Rainbow Emergency

You know when your phone does that squalling emergency alert noise in the middle of the night and scares the crap out of you? There was flash flooding across Oahu this week so I got one of those. I checked and saw it wasn’t an incoming ballistic missile and went back to sleep. Unfortunately, it woke up Eloise, too, so she came racing into my room because of “that scary sound.” So she streeeeeeetched out between Chris and me until I folded her arms down and told her she had to share my pillow, and then we tried to sleep and poked and jostled each other until the dark lightened to rainy gray. It was actually pretty cozy. 

I needed to drive over to Pearl Harbor that day to reserve the pavilion the Oahu A&M Club enjoyed for Aggie Muster for next year’s event. I rarely NEED to drive over to Pearl Harbor, so I’m not often on the H3 freeway in torrential rain and flash flooding, although I’ve heard it is lovely. IT IS STUNNING. I wanted to pull over on the shoulder of the freeway and marvel but Chris, on the side closest to the long drop down, was having none of that.

A few months ago my friends cracked up at my crab-walk along the rim of the Pali Puka hike…I am shamelessly terrified of heights. See those waterfalls? THAT’S HOW FAR YOU’RE FALLING IF YOU SLIP, PEOPLE! Holy moly.

So driving through the Ko’olaus—amazing. Braving the completely flooded harbor parking lot to make the reservation—exciting. Lunch on the lanai of The Lanai watching planes take off and the rain come down into the sea—cozy. Eloise was a contented tag-along, and we collected Isaac from school and went home to nap and do homework. Jackie came over to do Isaac’s ukulele lesson. She’s teaching him to read music, and right now he’s working on playing “I Lava You” and “Mele Kalikimaka.” I was making dinner and looking out the window. Hmm, those clouds are so dark gray. I’ve never seen clouds that color I thought, craning my head to get a better look. RAINBOW! I love rainbows. Who doesn’t? I might get a little excited about them.

“RAINBOW!” I yelled, flailing and running out the door. “OH MY GOSH IT IS A FULL DOUBLE RAINBOW! PAUSE YOUR LIFE AND COME SEE THIS IMMEDIATELY!”

Jackie, Chris, Eloise and Isaac came outside, laughing at me for getting all excited, until they, too, saw this most amazing of rainbows.

“Ok, that IS a legitimate rainbow emergency,” Jackie said. Rainbow emergency. That’s exactly what it was.

“WHOA something something something RAINBOW!” we heard someone exclaim from two or three houses away.

Another neighbor let his dog out and stood for a minute before turning to see what we were all looking at and saying, “OH MAN look at that rainbow!”

We all oooo-ed and aaaaaah-ed, then everyone went back inside to finish the uke lesson and get out of the misting rain.

I scrambled up onto the roof, where I could see the rainbow AND the sun setting low over the Ko’Olaus. I did not know beauty like this was possible—powerful and breathtaking, ephemeral and reborn. On the roof, beneath a purple sky, with the golden orange illuminating the west and a thousand splendid colors in the east, I wondered how will we ever tear ourselves away from this place? and sun sank and the rainbow slipped into darkness.