Quickly down the damp old road I ran. I ran until my lungs cried out, and then some. My life, or so I thought, depended on this moment. For I was going to touch a rainbow.

Growing up, my grandmother had told me stories of people who had touched rainbows. The riches they had acquired were beyond belief. And when I asked her why more people weren't off touching rainbows, she pointed a crooked finger and said, "It's tricky business. People who touch rainbows often don't live very long after. And I'm warning you Charlie, never touch a rainbow." But as stubborn as I am, I ignored her warnings.

As I ran, the trees surrounding the road thinned and I focused on the field that the rainbow inhabited. As I neared, I saw patched colors. Brick reds and sky blues, tangerine oranges and ashen grays, mint greens and plum purples all rolled into one. Dare I say it, it almost made me cry.

It looked honest and patient, yet frightened and lonely in the great marbled sky. My breathing was strenuous now. Clouds were gulping up the sun and lightning lit up the sky. My window for the rainbow was closing.

I jumped the wooden fence that surrounded the field and ran on. Thunder roared and it began to drizzle. The rainbow loomed in front of me as I stopped a few feet short and shivered from the cold. Then slowly and anxiously I drifted closer to it.

I took a deep breath and reached my arm out. Icy dampness filled my fingers as my hand entered the colorful mass.

I felt around, touching only air. I extended both my arms into it and searched. Where were the riches my grandmother so fondly spoke of?

I frowned and pulled my arms out. A layer of dew surrounded them and I wiped it off on my jacket. I looked around a bit longer, then sighed and left the field, disappointed.

Later that night, I told my grandmother what had happened. At first she yelled at me, then she smiled gravely and drove me to the local liquor store.

After buying a lottery ticket, she turned to me and whispered, "Rub it for luck Charlie. Who knows what might happen?" I laughed uncertainly and did as she asked.

I woke the next morning to my grandmother screaming with delight. We had won 50 million dollars.

But somehow as the months passed in celebration and shopping, we knew my eventual doom was near. After all, it was said that people who touched rainbows don't last long after.

On the one-year anniversary of my rainbow sighting, my doom came, disguised as a man. He smiled at me warmly and beckoned me to come with him.
I smiled back at him and followed my doom through a path in the trees, never again to return or see another rainbow.

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