The End is Only the Beginning
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Twirl and swirl, grasp, release, swing, jump, run and run! Leap and slide, bounce and fly, land, laugh and run, watch out!
“Tag you’re it!”
Johane was the fastest. She could climb and scamper around the monkey bars better than anyone. She was even faster than most of the boys. Johane was playing tag with three of her friends. The rules were simple. You had to stay on the climbing bars and the bridge, from the rope pyramid over to the extra-high-super-fast-sunny-yellow-soooo-twisty-it-made-your-stomach-churn-and-your-head-spin-dizzy tube slide. Everything past that was out of bounds. If you lost your balance and touched the sand you were ‘IT’!
Benita, Amit and Takis were moving around the playground equipment trying to stay away from Johane. Johane was it! She liked being it. She enjoyed chasing her friends up the bars, over the ropes and down the slide. Johane was really good at trapping and tagging her friends.
Everyone was very excited about playing on the monkey bars, slides and ropes. The equipment had been closed down for five days. It was getting covered with a new coat of paint. The equipment was finally finished and the colours were fantastically awesome! The whole playground looked better than brand new. All of the old chipped paint and worn out ropes were gone. The new ropes were bright and strong with tight knots. The paint on the monkey bars was smooth and the choice of colours were better than best! The children felt like they were the very first kids to play on the new equipment.
The colours were bold and magical. They seemed to dance and move in the sunlight. The extra-high-super-fast-sunny-yellow-soooo-twisty-it-made-your-stomach-churn-and-your-head-spin-dizzy tube slide was now crazy-shiny-super-duper sunny yellow. All of these outrageous colours made the game of ‘tag’ so much more fun. The new paint reflected the powerful white light of the sun and it gave the kids an extra boost of energy.
The sky was full of sunshine except for a small single grey cloud that was drifting by. Amit, Takis, Benita and Johane stopped when they felt drops of rain fall from the sky. The four friends were just about to start to play again when, “Ok Takis, you’re it!” called out Johane as she began to sprint towards the rope pyramid.
“Wow!” shouted Amit as he pointed towards the extra-high-super-fast-sunny-yellow-soooo-twisty-it-made-your-stomach-churn-and-your-head-spin-dizzy tube slide, “Look at that!”
“It is beautiful,” whispered Benita.
Takis and Johane turned to look.
“It’s a rainbow!” declared Johane.
“It’s so close,” said Takis as he started to move towards the arch of glowing ribbons.
“Be careful,” suggested Benita.
“Don’t worry,” said Takis, “Rainbows always move. The closer you get the farther it moves away.”
Amit began to say, “It looks like it’s touching the end of the extra-high-super-fast-sunny-yellow-soooo-twisty. . . “
“Slide!” interrupted Johane, “It looks like it’s touching the slide.”
“I was going to say that,” said Amit.
The children continued to walk and soon they were all standing at the top of the extra-high-super-fast-sunny-yellow-soooo-twisty-it-made-your-stomach-churn-and-your-head-spin-dizzy tube slide.
“Look where we are,” said Amit, “and the rainbow hasn’t moved.”
“It’s touching the ground!” declared Benita.
“It’s going into the sand at the bottom end of the . . . tube slide”, said Johane as she looked over at Amit.
“What do we do now?” asked Amit.
“Let’s jump into the slide!” suggested Takis.
“No!” answered Benita.
“I’ll go,” said Takis.
“So will I!” Johane joined in.
Before anyone had time to move, the monkey bars started to shake. The whole extra-high-super-fast-sunny-yellow-soooo-twisty-it-made-your-stomach-churn-and-your-head-spin-dizzy tube slide began to triple glow. The children grabbed onto the top rail. A bright white light shot out of the top of the slide and zipped down the ladder. The kids felt something pass by. They watched the beam shoot across the sand, onto the grass and around the corner of the school.
“Did you see that?” asked Amit.
“WOW!” said the four friends together.
“I felt it pass by,” said Benita.
“I heard laughing,” said Johane.
“I saw a pair of multi-coloured high-top running shoes,” said Takis.
