The Leprechaun

Do you remember that evening?

The endless monsoon shower just died down to a occasional sprinkling of miscellaneous droplets..heavenly tears onto and around us. Do you remember the quiet? That freshness, the earth beneath our bare feet, fields of emerald for miles all around. The hills surrounding us stood majestically, triumphant in their eternal poise.

You just sat there, silent gazing into the distance, breeze ruffling your hair. Me by your side, lost in the green, lost in the moment. .

Up ahead in the horizon, the skies cleared to reveal a sliver of golden light setting in the west. The sliver shone a rainbow nearby, those colours, you smiled and held my hand in childish delight. Are you thinking what I am thinking? but those are mere fairytales..aren't they?
We ran hand in hand, wild abandon to that elusive spot where rainbows end and rainbows commence..or do they never end..maybe they just go on into the ground to light up the world below?..After all everybody deserves a rainbow..some colour in a world of too much black and white.

Remember that mysterious tree we stopped at? It had a few branches, leaves, fruits, birds-nests all bathed in colour. Every colour imaginable on its branches various hues, shades emphasised in the twilight. I pulled you to me, your arms around my neck, my lips on yours, raindrops through the rustling leaves onto us as we kissed an eternity, are we still there?

Footsteps mild, soft almost nonchalant but we hear them...I turn around mesmerized, your eyes follow mine...the smallest creature imaginable, almost invisible yet perceptible. Holding a small magenta pot with a sweet knowing smile under his whiskers..walking towards the rainbow..we followed him so softly.. remember...as he ambled those last few paces to the field of colour..he sang to the colour in a tongue ancient and a song in itself.The colours trembled at his tiny voice as if it was thunder itself.He turned to face us, knowing all along where we were,who we were..impishly he put his finger on his lips implying a shush...shh..and a smile as he disappeared into the fading rainbow...

Was that a choir in the distance? Fluttering of wings perhaps? Then a mild bugle call...

We walked back to our cottage as the dark shadows of dusk finally took root all around us. That night, as the full moon fought it's moonbeams through thick clouds to us, lovers together, entwined within each others arms..you felt a gold coin appear in the palm of your hand..

Do you remember how beautiful that coin was? It sparkled in the dark and in the soft moonlight, all the colours of the rainbow reflected at us, it was a gift..I could have sworn I heard that familar pitter-patter of small feet in the distance and that sweet voice singing like a nightingale.

He is still here, watching over us.. his secret is safe with us..always.