A Ring And A Rainbow. Deanna Talcott

again, and Claire knew what that meant: She wouldn’t be able to take treats to school next week for her birthday, and she probably wouldn’t get any presents, either. Her mother would mix water in the tomato soup instead of milk, and they’d have to start eating that pukey oatmeal again, instead of cereal.

      Claire kept studying the skies, watching, waiting. “Look,” she said suddenly, straightening. “A rainbow.”

      “So? Last time we saw a double one.” Hunter started picking at a scab on his knee, as if he didn’t care about some silly old rainbow.

      “You s’pose there’s really a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, Hunter?”

      “I dunno. Maybe.” He stopped picking and looked up, out of the corner of his eye.

      “If we found a pot of gold, what would you do with it?”

      “Me? Heck,” he swore, wiping his hands on his shorts, “I’d buy everybody in Lost Falls ice cream. And you and me? We’d share one of those big sundaes with all the whipped cream and cherries and stuff. Twenty-seven scoops of ice cream. Just for us.”

      Claire smiled, thinking of it. “We’d have a party.”

      “Heck, yes. With balloons, and a band, and everything. And we’d invite everybody. Even that crabby Mrs. Harris.”

      Claire turned to look up at him, surprised. “You’re not still mad at her?”

      He shrugged. “Nah. I didn’t mean to step on her stupid old flowers, no matter what she says. I mean, it was the only baseball we had. And since the rest of the guys were afraid to go in her backyard it was up to me to get it back.”

      “You’re pretty brave. I wouldn’t have done it. Not for nothin’,” Claire said.

      “Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. That’s what my dad says.”

      Claire thought about that for a few moments. “If there was anything I ever felt like I had to do, it would be to make sure my Momma had a real nice house, and that she wasn’t cryin’ all the time. And I’d make my Daddy a doctor or somethin’, so people looked up to him, and that way he’d always have a job.”

      Hunter looked at her, and his eyes went kind of soft, like toffee that was melting in the sun. He slipped off the porch rail and came down to sit beside her on the steps. With one grimy hand, he awkwardly reached over to pat her bony knee. “Your daddy could be a doctor, Claire. If he wanted. Look how nice he stitched up Rufus, when he got hit by that car.”

      Claire nodded, and instead of thinking about how her father had sewn the jagged cut on Rufus’s back leg, she fixed her gaze on the rainbow, vaguely wondering if wishing on it would be enough to make her dreams come true. Every time she was with Hunter, she thought she was the luckiest girl in the whole wide world. Last week she’d even gotten him to play “wedding” with her—even though he’d made her promise not to tell.

      She’d worn her Grandma’s long white fuzzy robe—the one that she’d dug out of the ragbag—and Hunter had worn the top hat that he’d gotten at the circus last year. Although they couldn’t remember all the words, Hunter figured if they said the “till death do us part” stuff, that ought to do it.

      Thinking back on it, Claire impulsively leaned over and gave Hunter a dry-lipped peck on the cheek.

      “Yuck!” Hunter drew back and wiped at the spot. “Claire! Quit it! Girls don’t go around kissing boys.”

      “I wasn’t kissing boys,” she said defensively. “I was kissing you.”

      As if that made all the difference, Hunter forgot about it and sat back. The rainbow grew brighter, the colors more distinct. “Okay. Hey? You wanna find it?”

      “What?”

      “The gold at the end of the rainbow.”

      “You bet,” Claire said, unconsciously echoing her daddy’s favorite phrase.

      Hunter bolted off the steps. “Finders keepers!” he yelled, racing ahead of her and into the woods.

      Claire ran after him. They clambered over the split rail fence and scrambled through the thicket. They splashed through the creek and dashed over the sodden ground and into the field.

      “Over there,” Claire pointed. But when they looked up, the rainbow had dimmed.

      They ran harder and faster, until Hunter held his side and Claire was out of breath.

      “Wait. It’s—it’s gone….” she faltered, her face pinched. They both looked at the place the rainbow was supposed to be and turned around—and around. Until they were dizzy, and they were certain it was gone.

      “We waited too long,” Hunter said finally. “Maybe next time.”

      There was nothing left to do but trudge back to the cabin.

      “I thought for sure if we found it everybody would be happy,” Claire said finally. She blinked back one hot tear before Hunter saw it and called her a crybaby. “At least for my mom and dad, and everything.”

      “You know, Claire,” Hunter said, when they got to the fence, “I’ll bet if we buried a little gold, the next time we had a double rainbow, it would make more. Lots more. And then all we’d have to do is just go dig it up, and we’d have all we’d ever need. We could do all the things we ever wanted to do. We could help everybody.”

      “Really?”

      “Sure.”

      Claire stopped and looked at him, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully. “Hunter? I know where to get some gold.”

      “Yeah. Right.”

      “I do.” She climbed over the fence and started walking faster. “Come on. I’ll show you.”

      The car still stood in the driveway, and her mother’s purse was still in the front seat. Claire climbed in and zipped open the little side pocket. Then she pulled out the ring. “See. Momma showed me this morning. It was Grandma’s. And it’s real gold.”

      “Hey. Neat. That’ll work. I’ll get a can from the garbage and we’ll bury it out in the woods. Nobody will ever find it but us.” Hunter smiled widely, exposing a space where a tooth ought to be. “Claire, I’m telling you. We’ll have everything we ever wanted. We’re going to be rich. And we’re going to make everybody happy.”

      Claire chose the deepest, darkest spot in the woods to bury the can, and as she patted the last handful of dirt atop it, had no idea that the only thing she was going to be was in trouble. Great big fat trouble.

      Chapter One

      In life there were supposed to be beginnings and endings, and when Claire Dent looked back over her thirty-four years in Lost Falls, Wyoming, she realized she’d had very few of either. Her life was like a story with a great big middle. It didn’t have a particularly fascinating beginning, and it didn’t appear to be heading toward any remarkable ending.

      Today, however, changes were in the air.

      If things went as she expected, she’d finally put “the end” on one of the most painful chapters of her life—and she’d be happy to do so.

      She yanked open the oven door. She let 350 degrees of dry heat smash her in the face as she gazed in at the chicken pot pie. The gravy bubbled around the edges of a perfectly browned crust, and the scent was heavenly.

      Heavenly.

      Huh. What an ironic comparison to have, especially today. Claire had lived next door to Ella Starnes for as long as she could remember. The woman had been a paradox. As outspoken as a candidate on a bipartisan ballot, as charitable as a saint. It didn’t seem possible that she was gone. She’d just slipped away in her sleep two nights ago. Of course, if there was a woman to make the heavens sing, it would be Ella. She