In the month of July, on a certain day when rain poured down in the afternoon I encountered someone who changed the way I thought. 

 

In the month of July, on a certain day when rain poured down in the afternoon, I hurried through the puddled road with only a small notebook to cover my head. ‘I should have taken the umbrella with me’ I thought. Soon I reached the turn from which my house was only a few blocks away. But still the rain seemed like it had no intention of stopping, rather it kept pouring harder.

“Excuse me?” I turned around on hearing the voice of a young boy probably calling out to me. The first thing I noticed was the umbrella. Well he had one. “Would you like to share the umbrella?” 

Though I was not someone who’d easily talk to or walk around with strangers, but the rain had no scene of quitting and my house was still a little far. 

“Well that’s really kind of you thank you” I said while drawing in closer to him so we would fit properly under the umbrella and we stated walking. On eyeing him closely he looked like he could be the same age as me although he was taller. Suddenly I realized that my uniform was totally soaked.

‘What should I do?!’ I had to check if my shirt had turned transparent.
‘What if he helped me out because of that?!’ 

All sorts of wild thoughts started clouding my head. Embarrassed I checked secretly if anything was visible and trust me it was not a task one could do properly when trying in secrecy. After fidgeting a lot and seeing that I was good to go I sighed with relief. The boy next to me was wearing a uniform to but I couldn’t tell which academy it belonged to.

“What’s wrong” he asked as he caught me looking at him before I could look away.

“Are you a student?” I asked a little abruptly, ‘well of course he is, that’s why he is wearing a uniform!’ I thought to myself as I felt like I had asked a really stupid question and it seemed like my face had given away every detail of what I had been thinking for he suddenly chuckled and then laughed out really loud.

“You don’t need to be so conscious.” He spoke looking in front with a big grin. 
“What do you mean?” I had lost him on this part.
“Your clothes are fine” he said now trying to hide his growing smile. HE NOTICED! Well stealth mode wasn’t one of my strongest points you see. I don’t know if I turned red or not but I could feel a lot of heat coming out of my face.

“W-w-well w-what is that to you?” I stuttered my way through the sentence. And come on that is not something you say to a girl!
“Hahaha sorry, my bad. What I meant was that you can relax that’s all.” He said smiling brightly at me. Somehow, this boy didn’t seem so dangerous anymore. And so I smiled back, though I was a little embarrassed.

“So which school do you go to?” he asked.

“I cannot tell you that.” Even though I was at ease I was still a bit defensive. Giving out information to just anyone was not a good thing, at least that is what my mom believed in.

“Oh ok, I get it. Sorry.” He said scratching his head in confusion. “Well then how old are you? I am thirteen.”

“I am twelve” I guessed right he was about my age. “So you are like my senior then”
“Yes I guess you could say that.” And he hit my head lightly on this. 
“What was that for?” I sad laughing and hit him back. “It is weird to talk like this.”
“Yeah it is. Are you from the FIB or something of that sort?” 
“No need to make fun of me” I said with a poker face. But somehow I felt like talking more. He had a nice personality I guess that’s why.

“Till here is fine” I stopped at the footpath as my house was now only a few houses away.
“Ms.FBI wants to hide her address to?” he asked teasing. And I just rolled my eyes and smiled back.
“That is none of your business you know” I said while slowly moving out from under the umbrella.

“Take this with you” he extended the umbrella over my head and I caught the handle reflexively. “It’s still raining.”
“What? No! Thank you but its fine really” I said while trying to give it back but he won’t take no for an answer and hid his hands behind his back smiling widely.

“Just take it today I’ll take it back some other day.” He replied.
“You are a bit weird you know” we both smiled and waved to each other. When I turned around the rain suddenly slowed down a bit and a stream of sunlight broke into a beautiful faint rainbow before me. I had seen a rainbow before but this was the first time I saw the birth of one.

“Hey” I turned around and called out to the boy and pointed to the rainbow. He looked mesmerized as well. It truly seemed a little magical, so magical that it made me wish if I could travel to the end of one and get some golden coins.

“FBI?” he called out in a loud voice, “Do you know why the rainbow is so pretty?”

