Rainbow Yawning

• Patrick Austin, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2018

Here we go again, Dad is packing the Jayco camper trailer filled to the gunnels with all sorts of gizmos for our next “great outdoor adventure”. He bought the Jayco to see if it would beat the “Old Tent” and whether it would be suitable for our “big trip” into our wonderful sunburnt country.

I remember quite clearly, we decided to camp at Rainbow Beach. I thought that the beach was an actual rainbow, but alas there was not a rainbow to be found, nor a big bearded leprechaun with a pot of gold.

Sometimes my Mum would serve wraps for dinner. I would usually gobble a wrap down like a piglet. I would eat as many as I could unless Mum told me to stop (sometimes I don’t listen). Well I should have listened to my mother that ill-fated, blustery day.

I was eating my wrap containing my favourite ingredients - refried beans (which I call “cat food”), cheese, carrot and sour cream. As my tribe finished their dinner I wanted another one. My belly was groaning and gurgling saying “stop, no more”. So was my mother. I mistook this message for “FEED ME”. So I made another wrap. As I was devouring it, my big sister went for a shower at the disgusting horrible campsite showers.

When I finished my second wrap my belly started making volcanic gurgling sounds, this was going to be my personal Pompeii. I rushed to the camper trailer door. I tried opening it but it was stuck! I tried again, I felt like a Gladiator, it was me versus the door. Not knowing who my opponent was on the other side nor who was about to receive my devastating special attack, “THE RALPHING OF DOOM”, the door gave way to the setting sun outside.

I stood, poised on the top step of the camper and proceeded to projectile vomit like a shimmering rainbow of stink and decomposed wraps all over my sister. My sister was squeaky clean from her shower. I wasn’t finished yet and puked a bit little more. My sister just stood there like a stunned mullet, frozen in time and space. Steam rose from her neck and then the floodgates of tears opened. I thought she looked like a “Pro Hart” masterpiece but in human form.

Oh my goodness, what a mess. My Mum wasn’t really helping the situation as she was just standing there desperately trying not to laugh, keeping her mouth zipped tightly shut. My sister was covered in my “technie-coloured yawn”. My Mum simply said “back to the shower you go”.