Not black and white, but rainbow

At tea time yesterday the rain poured down outside the window. I looked up and saw the glow of the sun and a hint of blue amongst the grey, and said 'There might be a rainbow.'

Aggi (our new au pair) told us about a beautiful rainbow she'd seen the day she arrived in England, and asked Amy if she'd ever seen one.

'When I was 3' Amy said, and we got on with our tea.

The doorbell rang. I expected it to be Amy's friend Tayba, she's a frequent visitor, although she had just gone home because I'd told her we were eating.

It was Tayba again. 'I wanted you to see that,' she said, and pointed.

At the end of our road was a rainbow. We all left our pasta and went to see it. The base was the darkest colour, but it wasn't perfect because in the middle it was blank, it was white not coloured, it just stopped, then suddenly continued again, as a hazy blur of every colour that it was easier to view as one interesting shade.

This morning Amy discussed favourite colours, as she often does.

'What's your favourite colour?'

She knows I always answer orange. I told her, 'Blue.'

She said, 'Are you just saying that to make me happy?' Blue is her favourite colour you see.

'No,' I said.

I was just really tired of saying orange. I'd said it so often that I wasn't even sure if it was my favourite colour any more. I heard the question but no longer thought when I gave the answer. Only now I was thinking of a blue sky. And I thought of something else too, I thought of questions and answers that you think you know, but don't. So I told Amy that nothing lasts, nothing's real forever, I told her that the way I feel is fickle; only I said, 'wibbly wobbly' because I didn't think she'd know what 'fickle' meant.

I told her I was the sort of person who have to be asked, 'What's your favourite colour today?'

Because I couldn't be sure of anything lasting forever.

Amy liked this idea. I could see her thinking this meant endless possibilities with her 'favourites' game. I felt like I somehow taught Amy a valuable lesson. And me too.

Amy asked me to ask her what her favourite colour 'today' was. So of course I did.

She said, 'Rainbow. I saw one yesterday, and it was good.'

I like blue again today. It's my favourite colour today. I'll think of blue skies while I can.