by Paul Charles
“You must complete your search for the end of the rainbow and then, and only then, return to me. Our hearts are now as one so until we can be as one, what will be will be.”
“But why can’t you come with me in search of the end of the rainbow,” Mud whispered being somewhat taken aback by the mode of the conversation.
“Because, as I say, I have also got things I have to do. I must stay here and help my parents get back on their feet again. Now enough of this; let us not spoil these last few hours together. Just always remember we are each other’s and neither man nor God can change that.”
Agreement prevailed and there was much merry making in the village that night with Mud the guest of honour and the people of Mudgemen Valley presented him with a jaunting car and a beautiful white pony to draw it. This was the villagers reward to Mud for bringing Lord Lightlead to a hot end.
At dawn next morning Mud said his farewells to Annie and rode off down the road in his jaunting car and pony, which Annie had christened Whitey. He could feel tears starting to fill his eyes as he sensed Annie distance.
He would return and they would be together, no doubt, no need to cry, no need to shout. No for as Annie had said, “What will be will be.”
Chapter Five - THE LAKE OF THE MIRRORS
A couple of miles later Mud managed to temporarily put Annie out of his mind. He climbed down from the jaunting car and led Whitey for a few miles. Mud slowed way, way down. Now his life pace, reactions and thoughts were all at quarter speed.
The beauty of the countryside left him breathless. As far as the eyes could see, a million different shades of the national colour, green. On and on there were hills, dales and streams of fresh clear water reflecting the innocence of the clear blue sky. Peace, perfect peace.
If everyone could witness such beauty, thought Mud, perhaps they would enjoy much fuller lives. But then again, on reflection he realised, as people differ so they take and require a multitude of different things from life. Shortly after mid day Mud spied this beautiful little dale just outside Killaloe. He stopped the car and led it off the path over the field.
To the left was a small hill with a stone wall following the line of the ridge. On around was a cluster of beech trees and then to the right a line of sight to where the eyes could see the green of the fields and the blue of the sky melt together. In the foreground was a small lake which was obviously fed by one of the tributaries of the grand River Shannon.
Mud unharnessed Whitey, gave her water and tied her to a bush allowing her to graze the afternoon away. The jaunting car he left about six feet away from the edge of the lake and used it as shelter from the sun. So he sat down to eat sharing his bread with the hungry birds.
Having contented himself on food Mud bathed himself and then went down to the beech trees and lay down under one of them for a quick nap. He woke late afternoon just as dusk fell feeling quite annoyed with himself that he had just wasted the best part of the day in slumber.
Mud went lazily over to the lake to wash the sleep from his eyes. With dusk serenity had fallen over the land. Mud bent down to his knees to bathe his eyes in the water.
As he bent over to cup the water with his hands he could have sworn that his reflection winked at him. This spooked Mud quite a bit but he put it down to the fact that he was still drowsy from sleep. He quickly bathed his eyes and then, when the ripples had settled he bent over to gaze at his reflection again.
Once again, his reflection winked at Mud and this time as he was recovering from the shock a reflection of his hand and arm came up out of the water and pulled Mud into the lake. Mud could feel himself being drawn down through the water by his reflection. It was unbelievable, the likeness of his ‘double’. It was identical right down to Mud’s granddad’s eyes piece and his eye-catching waistcoat.
Mud was having trouble catching his breath as he was drawn down to the bottom of the lake. His ‘double’ notice that Mud was having trouble and once again gave him a devilish wink and pointed up ahead. Then Mud saw the gates. They were gigantic and snow white. Large gates under a lake, surely he must still be dreaming? The lake seemed to take up ten times the area it appeared to cover on ground level. The captor made a sign of seven and the gates opened for him.
As they opened Mud could see that the inside was waterless and so, naturally enough, when the gates opened the water rushed in to fill the void, but only for a distance of six feet ‘cause then it stopped on a glass wall, or a wall that appeared to be made of glass.
Just then the gates shut behind them and Mud was pulled up to the top of the gate level and there, much to his relief, I hasten to add, he found an air pocket,. There was even a platform and as Mud crawled on board he saw the water level of the cylinder he had just climbed out of drop as the water was pumped back out into the lake. Mud was led through a hatch and down steps into the closed dome. Mud passed out from sheer exhaustion on the sheer white base of the dome. The base was made of a substance not in Mud’s range of knowledge.
When Mud came to he found himself in a strange snow white hut in this ‘village’ beneath the water. He reflected for a short time. He was still convinced that he must be dreaming. He pinched himself, kicked himself, threw a bucket of water over himself, pulled his hair, ears, and nose, all in van in an attempt to wake himself up.
In his attempts to wake himself up he had failed to notice that two people were rolling about in a fit of laughter at his antics. Mud recognised one of them as being his ‘double’, the very same evil little man that had pulled him into the lake.
The other looked slightly inhuman and was dressed all in white.