The other three kids stared at Takis. Takis shrugged and said, “It’s true, I saw rainbow coloured high-top running shoes. It was hard to see in the bright light, but I saw them.”
“The bright light disappeared around the side of the school,” said Johane.
“The rainbow is fading,” said Benita.
“That rainbow doesn’t look right,” added Amit.
“It’s fading,” repeated Benita.
“The colours are in the wrong order,” said Amit.
“What are you talking about?” asked Johane.
“Remember we just watched ‘The Magic School Bus’ DVD on rainbows and colour,” reminded Amit.
“Yah!” everyone agreed.
“The rainbow in the DVD had the same colours but in a different order,” continued Amit.
“What was the order?” asked Takis.
“I can’t remember,” said Amit.
“Our rainbow has disappeared,” said Benita.
“Hey look,” Johane called out, “There is something shiny at the top of the slide.”
The four friends huddled close and looked to where Johane was pointing. There was a long piece of glass laying on the top step of the ladder. Johane picked it up.
“It looks like a triangle,” said Amit.
“It looks like a triangle when you look at it from the end,” said Benita, but when you look at it from the side the glass is long and it makes your hand look fat.”
“It’s a prison,” called out Amit.
“No!” said Takis, “A prison is where you send bad guys.”
“It is called a prism,” said Benita, “and it turns white light into a rainbow.”
“Who told you that?” asked Takis.
“Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus,” answered Benita.
“It has two arms attached to it,” said Johane as she held the glass up to her face, “You could wear it as really funny glasses.”
Johane carefully opened the arms and was about to try them on when she noticed something.
“Hey,” called out Johane, “there’s a name on the inside of the arm.”
“What’s it say?” asked Amit.
“There were two names, but one is scratched out,” said Johane. “It says, Big Vory.”
“Big Vory?” asked Benita.
“The glasses must belong to Big Vory,” said Amit.
“Who’s Big Vory?” asked Takis.
“Maybe he’s that white flash that ran past us laughing and wearing rainbow running shoes,” said Amit.
“He ran behind the school,” said Takis pointing towards the corner.
“WOW!” declared Benita, “Look at the bottom of the slide!”
The kids looked and saw something extraordinary and unbelievable. A liquid rainbow was pouring out of the bottom of the slide. Everything it touched was changing into the wrong colour. The sand was turning pink! The grass was changing from green to purple! The extra-high-super-fast-sunny-yellow-soooo-twisty-it-made-your-stomach-churn-and-your-head-spin-dizzy tube slide was turning a moldy shade of green. The playground equipment began to change into strange colours.
“We’ve got to get off the monkey bars!” called out Takis.
The kids scampered away from the equipment.
“What’s happening?” asked Amit.
“I’m not sure,” said Benita, “but I think it has something to do with those glasses and Big Vory.”
“We have to find Big Vory,” said Johane.
“We have to hurry,” said Amit, “the school is turning orange!”
“The whole neighbourhood is changing!” declared Benita.
Johane tried the glasses on and discovered, “You can see Big Vory’s rainbow footprints through the glasses!”
“You wear the prisoner glasses and we’ll follow,” said Amit.
“Prism!” said Benita.
“Prism,” repeated Amit.
The four friends began to follow the colourful footprints in hopes of finding Big Vory. The playground, the school and neighbourhood were changing colour and the kids had to act fast.
Johane quickly headed off in the direction of the rainbow footprints. Amit, Benita and Takis followed closely behind. The four rainbow chasers sprinted across the playground and around the corner of the school.
“Wow!” shouted Johane as she dug her heels into the wildly coloured grass and slid to a stop.
“What is it?” questioned the other three.
Johane stood frozen still and pointed at something in front of her. “The super bright, super small rainbow over there!” she said.
“I don’t see any rainbow,” declared Takis.
“Neither do I,” said Benita.
“Amit!” called out Johane, “Do you see the tiny rainbow?”
“No I don’t,” answered Amit.
“Why can’t you see the rainbow?” asked Johane with a little bit of panic in her voice.
“Because we’re not wearing prisoner glass,” replied Amit.
