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| Chasing Rainbow by Judy Underwood |
The long day finally ended. The voice in her head went silent and the darkness gave her such a warm embrace. Her breath became so slow, a non-motion, a non-anything, nothing.
First, she saw the forest. The trees were covered in leaves of laughing green. Actually, all the colors laughed, even the bits of sky laughing blue that peeked in the openings. Like all laughter, it infected her and she giggled at first, then let out the most amazing guffaws. They startled her. It was so funny, it made her laugh some more.
The ground, laughing brown of course, burped bubbles. They shimmered with all shades of laughing colors. None of them popped. They just bounced away. Though as a child she'd had so much fun with them, she had no compulsion to chase them now and she especially did not want them to burst.
Somehow, as if she were a mirror to herself she saw an angel. She laughed harder now because she didn't even believe in them. But there she was looking at herself - the angel.
Suddenly, not with her ears, she listened to something with no words or form of meaning that she'd ever heard. It said she was right. There are no angels with wings and frills, but this image she must surely understand.
As if there was no thing as time or space, she was inside a bubble enjoying a most hilarious ride. When she looked down she saw herself as she had been, lying motionless while loved ones cried.
She was glad to leave them behind. All she could do now is laugh and hope they too live in colors of fun when they die.
(Submitted to Bluebell Books, flash fiction Thursday.