“What am I doing here?” Mud felt quite pathetic at his predictable opening statement.
His ‘double’ answered. “Welcome to ‘The Lake of the Mirrors’ .”
“The Lake of the Mirrors?” questioned Mud.
“Yes,” replied his ‘double’, “Come over here, sit down and eat and drink with us and I’ll explain.”
So Mud meekly followed the two over to the other corner of the room and sat on a cushioned floor situated around a very low table.
“Perhaps we should introduce ourselves,” began the third in a very low unnatural voice. There was no feeling in his voice and Mud thought he sounded like someone that was speaking in a voice that wasn’t his own. “This,” he continued pointing to Mud’s ‘double’, “Is Dum Naginalf and I am known as Evif; you we know are Mud Flanigan. That’s not all we know about you, in fact being perfectly honest, we probably know more about you than you do about yourself.”
“That’s neither here nor there,” interrupted Dum, “as you probably have noticed I look exactly like you, or, if you like, you look exactly like me, depending on through whose eyes you are looking.”
“True,” replied Mud, “But why have you gone to all this trouble to bring me here to the lake to ‘The Lake of the Mirrors’?”
“Well look, it’s a long tale so I had better start at the beginning. You see, Mud, we are just one of the many sets of ‘doubles’ in the universe. Every person on earth, or my planet, has an exact double. These identical doubles are doing and thinking exactly the same things at the same time, on another planet, or, on what you people on earth call, stars.
“Take you and me for instance; we have led a mirror life for the last twenty four years, shared the same emotions, feelings, doubts, fears, joys and sadness. Do you remember lying under the trees near your home on cold winter nights gazing up into the stars and wondering was there any life up there? Remember when your mother died and you decided to start out on your fantastic journey to find the end of the rainbow, and thought that you were all alone? I did too, but we weren’t alone, we were together.
“Now in ‘The Lake of the Mirrors,’ which is the link place between our two planets, time is standing still for the two of us to meet.”
“It’s so fantastic… all those things you say… I can’t believe them… you mean all those things I was thinking the same… you had the same thoughts?
I can’t believe it. I can’t…..believe it,” doubted Mud in such a hesitant way that recognised the fact to be true. “But why should we actually come together and how at this moment are our thoughts different?” enquired Mud.
“Your thoughts differ because, relevant to your own lifetimes, these moments don’t exist,” replied Evif. “This, ‘Lake of the Mirrors’ is a bridge point between your two planets and your two lives and it is here that special couples, or, as we prefer to call you ‘twins’, special twins who, because of their unusual life styles are destined to meet so that you may share a secret with each other. That is where I come in.”
“But why are you here?” enquired Mud.
“On that point there is not too much that I can say, but suffice to state that a long time ago I met my ‘ twin’ here to learn a secret. Perhaps, sometimes in the future, you two will replace me in the ‘Lake of the Mirrors’ answered Evif.
He continued, “Before your secret is unfolded to you we will make a short journey around the village in order that we may quench some of your queries.”
At this point Evif rose to his feet and, leading the way, they left the room. Mud felt quite strange, it was neither hot nor cold and everything was in a snow white finish. Outside there was egg cup type chairs sitting on the ground. Evif motioned to them to sit one in each and when all three were seated the chairs began to move off in single file. First Evif, then Mud, then Dum.
“This,” Evif began, pointing to a large white building, “Is the childhood section.” The chairs came to a halt and the party rose from them and entered the building. Mud now felt sure he was dreaming, he just couldn’t believe it or even comprehend it all. Facing one large wall were a team of Evif’s colleagues and on the wall were scores of moving pictures which the men in white were studying very closely, jotting down notes as time passed.
The pictures were split in two and in each set Mud and Dum could see other ‘twins’ all doing exactly the same things at the same time. The only difference was the backgrounds.
Evif led them out of the building and pointed to the other three in the block. “House No. 2 for the “Teenage Stage” and No. 3 for the “Manhood Stage” and No. 4 for “Dying Stages” for reasons I can’t disclose we can’t visit any of those…”
Once more they sat in the ‘egg seats’ and this time the trio moved to the tallest building in the dome, so tall in fact that it reached right up to the top of the centre of the dome. Evif informed them that they were now going to a room right at the very top of this building. Mud was expecting a long hard climb up a ladder or other such and was rather bewildered when Evif took them into a little room at the foot of the building, closed the door, pressed a button on the wall and then all of a sudden Mud had a weird feeling in his tummy. A few seconds later, when Evif opened the door, Mud realised that they were actually at the top of the building.
On leaving the “travelling room” they followed Evif along a narrow corridor and into a room marked “Controller.” Evif made a slight bow, “This is Mud, from earth, and, Dum from Saturn,” Evif said by way of introduction as he pointed to each in turn, “This,” he said addressing Mud and Dum and gesturing to the little man sitting behind the desk in the room, “Is Owt, he will look after you until you leave.”
