The Journey Home - The rainbow

2 years ago this week I started a blog of short stories inspired by Rory's Story Cubes. As time went by the stories didn’t need the cubes. But the cubes will forever be part of the blog. To celebrate my blog’s second birthday I’ve returned to the cubes. 5 stories inspired by those 9 cubes. The blog has asked me to ask you not for presents to celebrate its birthday but for comments, shares, likes etc. Let’s get this thing going viral :-) 


I was so tired my head drooped like a flower starved of water and light, I longed to sleep but the jerky motion of the train kept me from drifting off. Rain lashed against the window, there was lightening in the air but in the distance the sun peaked through the clouds creating an eerie, early evening light. I looked for a rainbow but if there was one then it was not visible from my train seat.

I shut my eyes again and reflected on the day. I’d buzzed around like a bee but hadn’t really achieved anything. Meeting after meeting, handshake after handshake, smile after smile but I was no further forward than I was this time yesterday and let’s face it, I wasn’t very far forward back then. I was considering giving up, throwing the in towel, crawling back into my tent and forgetting about this new venture. I was new to this game, a learner by comparison to the sharks I was dealing with, but I’d come this far, could I really give up now?

My head drooped again and then my body jerked shaking me from my near sleep state. I opened my eyes and looked at the scenery rushing by. The rain had stopped but evening was closing in so despite the brighter sun it somehow seemed darker now; maybe that was just my mood.

Sometimes the dice felt loaded, I was just the little guy trying to make it in the big bad world, swimming against the tide. My phone buzzed. I had a message but I daren’t look. It would be another rejection, another thanks but no thanks. They’d be polite but firm. At first I wore rejection with pride, I’ll show them I thought, when I am rich and famous then they’ll be sorry. But the more and more rejections I got the harder it was to believe that.

The message was from Jo. I’d sent her a message in a fit of pique earlier saying this was all useless.

‘You’re a genius. Keep trying :-) ’ She wrote back. I smiled a sad smile, she believed in me but  was she the only one who did?  

I flicked from messages to emails, rejection, rejection, junk, junk. I was just about to delete the junk. when something stopped me. I clicked it and read.

‘Dear Mr Edwards, Your details were passed to me by my colleague Michael Jones who I understand you met with today. I work for an offshoot of the main company and we are always on the look out for quirky ideas like yours. I wondered if you could come in to meet us some time this week.’ 

It was only a first step, only a glimmer of light but as a rainbow spread across the sky in front of me a happy smile spread across my face.