and found himself back in the dark, small room. All was as it was before. He felt great relief. He wouldn’t be trapped there. He paused for a few moments, letting himself recover. He carefully considered if he should go back through again. It had seemed safe enough and the unexpected warmth of a sun had made him feel very strange; almost joyous.
Did haunting behave in such an odd manner? What if he really was still asleep? He decided that if this was a dream, then the worst that could happen was that he would awaken in his bed, in which case he had nothing to lose by exploring. He couldn’t convince himself completely of this logic, but he had no other explanation. “Well, here goes!” he said, to himself. He boldly stepped into the portrait once more and found himself back in the garden.
He looked around again, this time more carefully, and took in the splendid beauty of a paradise in the height of the spring. There were many trees all over the terrain and flowers of all descriptions were in their beds of soil.
He looked up and though it appeared to be daytime, he could not see any sun. Indeed, the sky had a very dreamlike quality, as though it had been painted using sparkling, shining paints made out of light. The colours were vivid. David had never seen so many different hues.
“How can there not be a sun?” he said to himself. “The light must come from somewhere, and this warmth feels natural and life giving.” It certainly didn’t feel real, and his head felt slightly light, as though he was in a very vivid dream. His own dreams normally never made much sense, and this was the oddest dream he had ever had. He thought carefully, and remembered that he had once read in a women’s magazine something called lucid dreaming. What would happen was that the person would wake up in his dream and was able to take control of it.
Maybe this is what was happening. He checked for signs that he was asleep. He knew he should be sick, but he was feeling fine. There was no sign of his flu and certainly no hint of any aches or pains. He jumped. He went high and landed lightly. It was as though his body really had very little weight. “I am awake in a dream! How remarkable.” It was an amazing feeling and he mused that if this is what having the flu did to you, then he wouldn’t mind getting sick more often.
He walked around a little, admiring the splendour of such a lifelike dream. He vaguely wondered where he was, if he was anywhere that actually existed. It was most certainly a magical place. Feelings of wonder and excitement flowed through him, like water running into dried out streams.
Dare he wander a little further? He couldn’t see the harm in it and it was just a dream, after all. At least he was pretty sure it was. Of course, on the off chance that it wasn’t, he had better be cautious. He didn’t wish to get lost, so he kept the gateway back as his focus point. He figured that if the worst came to the worst, surely he would just wake up in his bed.
He looked at himself and saw he was still dressed in his pyjamas and dressing gown. He felt terribly conspicuous, despite there appeared to be no one around to see him.
If he could return, he felt that maybe he should wear some proper clothes. Already his mind was accepting that he might be able to come here again, certainly as long as he was sick. After all, this was the second night in a row that he had been able to get into the locked room. That reminded him. He had followed the cat here, but where was it now?
As he scanned the landscape to see if he could find it, something glinted in the grass catching his eye. He moved towards it and knelt down to examine it. It was a small dove, made out of gold. It looked intricate and expensive. It also had a little hole where the eye should be, as though it was meant to be part of a charm bracelet. The dove itself was skilfully made. The gold felt smooth and warm and seemed to tingle just ever so slightly. “Finders keepers!” he said, with a stupid grin on his face. He put it into his dressing gown pocket
The warm sun felt good against his exposed face and the grass looked lush and inviting, but he was also aware that he had spent much longer there than he had planned. Still, there was no reason to hurry back that he could see. He decided to enjoy the warmth for just a moment before he returned.
Still, dream or not, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was somewhere he didn’t have permission to be. He was a stranger in an unusual place. He looked around carefully to see if anyone or anything was in sight. Everything seemed serene and he saw nothing except the multitude of coloured, scented flowers. He took off his dressing gown and lay it down to act as a blanket. He felt more comfortable laying there than in any bed he had ever slept in. He sighed. This was a paradise. What it meant and how he got here didn’t matter at the moment. All he knew was that he felt like he was in heaven.
He tried to stretch out on the gown, but found it was just too short, so he let his legs hang over the edge. As he enjoyed the warmth, he closed his eyes and began to feel dreamy and fancied he heard music. It was a soft, lilting, beautiful melody. It sounded almost like a choir of angelic voices, reminding him of a song he had never heard before.
