Sunday, December 03, 2006

I like writing about weather and strange natural phenomenon. Just a few weeks ago a double rainbow came over Ithaca and it seems like everyone friggin saw it but me! Oh, well, here is a short.
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A double rainbow pierced the sky over Danby, New York. A family of four from Northern Virginia coming for the local wine trails along the Cayuga Lake saw it from the rear window of their van and pulled into the driveway of the local volunteer fire department. The fire chief, going over some papers in his office, also saw them through his window and yanked the chain of the bay doors.
"Hey," he said over the screech of the doors falling back down behind him. "You can't just park there! We might have an emergency!"
The family had left the confines of the van and huddled together under the smokey-coal colored skies of a July thunderstorm. The boy, the youngest, pointed up and then tried to wriggle a camera out of his father's side pocket.
"We got to get it! We got to get it, dad!" The boy wrenched the strap over his wrists and through his fingers for a bit more torque.
"Ok, Dylan! You'll get it." His father slid a finger into his pockets and eased the camera just out enough that is flung out at the boy's continous tugging.
"Hey," the fire chief repeated before he noticed the sky above him. "I said you'll have to mov..."
Along the road, more and more cars were killing their engines and pulling onto the road shoulders littered with stubborn chicory blossoms.
Past the tree line of sugar maples, a wide rainbow licked the dark clouds of the approaching storms. A faint copy of the parent rainbow stood to its side, muted against the darkness of the thunderheads.
A county bus slowed down as it passed the collection of stopped cars and motorists clambaring onto car roofs and truck beds.
Another car pulled into the fire department driveway, this one a brown jeep with the state forest. The driver inside, an off-duty ranger, also produced a camera and filled the lot with the simulated shutter snap of his digital camera. The family from Virginia also snapped their shutters and the driveway sounded of crickets.
The fire chief saw another van pull onto the driveway and then the sedan of one of his men coming for the afternoon duty. A fat rain drop then hit his lips and a gurgling thunder clap rumbled over the congregation. The chief looked back to the rainbows and saw the parent one melt back into the clouds so that its hues also took the smokey quality of its double. The family got back into the van and the county bus gunned the diesel engine. As the thunderstorm swallowed the rainbows, the clouds came from the tree line up, as if the pot of gold had caught fire.

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