Louisa Carroll Thomas.    

  "She's like a rainbow

Coming, colors in the air

Oh, everywhere

She comes in colors"

Rolling Stones, She is Like a Rainbow   

  After three days, I arrived at the mountain. It looked majestic because of the sharp contrast between the flat prairie and the imposing mass of rock, which formed the upper half of the mountain. I was so tired that the initial fascination the mountain had exerted over me now disappeared.

I sat on the ground after the sun, with glorious orange beams, had set. I opened my backpack and got my daily ration, one orange, one lemon, one piece of corn bread and one piece of seed bread. I ate slowly enjoying the dusk. I finished it drinking some water. Then I made an evaluation. After three days and 40 miles under a scorching sun, I was really too tired to attempt climbing the mountain. Even though climbing had been one of the things moved me to visit this remote place, at this moment I deserted the idea to visit the top. Rather, I planned for the next day to go around the mountain and pick up some meteorites and fossils in the dried lake. That would be a good end for such an exhaustive trip. I unfolded my blanket and laid down on it. Easily I felt sleep.

Later, I woke up and got up. I rolled my blanket and packed my provisions. Finally I grabbed my backpack and guitar. I started to walk. A starry heaven, without moon, shone with such splendor that I was able to advance without difficulty. Against the gleam of heaven, the dark shape of the mountain lifted up in front of me. And, unexpectedly, I was going toward it. When I realized this fact, I instantly stopped. "Where am I going?" I asked myself, "well my feet are leading me toward the mountain, despite the fact that I have before made up my mind not to do it."

Contrary to what I though, the dawn was not near but the night had just started. I stopped, astonished. I tried to think it over. However it was so clear. Since I came to climb the mountain, I was on my way to conquer its top. I had started the ascent. When I realized it, I said, "O no, I've already changed the plan, now I'm just going to go round it, not to climb it." I saw quietly all around. There was no other way more challenging that the one going to the mountain top. Nonetheless, the freshness of the wind and the beauty of the night were so attractive to me that I considered it wouldn't be that bad, so I decided just let it go.

I took a deep, deep breath, “Okay,” I said, “Here I am and over there I can see the top of the mountain. I just need to climb to get there.” I directed my steps upwardly through the bushes and the rocks. Although the inferior half of the mountain had a great slope, it was walkable since there were no many obstacles in the way and there was enough light coming from the sky.

I walked up slowly. There was no hurry for me. As I advanced, my perspective changed forthwith. The land around the mount was very flat, so coming up, the slant allowed me to have an extended vision of the desert around. The more I moved up, the wider the view was. When I reached half the height of the mountain, the slope abruptly changed. Now I was in front of a vertical rocky wall.

I climbed the wall with great excitement. The star's light was enough to find a way among the rocks. There was a moment in which I could not go further with all my stuff. I had to leave aside my guitar and my backpack. I only kept with me my seashell. This lit my load but also it made the way harder because I used only one hand to climb while I held the shell in the other. I stopped many times to see the starry heaven and its special beauty. I could even see some meteorites falling in the area. Near the dawn I hurried up to get the top. I found a way very narrow but I could go through to the end. The first sunbeams met me right in the last steps. I enjoyed the sunrise standing in the edge of the mountain, sounding my seashell.

The top of the mountain was a flat circular area where I ran back and forth celebrating that I had climbed it. Finally, despite my attempt to quit, I had reached one of the main objectives that had moved me to be in that region. It had been a strange way to climb, at night, but it was successful in its goal. From the top it was possible to see several hundreds of miles away because of the flatness of the desert. I had a wonderful view that I almost missed, but I did not.

