Story 10 — The Colors That Waited
The rain had just finished.
Drops still hung from the edge of the roof, falling one by one into the puddles below. Aarav stood barefoot near the doorway, watching the clouds move slowly apart.
The air smelled fresh.
Then he saw it.
A soft curve of colors stretched across the sky.
Red.
Orange.
Yellow.
Green.
Blue.
Aarav’s breath caught.
“Amma!” he called. “The sky is smiling.”
His mother stepped beside him and looked up.
“A rainbow,” she said quietly.
Aarav stared at it.
“It wasn’t there during the rain,” he said. “Why did it come now?”
🧩 A thinking pause
“If rain makes rainbows,” Aarav asked,
“why don’t we see them every time it rains?”
His mother didn’t answer right away. She handed him a small steel bowl filled with water.
“Come,” she said. “Let’s try something.”
They walked into the sunlight. His mother placed the bowl where the sun could touch it.
She dipped a small mirror into the water and tilted it slightly.
Suddenly, a small rainbow appeared on the wall.
Aarav gasped.
“It’s hiding inside the light!” he said.
His mother smiled. “Light carries many colors together. We just don’t always see them.”
🧩 Another thinking pause
“So why does the sky show them now?” Aarav asked.
His mother pointed to the air.
“After rain,” she said, “tiny drops stay floating. Sunlight enters those drops, bends, spreads into colors, and comes back to your eyes.”
Aarav moved a little to the left.
The rainbow faded.
He stepped back.
It returned.
“Oh,” he whispered.
“It only shows itself when I stand in the right place.”
They stood quietly for a moment.
The rainbow began to grow lighter. The colors softened. Slowly, it disappeared into the sky.
Aarav felt a small sadness.
“Why does it go away so fast?” he asked.
His mother placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Some things appear only when everything comes together,” she said.
“Rain. Light. Angle. Time.”
That evening, Aarav drew a rainbow in his notebook.
He didn’t color it too strongly.
He left space between the colors.
Because now he knew—
A rainbow doesn’t rush.
It doesn’t stay.
It waits for the right moment…
and the right way of looking.
🌱 What this story gently builds
- Emotional intelligence: wonder, acceptance, patience
- Life intelligence: perspective matters, timing matters
- Scientific curiosity: light splitting, reflection, refraction
- Reasoning skills: condition-based thinking (when + where)
🧩 Puzzle types used
- Conditional logic (why only sometimes?)
- Perspective shift (movement changes result)
Review Wise Tales of Young Minds Story 10.