“It’s PRISM glasses!” demanded Johane, “Not prisoner glasses.”
“Prism,” said Amit.
“It’s true,” said Benita, “You’re the only one wearing glasses.”
Johane took off the glasses and passed them to Benita. “The rainbow has disappeared!” she declared.
Benita put the glasses on and, “I can see the rainbow now! It’s right over there and it’s just a little taller than us.”
The two boys clambered over each other to be next to try the glasses. First it was Takis, “I can see it!”
Then it was Amit, “Me too! Me Too! I can see the rainbow and the colourful footprints go right in the middle of the arch.”
The kids each had a turn to look at the footprints and the rainbow. They carefully moved closer to the glowing ribbons of colour. They stood behind Johane and followed her every footstep. Johane was wearing the prism glasses.
“Once the footprints go under the arch, they disappear!” reported Johane.
“What should we do?” asked Takis.
“Well, if we want to find Big Vory, there’s only one direction to go,” said Amit.
“Under the rainbow!” announced Benita.
“UNDER THE RAINBOW!” shouted the other three.
“Wait!” requested Johane. “We can’t lose these glasses. It’s the only way we can see Big Vory.”
“I have a zipper pocket in my pants,” volunteered Amit.
Johane handed the glasses over to Amit and he put them in his pocket and ZZZZZIPPED it closed.
“Come on!” shouted Johane and the four friends grabbed each others hands and ran under the tiny rainbow.
Everything started to slow down and become very bright. It was like traveling through multi-coloured, super charged Jell-O. The harder the children tried to move, the thicker the Jell-O got.
“Stop moving!” said Benita.
“Why?” questioned Amit.
“Just try it!” replied Johane impatiently.
Everyone became still.
“Nothing’s happening!” demanded Takis.
“Just give it a second,” requested Benita.
They all remained motionless and silent. It seemed like ages. Then Amit noticed, “Hey, the Jell-O is softening.”
Takis began to test it out, “You’re right!” he declared. “This stuff seems to be disappearing.”
“You guys should thank Benita for figuring that out,” said Johane as she stared at the two boys.
They answered very softly, “Thank you, Benita.”
“You’re welcome,” said Benita. “But, I think this is going to happen any time we are too fast or too loud. So we have to be careful.”
As the Jell-O thinned out, the four rainbow adventurers looked around to see where they were.
“WOW!” the two boys sang out together.
It was a strange and wonderful new world that they had entered. Everything was wild and bright and crazy-colourful.
“It’s like that song,” said Benita, “Somewhere over the Rainbow.”
“We didn’t go over the rainbow,” said Amit.
“We went under it,” stated Takis.
“So this is what ‘under the rainbow’ looks like,” said Johane.
“Under what rainbow?” yapped a voice from nowhere.
“They came in under OUR rainbow!” yapped another voice.
“Where’s that coming from?” asked Takis.
“Right here!” called out a medium size dog as it jumped out from behind an orange and purple bush.
“And here!” a smaller dog joined in.
The two dogs looked like they were covered in every colour of paint. Blotches and splotches of blues, purples, yellows and greens overlapped every inch of their fur.
“My name’s Boy!” said the large dog.
“Mine’s Virg!” said the small dog.
The four kids introduced themselves to the dogs.
“So where are you from?” asked Virg.
“We just came through the Jell-O,” answered Benita.
“What flavour?” asked Boy.
“Huh?” questioned Amit.
“What flavour was the Jell-O?” asked Boy.
“It was all the colours,” answered Takis. “Every flavour.”
“Wow! You must have been really loud,” said Virg.
“How did you know that?” questioned Johane.
“The noisier you are the more colours will appear,” answered Boy.
“We were very loud,” said Benita.
“Why did you come here?” asked Boy.
“A flash of light zipped through our park and now our school and play ground are turning crazy colours,” said Johane.
“Then we found a pair of glasses with a name on them,” continued Benita.
“So we thought we could fix everything if we could return the glasses to their owner,” said Amit.
“Who do they belong to?” asked Virg.
“Big Vory,” said Takis.
“BIG VORY!” shouted Boy and Virg. “That’s impossible!”