I tried to visit every corner of the top before descending. When I came to the southern edge, I stood in a prominent rock. Watching the cliff I realized that the ascension was really dangerous, I had done it without perceiving the real peril because I did it at night. Now it seemed so risky to me to practice a descent. I was wondering how to go down when a group of blackbirds came flying toward the cliff. The way the flew was kind of crazy. They directly advanced toward the rocks to turn aside only when they almost crashed. They seemed to enjoy this practice. I did enjoy watching their tricks, but I was more amazed when I saw them coming in my direction in order to do the same. They flew to the place I was, and when they turned up, they feathers shone with bright colors. Some turned into a metallic blue, some others changed into a resplendent silver light. I wondered whether they knew what they were doing because they were not hunting or searching for food or having an oriented activity that I could understand. I did figure it out that they were performing a sort of aerial dance.

I did not need to understand what they did to make up a response. Having nothing but words, I gathered together phrases and ideas and declaimed poems honoring their flight and celebrating life. I was moved by their aerial dance so much that also I decided to perform mine. I took off my clothes and my shoes and ran away. I jumped and cried aloud verses and songs, feeling the freedom of having wings, the wings of genuine expression. Mine was a flight of victory.   

 When the last eagle flies

Over the last crumbling mountain (...)

They will stare unbelieving at the last unicorn

America, The Last Unicorn  

  The sunset was just about to happen when I got to the highest part of that hill. The sun, huge and orange at that moment, approached the skyline. When I lifted up my eyes to admire the sunset, a deer was standing right there in front of me. Never before I had met a deer, so it was an amazing moment for me. It was precisely at the top of the hill; it was watching me. I looked at it for a while. The sun, as a sweet floating tangerine, was right above the edge of the skyline. Since I didn’t want to miss the sunset I tried to watch both, the deer and the sun.

Finally, after the sun had completely gone behind the skyline, I prepared to move. Meanwhile, the deer kept her beautiful stance, almost frozen. Only her ears moved momentarily. Slowly, I stood up trying not to frighten her off. When I got the vertical position a weird feeling of intense happiness filled my heart. We were there, two natural beings, watching each other in a silent dialogue. That was awesome!

We stared at each other for long time, but the light was fading away, what could I do? "Hey," I shouted and she lift up her head. It prepared to walked away. Suddenly, I left my emotion come out in a burst, and run toward the deer. When she saw me, she swiftly jumped above rocks and bushes, disappearing momentarily from my sigh. When I reached the hilltop, it had already reached the peak of the next one, a hill that was further than hundred feet away. It stopped again at that place and, standing, kept watching me. Behind it, the sky displayed a spread of colored clouds. I did not dare to move again, I just tried to keep a memorable image, a mental picture record. However, later on she slowly went away.

After a sigh, I continued the march. At that moment, I realized that right before me the way was full of deer's tracks. I walked slowly meditating on the beauty of the place. I kept watching the colorful farewell on the skyline. Orange and pink lights followed the sunset, till the first stars appeared.

Later, I hung around toward the North. That place was really special. Supposedly, long ago it was a great lake but now it was only a dessert. It was bare ground, with no trees but full of surprises. In the dried lake, I found several fossils and meteorites.    

 "Suddenly, someone is there at the turnstile,

The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.   

  The Beatles, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds 

The most beautiful time of darkness I ever had happened to me in the midst of the day, precisely at noon. We were on a hill where many flowers colored the bushes and the grass. She was also colorful, dressing those fancy clothes and wearing necklaces and bracelets made by herself. Although she always got weird garments, that day she was dressed as for a special party, she said. She celebrated life! Indeed it was a great event because not every day are we able to watch the moon and sun meet each other in such a way that all nature stops to see them.

She had gotten special 'candies' for the celebration. I had had to decline an invitation for an astronomical meeting at the seashore. Together we had decided to go that place in order to have a natural observation of the solar eclipse, having for instruments only our enhanced eyes. I have not enough words to describe that awesome time we enjoyed full with colors, in a purple sky.

We arrived at the spot in the middle of the morning. It was cold and foggy but we were prepared with honey and chocolate bars. After we pitched the tent we gathered some firewood. We had some corn for our meal and marshmallows and tea for our dinner.

