by Kai Strand –
Spending a Saturday afternoon in a museum was not Madison’s idea of a fun time. She wandered from painting to painting wondering how long her mom would stare at each one. She’d made three circuits of the large gallery room in the time it took for her mother and little brother to proceed halfway down one wall of art displays.
Madison still hadn’t figured out what the sculpture titled, “Persistence” was supposed to be. Was it a person stooped under a heavy burden? Was it a man pulling the lead rope of a stubborn elephant? Was it a huge spider sitting on the earth? She just didn’t understand art.
A doorway tucked into the corner of the large room caught her attention. How had she missed it on the first three trips around the room? The sign above the door read, “The Persian Window.” Madison peeked into the small room. Only one piece of art was on display. A large, multi-colored glass bowl, propped on its side, was perched upon a turntable on a pedestal in the middle of the room. Natural light streaming through the windows along the tops of all four walls sparked off the bowl like indoor fireworks. As the bowl slowly rotated, the full spectrum of color swirled and ebbed around the room in an intoxicating rhythm, like waves lapping on a beach. Madison swayed to the silent beat.
She glanced over her shoulder and saw her mom and brother studying a display on the far end of the gallery. She stepped into the room and color washed across her. She held her bare arms in front of her and watched them change from red to gold, to green, to blue. Each pulse of light against the walls and on the shiny tile floor mesmerized her further. She was drawn to a spot of shimmering darkness just in front of the spinning glass bowl. It seemed to be where all the color converged. The glistening spot rotated in a circle in front of the bowl. Madison skipped along behind it, longing to capture the beauty in her hands.
She reached toward the dark epicenter, and as if in a dream, she stepped through it onto the top of a rainbow. Suddenly, she was surrounded by sky, and the scent of fresh air tickled her nose. A cold breeze ruffled her hair and teased goose bumps onto her bare skin. She stood atop a path of brilliant colors—red and green and violet. The sunny yellow beckoned her forward. The stalwart blue held her high above the earth as she traveled the trail of color. She glanced behind her, and the rainbow seemed to disappear into thin air. The doorway to the museum had vanished.
Madison skipped along the arch, filled with fear and excitement. Would what seemed like colored air continue to support her? What would she find at the end of the rainbow? What if she never found her way back to the museum?
The crisp, cold breeze stirred the hues together to mix an enticing shade of indigo. The red flowed down the slope like lava. With each step, color squashed out to blend with its neighbor and make a rainbow inside a rainbow.
The shrill shriek of a majestic bald eagle startled Madison, upsetting her balance. She fell onto her backside and slid down the colorful slide. The blue cooled her bottom. The orange smelled like sweet citrus, and the green gave off the fresh scent of grass.
Madison’s long auburn hair streamed behind as she glided along. The dew of a cloud dampened her face. She swiped away a bug that smashed against her cheek. Her squeal of pleasure elicited a screeching reply from a passing hawk. She’d never had more fun on a slide.
All too soon she reached the bottom of the rainbow. She bumped onto the floor of the museum and skidded across the room, landing just where she’d taken off, in front of the Persian Window. Its full spectrum of color swirled and ebbed around the room. Madison sat in the middle of it, grinning and giggling. She hadn’t captured the beauty in her hands, but she had captured it in her heart.
the end.
Question Time
1. Where was Madison?
2. What did she in the museum room?
3. What happened when she tried to touch the glass bowl?
4. Where did the slide take her?