“Shhhhhhhhhh!” whispered the four friends together.
“Be quiet or the Jell-O will come back!” said Johane.
“What’s impossible?” asked Amit.
“Could you show us the glasses?” asked Boy.
Amit unzipped his pocket and pulled out the prism glasses. He handed them to Boy. Boy and Virg looked at the glasses closely.
“Big Vory’s name is on the glasses,” said Virg.
“But I thought Big Vory only wore dark sun glasses,” said Boy.
“Big Vory only wears dark sun glasses and black clothes,” said Virg.
“Why is that?” asked Benita.
“Big Vory doesn’t shine,” said Boy. “He kinda sucks in light.”
“What do you mean?” asked Takis. “What we saw was a bright light.”
“Big Vory is not a bright light,” said Virg. “He sucks up all the extra light and colour.”
“This bright light zapped across our park and changed everything to crazy colours,” said Johane.
“It sounds like Big Vory has changed,” said Virg.
“Or maybe it’s not Big Vory!” said Boy.
Then without warning a brilliant light appeared. Everyone had to cover their eyes and squint. A huge circle of burning light moved towards them.
“I can’t see!” declared Johane.
“Is it Big Vory?” shouted Amit.
“We don’t know!” Boy and Virg shouted back.
Amit jumped forward and grabbed the prism glasses from Boy and called out “Are these your glasses?”
“They were,” called out the bright light. “But I don’t want them anymore.”
“It is Big Vory,” shouted Virg.
Amit held out his hand again, “Here are your glasses Big Vory.”
“I don’t need them,” answered Big Vory pointing to a zipper pocket in his zip-zap colourful jacket. “I’m tired of being the one that takes away all of the colour. Now I make everything bright and colourful.”
Big Vory stretched out his arms and everything around him began to change. Colours were flying in all directions.
“Close your eyes and don’t touch anything!” shouted Johane.
“What’s happening?” asked Takis.
“Big Vory’s going crazy,” said Johane. “He might turn us all purple and green!”
“Yahooo!” yelled Big Vory as he whirled around and colours spewed in all directions. He looked like a lawn sprinkler paint machine.
“Cover up!” called out Boy.
Virg ran around and herded the kids into a circle to protect them from the colour and light then turned to Big Vory and said, “If you keep doing this, everything is going to look wrong!”
“I want to be the one that makes stuff bright,” answered Big Vory.
“We need shadows and blackness,” said Boy. “Shadows let you hide from the sun and without blackness, there’s no night!”
“If I’m too bright for you guys then I’m out of here!” shouted Big Vory and he turned and zipped away.
“Come on guys,” called Benita. “We can’t let him disappear!”
Amit started waving his arms in the air.
“I got an idea!” Amit whispered loudly.
He signaled to everyone to huddle around. The group made a circle and put Amit in the middle. He began to explain his idea. Everyone was being very quiet and still. They all nodded their heads in agreement and then formed a straight line. They stood shoulder to shoulder and rose up their hands and cupped them around their mouths. Benita pointed in the direction that Big Vory had run. The young friends and two dogs began to walk quickly towards Big Vory. Then acting as one, they all took a deep breath and hollered, “Hey, Big Vory!”
A channel of multi coloured, super-charged Jell-O shot out from the group. It shook, quivered and shot along the ground. Amit reminded everyone to remain quiet and not to move. They all remained motionless for about a minute. Then they heard Big Vory scream in frustration.
“It sounds like the super-charged Jell-O caught up to him,” chuckled Takis.
“That’ll stop him,” called out Amit.
“Shhhh!” said Johane. “You want that Jell-O to come back and get us?”
“Come on!” encouraged Takis. “Let’s go get Big Vory!”
Takis began to scamper towards Big Vory’s scream. The rest of the group quickly followed. Boy could see what was going to happen.
“Stop running!” called out Boy in a loud whisper. “You have to stand still and be very quiet or the real thick super-duper-charged Jell-O will pin you to the ground!”