“Why?” what a strange question. There were so many answers to this question.
“It is not afraid of showing off its colors that’s why!”
What was that supposed to mean? He waved bye and then turned around and soon disappeared around the corner. ‘What a strange guy’ I thought once more before making my way back home.

It rained continuously for the next whole week. Neither did I see him again nor did I see any more rainbows that year. I wanted to return his umbrella to him but that seemed a bit tough now. We didn’t even know each other’s names. All I could do was take the same road to get home at the same time but he never showed up. 

One rainy day I realized something that I had not noticed before. His umbrella was completely transparent with no patterns or any decorations. ‘His belongings are odd too it seems.’ But when I looked up though it and saw the sky, it made my heart beat a little unevenly. Strange or nor, I felt like I wanted to meet that boy again. But he never showed up.

In the end I gave up looking for him. Soon that day become a memory of the past. The only thing that tagged along was this odd umbrella and his final words. I finally understood what he meant by the colors of the rainbow.

He wanted Ms.FBI to be a little more open, at least that is what I felt and I agreed with him. I started helping out people. Of course I didn’t go berserk trying to chat up strangers or anything. What I did was offer the umbrella to others on rainy days. These people were mainly old folks and young school students. But I could never let them keep it like he gave it to me. It felt like a lucky charm now.

Soon the leaves turned color and they kept changing. A lot of time went by. About six years passed by. I finished my school and finally became a freshman in a collage.

This might seem a little off topic but have you ever heard of the Wheel of fortune card of the Tarot card deck? Well that card talks about the old saying of what goes around comes around. If you do something good or bad, it will definitely get back to you in some way or the other. One unexpected day I finally had the encounter which I had waited for so long in the past.

In the month of July, on a certain day when rain poured down in the afternoon. I quickly opened my umbrella as I waved bye to my friends and started walking towards my pg. My collage was a little far and so I decided to move out of home for that time period. When I reached the turn from where my pg. was only a few blocks away, I saw a boy standing under a tree waiting for the moment when the downpour would at least turn to drizzle, maybe.

“Excuse me?” I asked and he looked at me with a funny expression. “Would you like to share the umbrella?” 

“Thank you so much! I am going left though, is your route the same?” he asked hopefully as he quickly made room for himself under the umbrella.

“Yes, my pg. is up ahead.” I replied and we started walking. Something felt oddly familiar to me suddenly. As we walked past buildings and parks and approached our destination, the rain started clearing up. Looking up through the umbrella we could see a mix of blue tints and tones and amidst them we saw a rainbow as it slowly spread across the blue sky.

“Wow” we muttered together and then giggled at our timing.

“Do you know why the rainbow is so pretty?” the boy suddenly asked and looked at me with a big smile. I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. I eyed him a little more intensely and my doubts grew bigger. This face was indeed close to one from my past.
“Why…?” I asked almost in a whisper.

“Because it is not-”
 “AFRAID OF SHOWING OFF ITS COLORS” We finished in unison. Stunned for a moments, we stood there dumfounded. 
“How old are you? I am nineteen” this sounded like a question within a question to me as if asking if I remembered the conversation.
“I am eighteen” as unrealistic as it seemed, it was really happening. We had met in the past and we remembered it vividly. We stood silent for another long moment not being able to gather what to say. 

“T-THANK YOU FOR YOU UMBRELLA!” I suddenly realized that even after six years I had been carrying his umbrella around. Something of this sort was sure to make me look like a lunatic.

“How do you still have it? It’s amazing that it held up so well.” He said in an amused tone.
“Well…” there wasn’t much I could say to that. After all what was I supposed to say? I did not have an answer myself. I had developed a special spot for this odd umbrella and it was like a lucky charm for me now.

We smiled at each other warmly.

“Hi, my name is Mai” I introduced myself. Something that I wished I had done before.
“I am Hiro” he said as we shook hands. “When did you quit the FBI?” Hiro teased.

“You are still as weird as before I see.” I chuckled, “Right after I learned what made the rainbow pretty.”

That was the starting of our proper friendship. As expected, we were meant to be friends. Sometimes it’s nice to drop your guard and just go with the flow of things. We are missing out on so much in our lives because of the walls we create. Maybe it’s high time we let the colors show.