by Jennifer Cybert
Pure Colored Love
Funny thing; miracles. They always seem to happen right when you think you could fall no deeper. They are full of most random spontaneity, the most wondrous magic, and the warmest love. It seems that the very miracle itself lifts you to your feet as it pulls on your heartstrings and sends chills down your spine. Watching wide-eyed and entranced, I realized that I had just witnessed my first miracle.
Summer rolls by, with warm days and starry nights blessing our senses to bliss. I always firmly believed that in summer, nothing could ever go horribly wrong. This summer was quite different. Late July arrived, when we had to let go of our beloved feline, Rosie. Being the only pet who Ive known for my entire life, I had a special bond with her. She was there for it all, teaching us all a thing or two about life as we went on. When the time came, on July 20th, 2004, it was time to part with not only my best friend, but my beloved family member. From the moment I received the call from my mother confirming the day we were to put her down, I felt as if it was the end. How could life go on after being this way for so long?
My final look at her was into her amazing eyes. I always admired how her eyes were so many different colors, with flecks of yellow and brown with an oddly placed ring of darker fur around them, as if wearing eyeliner. I remember thinking I wanted to have eyes just like her, so that some day, someone would look into my eyes and feel the same beauty I felt when I looked into hers. I knew it was time when I looked into the two round pools of pure colored love. I looked into her eyes, and she wasnt there. The same eyes that had filled my heart with leaps of joy were now empty and cold. As I bent down to kiss her furry forehead, I whispered into her ear that I loved her, and that Id miss her. I told her to wait for us. I kissed her one last time and let her go.
* * * * *
The sleepless night seemed to drag on forever. One show turned into another, and then finally morphed to infomercials which finally lulled me into an uncertain sleep at around four oclock in the morning. I drifted hazily in and out of sleep uncomfortably until seven thirty, when I couldnt fall back asleep. After taking the few minutes to wake up, I met my mother out in the kitchen where we had shortly conversed about how we had not slept that horrible evening. Out of habit, I lazily walked down the stairs to sit on my parents bed and watch some early morning TV while my mother sat at her computer. I was completely exhausted and lied down on her bed. Betty, with her most comforting face, curled up next to me and started to doze.
My mother had gotten up solemnly from her chair and walked to the side of the bed. "Jackie," she said, in her most motherly tone. "I have some bad news." Thinking of the worst that could possibly be, I told her to wait to tell me until I went to the bathroom. Thinking of how much my baby girl loved the bathroom, how she always watched the toilet and drank from the sink, I sluggishly tromped up the stairs in a trance that could not be broken. I turned to walk into the bathroom and halfheartedly pushed the door shut. There must have been a drift in the room; the door was soon back open. I turned to push it shut when I noticed three pairs of mischievous eyes staring playfully up at me. One pair belonged to a gray cat, which ran away as quickly as possible. I wondered where that cat had come from, he certainly wasnt ours. Merely half a second later, a second pair of eyes quickly disappeared, as this cat had run playfully after the first. I knew these eyes. These were Bettys eyes! She must have followed me upstairs.
The third pair of eyes hadnt disappeared. They were staring right back at me. I knew those eyes. I knew these eyes well. They were Rosies. She sat calmly on the floor for just a few second more, staring at my with her Happy Look slathered across her youthful face. I took a step towards her to pick her up and kiss her on the head how I always did, ready to smother her in my everlasting love. As I took my step she turned and carelessly toddled away. I ran to the corner to chase after her, but to my breaking heart, she was gone. There stood the two cats, with the third missing.
"I know shes ok."
I wasted no time blurting out these words. I was startled awake from my sweet restful bliss by nothing. I just awoke as if someone pushed me, restless for me to blurt this out. I searched around the room, to find that she really was gone.
* * * * *
Sweat rolled off my brow and dropped into my eyes. I reached up to wipe it out. We had been driving in the scorching weather for nearly an hour, and we had still not found the field. This was my fathers last softball game of the season, and my mother and I had wanted to go. We had been taking the wrong roads for nearly forty minutes, and my fathers game was most likely half over now. Fuming with frustration at the heat and the fact we were completely lost, my mother and I laughed it off, saying that we should never have left the house.