The children heard Boy’s instructions. They slowed down and stopped talking. But it was too late! A huge mound of red super-duper-charged Jell-O appeared out of nowhere and surrounded everyone. Then everything froze. Johane, Amit, Benita and Takis stood in the middle of a ginormous ring of red jiggling super-duper-charged Jell-O. As soon as somebody moved the super-duper-charged Jell-O jiggly-jumped closer and when anyone spoke the red Jell-O shimmy-shaked nearer.
“What are we going to do?” whispered Benita.
“Big Vory is going to get away,” said Takis softly.
“I know!” said Johane.
The group slowly turned towards Johane with puzzled looks on their faces.
“When I shout, run!” directed Johane.
“What?” questioned Amit.
“No time to explain,” said Johane. “You’ll have to be fast. Now get ready!”
Amit, Takis and Benita signaled to Johane that they were ready. But they didn’t know what they were supposed to be ready for. The kids all looked at one another and then Johane began to shout as loud as she could and jump up and down. The super-duper-charged Jell-O jiggly-jumped and shimmy-shaked right past the other three and began to target Johane’s crazy run-jumping and shriek-yelling. Once three friends were free of the Jell-O threat, they began to carefully move towards the sound of Big Vory.
The two multi coloured dogs, Boy and Virg had slowly and quietly snuck ahead and were waiting at the top of a ridge. They were both very excited and had to work really hard to contain themselves. The dogs knew it wouldn’t take much to attract a super-duper-charged Jell-O attack.
Finally the three children reached the dogs. Virg was micro-shaking with anticipation. He cautiously pointed down the other side of the ridge to where Big Vory was trapped in a huge mound of vibrating super-duper-charged red Jell-O. Big Vory was crazy mad. He was frustrated that he got caught by the Jell-O and he couldn’t calm down. So the super-duper-charged Jell-O just kept getting bigger and bigger and thicker and thicker. Big Vory was stuck. He couldn’t move an inch.
It took a little while, but finally Benita, Takis, Amit and the two dogs Boy and Virg reached the mound of Jell-O where Big Vory was trapped. The Dogs and kids couldn’t Big Vory trying to yell and call out. That only made the Jell-O stick tighter.
“Well, here we are,” whispered Amit. “What do we do now?”
“I don’t know,” volunteered Benita. “Johane never told us her plan.”
“We are safe so long as Big Vory is stuck in the Jell-O,” said Takis.
“As long as Big Vory keeps screaming and shaking, the Jell-O will hold him tight,” stated Virg.
Suddenly Big Vory stopped moving and clamped his mouth closed.
“What happened?” asked Benita.
“Big Vory just quit everything,” answered Virg. “He’s not doing anything.”
“That’s because he heard you talk about the Jell-O, VERG!” exclaimed Boy very softly. You just told him how to get free!”
“Oops,”
As soon as Big Vory became still, the Jell-O started to disappear. It started to loosen up and fall away from Big Vory’s face. It took less than a minute for his head to be free.
“What are we going to do now?” asked Takis with panic in his voice.
“We should escape while we still have time,” declared Amit.
“No! said Benita. “He is still trapped. We have a little time. We won’t be able to capture him again.”
“What should we do?” questioned Takis.
“Let’s put his glasses back on him,” suggested Johane as she carefully walked up to the group.
Everyone was very happy to see her, but they all remained calm.
“Here are the glasses,” said Amit taking again out of his zipper pocket.
“How are we going to do this?” asked Virg.
“Very carefully,” answered Boy.
“A little standing, stacking and a lot of balance,” said Johane.
Within a few moments, Johane had arranged, placed and directed everyone into position. She quickly explained what was going to happen and then gave her friends the signal, “Go!”
Everyone began to move slowly and carefully as they lifted themselves up to form a small but very sturdy human, plus two dog, pyramid. Benita was the lightest, so it was her job to be the top of the pyramid and she was also the one responsible to place Big Vory’s glasses over his eyes.
“Once you’re up there Benita,” instructed Johane. “Get those glasses on quickly and don’t let Big Vory scare you.”
Benita followed those directions perfectly. The glasses were on Big Vory and everyone safely dismantled the human, plus two dog, pyramid. Big Vory controlled his reaction. He tried his best to remain calm. He slowly moved his head around and stared out.
