The Storm

Michelle stared at the big red barn. She had always wondered why they were painted red and not orange or purple. So she sat and wondered every day. Eventually I will figure it out she thought.

     Michelle had just turned seven over the summer. She thought she was all grown up now, but there were still so many things that she didn’t know. She didn’t know why the potatoes grew under the ground, while the tomatoes grew above the ground. She also didn’t know why her big brother, Daniel, who was nine, took so long to do his chores. She was waiting for him so they could play.

     Daniel always played with Michelle after their chores were done. They played all kinds of games around the farm, but Michelle’s favorite was hide and seek.

     Finally, Daniel was done with his chores and went to where Michelle sat staring at the barn.

     “It’s about time you finished,” she said.

     “I have a lot more chores than you do Michelle,” said Daniel. “What do you want to play today?”

     “Well I think today is a good day for hide and seek,” Michelle said.

     “Well then,” said Daniel, “hide and seek it is. I’ll be it, and you can go hide.”

     Daniel started to count on the side of the barn, and Michelle ran off to hide. She liked hiding in the pig pen with all the pigs. Michelle thought she should hide with the chickens today, but they were making a lot of noise, so she settled on the pigs again.

     Daniel always knew where to find Michelle, because she always giggled and couldn’t stay still. He would look everywhere but where she was hiding to make the game last longer and not hurt Michelle’s feelings by finding her right away.

     It was fall now, so they were wearing their jackets and the leaves crunched under their feet. The leaves made it really easy to tell where Michelle had hidden herself. But Daniel still looked everywhere else first. He knew Michelle was hiding with the pigs but he looked in the chicken coop, and the calf pen.

     That is when he heard the rumbling. It almost sounded like a stampede of cattle, but when he looked around there were no cattle running. Then he heard it again. He looked towards the road and saw big black clouds coming in fast. The rumbling he had heard was thunder. Daniel didn’t have to look for Michelle anymore. The thunder had scared her out of hiding.

     Just then Daniel heard their father calling to get the animals to the barn. Daniel led the calves to the barn, while Michelle led the foals. Then they went out and helped their father with the big animals. As Daniel and Michelle were running back to the barn with the cat and dog, Michelle kept looking over her shoulder. She wanted to make sure that there were no animals left outside.

     The storm was moving in fast. Just as Daniel and Michelle reached the barn the sky opened up and a torrential rain fell. It was raining so hard that their father said they would wait out the storm in the barn.

     “We’ll make little seats and beds from the extra hay,” said their father.

     So they made little beds and lay down to wait out the storm. Michelle fell asleep while she was waiting. Next thing she knew, she was being shaken awake by Daniel.

     “Come on sis,” said Daniel. “you have to come and see this. It’s really cool”

     So, Michelle followed Daniel outside the barn. The rain had stopped and there was a beautiful rainbow with blue, red, green, orange, purple, and yellow in it.

     That is what the barn should be painted like, she thought. A rainbow barn would be much more interesting than a plain old red barn.