Twenty minutes later, by miraculous luck and some not-so-quick thinking, we had made it to the field to discover that not only had the game just ended, my father wasnt even there! We had gotten the scoop that halfway through the game he went to run for the ball and tore some of his calf muscles and left to go to the hospital. After standing for a minute to wallow in our everlasting luck, we departed for home. The plan was to head home to see if my father had actually gone to the hospital or to see if he had just gone home.
Predictably, on the way out, we got lost again. It seemed as if we were driving in circles as we saw Pilot Knob Road go by twice, and Cedar Avenue at least five times. With all driving time we had, it led me to thinking. I mostly thought about whether or not that dream had meant anything. Perhaps it was just me missing her, or maybe it was a sign, that she was happy. I didnt know, so I had brought up the subject, (quite reluctantly on my part.) and asked for a little input. For nearly ten minutes we talked back and forth about how she might be showing signs of happiness or not. My mother said that she wouldnt take everything little thing as a sign. I agreed to this silently in my head, thinking that Id only get my hopes up if I did.
When the conversation died down and it got quiet, I searched for some other object to keep me occupied. I looked out the windshield and watched the sun set over a wall of clouds. All around you could see little rays of light beaming from behind pink and purple clouds. As if reading my mind, my mother commented on how it was Rosie shining down on us. I myself, was just about to say that the rays reminded me of her soft, light stripes that grazed her legs and her forehead. When I told her this, we both sat quietly staring out at the rays of light. I like to believe that we were both imagining her sweet angelic face looking down on us, telling us in her own beautiful way that she was happy. As we chatted quietly about how awesome her life was, and how much she did, I began to hope that sometime she would show me a sign.
Maybe three miles down that highway, I began to get a bit misty-eyed. At first I looked at the clock, shining bright acid green; 8:47. I didnt want to cry; perhaps if I cried, I would trigger my mom to cry and we just didnt need that right then. I looked at the door handle, then the visor. Nothing seemed to be working. The tears were hell bound and ready to fall. I turned my head away from my mom so she wouldnt have to see me cry.
There it was. My sign. Her sign. Our miracle.
The clock shone 8:50. I delved for words that could describe what I saw, but all I found was "Look, Mom." She glanced to the right. I turned left to see her reaction and if I had taken the time to count, I would probably have seen all her teeth. Her mouth was wide open staring out the window.
There were two wide strips of the most vivid colors ever imaginable, mirroring each other. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. All the colors were there. Two of the brightest, heaven-sent rainbows I had ever seen. In fact, I had only seen two in my life, both of which were faded almost to transparency, and were only three colors(red, yellow and blue.) I knew these rainbows were heaven-sent. They protruded from a cloud right above us. I searched around for the other tail end of the rainbows, and there were none. They were falling right onto us from above. These rainbows shone side by side, as if to tell the world that they were proud to be rainbows. The heaven-sent rainbows gleamed its colors proudly in the blackening sky. The sky was a deep, deep purple, almost shading into a gray. Seeing such a phenomenon sent chills down my spine and my heart gave a jolt. Time stopped. We stared at our heaven-sent message from our beloved from Rainbow Bridge for nearly the three straight minutes it was existing.
Some people would look at this story and say that it was a mere coincidence; science can prove it. I say to those people: look around you. It is mighty arrogant of you to think that we are the only things living on this earth and above. Its mighty arrogant of you to think that our loved ones will leave us behind without any signs of how they are doing. Considering the circumstances, this Double Rainbow was no coincidence. It happened for a reason. I believe my baby girl was telling us that no matter how bad the storm looks, good things will come from it. Our family provided the rain, Rosie provided the rays of light, and together they meshed to create one of natures most beautiful phenomenon. On Wednesday July 21, 2004, at 8:50 PM central time, our baby girl told us she loved us, in the form of two heaven-sent rays of pure colored love.
Am I forgetting anything?
-Jackie