“Nothing’s happening,” said Amit.
“Maybe it will take a minute or two,” suggested Benita.
Then Big Vory gently smiled and slowly dropped his head forward and made the glasses slide off his nose and bounce down the mound of Jell-O onto the ground.
“It didn’t work!” declared Virg.
“Come on, let’s try it again,” said Takis.
“Hold on,” said Johane. “Let me see those glasses.”
Boy went over and gave the fallen glasses to Johane. She remembered seeing something.
“I knew it,” said Johane. Big Vory’s name is written on the inside of the frame.
“And?”
“And there’s another name scratched out,” she continued. “And that other name is ROY G BIV!”
“ROY G BIV!” declared the two dogs simultaneously.
“Who’s he?” asked Takis.
“He’s the TOP BANANA! The HEAD HONCHO! The BOSSES BOSS!” said Boy.
“He is MR. RAINBOW! The true colour man. ROY G BIV! Even his name stands for all colours of the rainbow. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.
“Indi- what?” asked Amit.
“Indigo,” answered Johane. “It’s a deep bluish-purple, purple-blue.”
“Wow!” admitted Takis. “Those glasses belong to him?”
Suddenly Big Vory opened his eyes really wide and shot super bright colour beams in every direction. But instead of making things brighter and crazy coloured, it made things too bright. Everything was turning hot bright. So hot that colours and things were beginning to melt. The temperature was rising. The Jell-O began to melt.
“Big Vory said he didn’t need these glasses anymore,” remembered Johane. “I thought the glasses were the answer.”
“Glasses are the answer,” declared Amit. “But not the prisoner glasses.”
“That’s PRISM!” stated Johane.
“He knew that the prism glasses that belong to Roy G Biv wouldn’t help him,” said Amit. “When I offered those glasses to him, Big Vory said that he didn’t need them anymore and pointed to a zippered pocket in his jacket.”
The kids and the two dogs moved back to the mound of Jell-O and began to search for a zippered pocket.
“I can see it,” called out Benita.
“Shhhhhhh!”
Benita pointed out the pocket. Takis began to slowly reach through the heavy Jell-O hoping to reach the contents of that pocket. It took a number of attempts. It continued to get hotter and the Jell-O was melting faster. Takis reached the pocket and forced the zipper open. He stretched out his fingers and pinched the frame of the pair of glasses and moved them through the Jell-O slowly. Every else began to rebuild the pyramid. As soon as Takis was able to pull the glasses free of the Jell-O, he handed them to Benita. She clamored her way to the top and without any hesitation, jammed the dark eye glasses onto Big Vory’s face. They looked like normal darkened sunglasses, except the inside of the lens was mirrored. They were mirrored so that when Big Vory tried anything fancy, like zap crazy-colours out his eyes, it would be reflected right back at him.’
Once the reversed mirrored glasses were in place, Big Vory’s movements became almost silent and motionless. The Jell-O continued to disappear. And the real rainbow man Roy G Biv started to repair all of the strange and wild coloured things. Finally when all of the Jell-O had gone and Big Vory had calmed down, he offered the four kids a quip trip through the crazy-coloured place to help them get back home. Big Vory took off his zip-zap coloured jacket and turned it inside out. It became a long black coat. He told the kids to hide inside his black coat. As a shadow maker he can move swiftly over the ground and the super-duper-charged Jell-O never finds him.
The four adventurers said good-bye to there colourful canine friends and slipped out from under the tiny rainbow. When they emerged they saw that Roy G. Biv had completed the colour corrections and everything was back to normal. The tiny rainbow quickly faded away. Johane turned towards Amit, smiled, poked him on the shoulder and called out “TAG YOU’RE IT!”
“Hey,” complained Amit. “I thought that game had ended!”
“The end of one thing is only the beginning of the next!” she called back.
“The end is only the beginning?”
“That’s right!”
It wasn’t long before . . . twirl and swirl, grasp, release, swing, jump, run and run! Leap and slide, bounce and fly, land, laugh and run, watch out!
“Tag you’re it!”
The End?