With that Evif bowed once again and disappeared.
Chapter Six - THE SEVENTH SECRET
“Now” began Owt, “You have been prepared mentally for the final stage of your journey.” He rushed through his words a lot more than Evif had done.
“The secret we give, the lesson you learn, at your own expense, is that ALL LIFE IS PRECIOUS, especially our own.”
With that he disappeared into the floor. A few seconds later the roof slid open and the water of the lake gushed into the room and Mud and Dum were separated in their fight for survival. Mud swam and swam. His seconds felt like hours, the glass dome of the village appeared as a bubble on the floor of the lake, a little snow white bubble far beneath him.
His lungs ached for the air he longed to breathe, his strength of mind and body was being sapped from him, he could see in the distance, just about, Whitey his pony. He swam frantically in that direction. His arms and legs becoming like tons of lead trying to pull him back as he pulled and pushed his way through the water. Mud could hold his breath no longer; he gasped and swallowed a pint of water. He then started to panic and splashed and bopped about in no fixed direction.
He thought, that’s it, he’s lost his cool; he’d no chance of getting out. He swam slower and slower… another mouthful of water… he was going… going…
No!
He wouldn’t give in… he wasn’t going to let it end there. He fought to catch his second breath and aimed once more for the pony. He felt himself catching the reins which were now dangling in the water. Slowly, but surely he pulled himself out of the water. His head and shoulders were clear, a little bit more and he’d be safe. Mud then passed out.
The pony was licking his face when Mud came round. His legs and feet were freezing, he crawled over to the jaunting car peeled off his clothes, put a blanket around himself and lit a fire to warm himself up and to dry his clothes.
A few hours later, completely dried out Mud felt a lot better. The sun was going down and made a red halo on the horizon.
Surely it was a halo to protect the beauty of the land Mud thought.
Today, even more so than yesterday, it was good to be alive.
To be sure it was.
Chapter Seven - THE BEAUTY OF GALWAY BAY
Mud woke early next morning to the joyous sound of the dawn chorus. The freshness in the air reminded him of the first morning he’d set off on his fantastic journey. Once again he shared his food with the hungry birds and then he harnessed Whitey and set off once more into the early morning.
By late afternoon he knew he was nearing the coast because he could see and hear the seagulls above him as he merrily jaunted along in his car with not a care in the world. And then, high upon a hill on the coast near Galway, he saw it, the most beautiful bay in the world. His father had often told him tales of this bay when he was young and they were all sitting around the fire on Sunday afternoons after the dinner. Sunday used to be the BEST family day, Mud reflected. There was nothing better to do on a Sunday than to be together.
The knowledge Mud had gained from those Sunday afternoons would surely serve him well throughout his lifetime. Perhaps THEY were the laws of living, all the things he needed to know. Yes there were certainly strange things that he didn’t need to know; like how the Eskimos made an igloo curve in at the top so as it met in a circle in the centre of the roof. Strange people were the Eskimos Mud thought.
Rain started to fall. It broke Mud’s train of thought. He pulled the hood of the car out and still kept gazing in awe of the bay. He thought of Annie. He hadn’t seen her now for only a matter of days but it seemed like a lifetime. Those hours he had spent with her were now precious memories.
He thought of Dum, and wondered had he too managed to save himself from drowning? Mud concluded that what was for one was for the other so Dum must have also survived.
The rain ceased. There, now before his eyes, was a breathless sight of the green of the land, the blue of the bay under one of the most magnificent rainbows he had ever seen in his life.
It was truly a magnificent sight.
“The end of the Rainbow isn’t far away,” Mud sang out to Whitey who seemed to nod his head in agreement.
Chapter Eight - THE LEGEND OF THE RAINBOW
And so the magical little figure of Mud became a common sight as he made his way across Ireland. Stopping briefly in all the villages, telling his generous hosts stories of his travels and once again all about his search for the end of the Rainbow so as he may bury his pot gold there.
During the time he spent with those who showed him kindness he brought warmth into the lives of many. Of course there were a few that tried to swindle him out of his gold and he had, in fact, many a close
shave but, the stars were with him and each morning he would set off one day nearer his destination. Each day would take him a day further into his new exciting and adventure packed life; a life that only a few months ago hadn’t seemed worth living. How wrong he had been and how glad he’s been able to prove himself wrong.
On one such fine and beautiful morning Mud woke to find the Rainbow end actually shining on his bed. There it was large as life.
He walked around it, through it and danced around it for hours doing what was later to become known as “The Dance of the Rainbow.”
Mud then took out his gold, put it in a pot and there, at the foot of the Rainbow, miles from nowhere, he buried his pot of gold.
The search for the rainbow end was over. He mounted his jaunting car and set off back down the country road leaving behind him the legend of how there was a pot of gold buried at the end of the rainbow. He was off to find Annie and start his life with her.