About eleven o'clock, many clouds came, pushed by a cold breeze. The sky became more and more gray till it was totally covered by clouds. I regretted not having gone to the seashore where the astronomers had met together. There I would have enjoyed excellent weather and even the possibility of using some telescopes. Also I could have shot some great pictures and, possibly, interacted with important astrophysicists from many countries.

Thinking that, instead, I had decided to go to the forest because of a girl made me feel bad. It was the eclipse of the century, and I would spend this event with an unschooled friend of mine, with the sky covered by dense clouds. That was sad indeed. She was down, too. Since she realized that, because of our friendship, I let her convinced me to be with her, she would felt guilty if We were not able to watch the eclipse.

"Come on," I said, "It's not that bad! Later we will be able to watch it on video and see the pictures." She saw me with pity. "Well, we cannot be sad forever," I tried to change her mood. "We can still have a party, Can't we?" She did not even move. "Let's light the firewood, and have some tea." I suggested, and got up to gather the stuff.

She said to me, "Look at this, I was saving this for the best moment, however, I think that we can use it now." In her hands there was an excellent material reserved for that day, green smoke, sweet mushrooms, and magic fruits. I realized how much she had been looking forward this event. "Wow," I exclaimed, surprised, "This is a super! With it we can have a very good time." With the sweetness of the honey and the heat of the fire, we felt better. Who would need an eclipse to have a good time when we had a splendid table in a precious place? The tea accompanied our meal, and things started to look better.

Some minutes before noon, the sky became darker quickly. As the time for the totality approached, the light grew dim as it was a normal sundown. The animal started to hide as they normally do in the dusk. The birds turned to their nest. It looked as if the night was coming earlier. Suddenly, the clouds opened and we saw the moon in the center of the sky, almost covering the sun completely. We looked at each other with uncertainty because we did not expected a change at the last time. Would we watch the event unfold?

It seemed that we would be able to watch the eclipse, well, at least the main phase, the totality. She smiled. The wind pushed away, further and further away, till the sky was almost completely visible. Then she started to laugh; it was unbelievable, but finally our desire would be fulfilled.

The more the moon cover the sun's face, the darker the blue of the sky became. Near the totality, the color shifted to a purple, and it was getting more intense as the sun disappeared behind the moon. The trees and the bushes, the same as the grass and the rocks, acquired a very unusual tint. Since lines of colored shadow crept over the hills, the world turned into a very weird scene, as if we were beneath a colorful fluid, or inside a dream.

There was some subtle clouds above us, running away continually, pushed by a fresh breeze. This made a sort of screen dispersing the light and causing very impressive optic phenomena.  When the moon had almost covered the sun's image, in the edge of the corona, a series of rainbows flipped over the point of the conjunction inwardly and surrounded the dark face of the moon, closing circles around it. When the rainbows flipped over they shone lights upon us, showering us with colors. We were astonished, standing on the hill shouting, "wow," "awesome," "great," "cool," and lots of exclamations which naturally flew out of our mouths.

When the moon had covered the sun, rainbows appeared around them. At the same time, many stars shone in the heaven and some planets, drawing a line, witnessed the magnificent event, in a purple sky. The more the moon hide away the sunlight, the more rainbows flipped over the last point of light and enclosed them. At the moment of the totality, when the moon shape covered completely the sun's face, the heaven pitched deep purple. Then, there were several rainbows superimposed around the black circle.

It was amazing to see also the planets aligned in the ecliptic, having in the zenith the moon and sun in conjunction. The moon was totally dark, having covered the sun, only its outer flagrant crown was visible, its resplendent corona. Around them a set of amazing rainbows with the weirdest color I had ever seen. That was totally great! Best of all, we needed no instruments to watch these special features of the so called eclipse of the century. I was trembling with emotion. I looked at her, and surprisingly, she was dancing.

She was crazy, spinning all around, laughing and showing a wide smile. Sometimes she exclaimed out loud about the marvelous event. This completed, for me, the day. Surely I had a better experience being there than elsewhere. I forgot all about telescopes and astronomers, data and technology, personalities and glamour. I enjoyed a natural event an a natural fashion, and that was definitely, the best way.