Vague memories started to filter through his mind. Events he couldn’t quite pin down and yet seemed strangely familiar. First he saw people chanting. They looked like druids. He had a sense something important had been stolen. Then the scene shifted to a desert. He was listening to a group of men. They spoke in a language unfamiliar to him and they did not look happy. The scene faded and was replaced with a dark house. He was at the top of a staircase and he was falling, falling down. Instead of hitting the bottom, a shining being filled his mind. She was a female and her eyes burned with a bright fire. A golden aura of flame also surrounded her. The sight of her filled him with a strange longing, and he felt unbidden tears come to his eyes.
“I’m waiting,” she said. “Don’t let me down.”
“Who are you?” he managed to ask in his mind.
“No, my love, the question is, who are you?” A golden glow embraced him and the vision faded.
The music became louder in his mind until a clear voice seemed to separate itself and seemed to sing something. At first he couldn’t quite make out what the words were, but soon they became very clear.
Find a double rainbow
Let all your dreams come true
May all the love I have inside
Find its way to you
Find a double rainbow
Though things have fallen apart
The help we’ve sought has now arrived
It’s time to mend our heart.
He abruptly opened his eyes to try and locate the source of the song. That was a mistake, as the music vanished as though it had never been there. Then the ambiance changed as if someone had flicked a switch. Darkness had suddenly appeared, as though clouds were blotting out the light, though he could see none. He stood up, slightly fearful. It was as if the entire atmosphere was radiating a living greyness. He felt polluted, oily, as though his body was being corrupted. But the most disturbing thing of all was the garden itself. Whereas it had been filled with more beauty than he had ever seen, it now was dying right before his very eyes. To his perception, it appeared as if the whole picture had been a facade and now the real story was being revealed.
He suddenly felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck. He had experienced this a few times in the past, and it was always when someone was looking at him. He looked around and though he could not see anything, he felt a sense of evil. It reminded him of times in his life when, as a child, he would lie in the dark and feel that something unpleasant lay just out of reach. Though it had been a few years since he had last felt that sensation, the full force of it came right back to him. He looked towards the general direction he thought it was coming from. There was a flash of light and the sensation quickly cleared. The flash left an after print in his mind. He closed his eyes and saw a red fiery image. It was vague, but it looked like a dragon. He shook his head and dismissed it, as dragons did not exist. The darkness was not any better, though, and continued to worsen.
He had the intense feeling that he had overstayed his welcome. He hastily grabbed his dressing gown and ran across the grass, which now looked brown and had a crunchy sensation that went right through him with every step he took. The portal was still shining brightly, and was much clearer in the fading light. He held his breath and he ran full pelt towards it and launched himself directly into it and found himself running right into the wall that was back in the closet. He hit it with a thud.
He wasn’t hurt, but the shock had left him reeling for a long moment. As he recovered, he came to realize that it was freezing. He quickly put his gown back on. He still felt fine, though his heartbeat was running away like an express train and he was sweating. He grabbed a tissue from his gown pocket and patted the sweat away.
Where had he been? What was that fiery being? Was it all a dream? He felt he had had enough excitement for one night. It was time to leave and reflect on what had happened. He opened the door and stepped out of the room.
The instant he did, hot flushes and dizziness rushed at him out of nowhere and he almost collapsed. He leaned against the door and unwittingly pushed it closed. He had planned to keep it wide open, but now the handle was old and broken once more. Right then, David was painfully aware that he was cold, very sick and in need of a warm bed. He staggered down the hallway and collapsed on the bed, still in his dressing gown.
That was how his aunt found him a few hours later when she came to check on him at the first light of day. She automatically assumed that he had tried to go to the bathroom, but the strain had been too much for him. She felt his forehead and the generating heat made her decide to call her family doctor in.
Dr. Kandop arrived soon after and after a quick examination, announced that it was the yearly flu and said there wasn’t anything to be done but to sleep it off. David should be over the worst in a day or three.
David certainly felt miserable enough with throat like sandpaper and a nose that wouldn’t stop running. He spent the day in bed, sleeping fitfully and trying to get comfortable while awake on the bed.
He took his mind off his misery by thinking about the garden. He ran over all what had happened. Was it a lucid dream or a haunting? He needed proof. Anything would do. Then he finally remembered that he had picked up the golden dove. That would prove it beyond any doubt. He reached for his dressing gown and felt the pockets. His heart sank. There was nothing there but tissues.
