Chapter 18
The Heartlight
White Doors
Red entered violet’s lens. Violet entered green’s. Green crossed into orange. Orange met blue. Blue touched yellow. Yellow flowed through indigo. Indigo returned to red.
The colours spun around the Heartlight.
For a moment nothing happened.
Then the sphere became brilliant white.
The cracks closed.
Light rushed through Paul. He saw rain falling over forests, towns and oceans. He saw thousands of ordinary rainbows forming wherever sunlight met water. Behind them, almost invisible, ran the roads of the Radiant Rainbow.
The Heartlight was not a lamp. It was a junction between worlds.
The timer stopped at three seconds.
The Poncos cheered. Ponco Red embraced Ponco Orange. Ponco Orange attempted to turn the embrace into a wrestling match. Ponco Violet kissed Ponco Indigo’s cheek. Larry’s feather spun so fast that his hat lifted from his head.
Ronnie looked at Paul.
“You have done what the Rainbow Council could not do in a hundred years.”
“I asked everyone to help.”
“Exactly. We kept trying to prove which of us could do it alone.”
The Heartlight projected a new symbol above the sphere: seven coloured hands meeting in the middle.
“What does that mean?” Paul asked.
Ponco Indigo smiled. “A new rule.”
The Rainbow Room restored itself. Water drained away, the table returned to the floor and the Votometer folded into a small metal box. Ronnie locked it and gave the key to Paul.
“Why me?”
“To prevent us using it again.”
The Poncos gathered around.
Ponco Yellow presented Paul with a revised Go-Go-Pole no longer than a pencil. “It includes a Go-Back button. I have not tested it.”
“Thank you. I think.”
Larry gave him a seed. Ponco Blue gave him a vial labelled PRESENT SMELL. Ponco Indigo gave him one of his drawings. Ponco Violet gave him a piece of transparent submarine glass. Ponco Red contributed a glowing button.
Ponco Orange handed him a card.
“It is the queen of hearts,” Paul said.
“How did you know?”
“Every card in that pocket is the queen of hearts.”
Ponco Orange took it back. “Some traditions deserve protection.”
Ronnie brought out a jacket with a band of seven colours around it.
“A PoncoJacket,” he said. “For courage, play, return, growth, imagination, wisdom and discovery.”
“You called blue ‘imagination’ instead of ‘future’,” Paul noticed.
Ponco Blue nodded. “The future is imagination followed by work.”
Paul put on the jacket.
For the first time since entering Ponco World, he wanted to stay a little longer.