Rainbow Child

Susie Martin woke up early one morning extremely excited. She was turning 4 years old today, and that meant she got presents! She ran to her mom and dad's bedroom and shook them awake.
"Mommy, daddy, it's my birfday!" She jumped up and down excitedly.
"It sure is sweetie. Are you ready to have the best birthday ever?"
"Yay! Am I going to have a birfday party with all my friends?"
"Yes you are. 7 of your friends are coming," her mom answered as she walked to the kitchen to make Susie a birthday breakfast.
"Wow! That's a lot of friends!"
"It sure is. How about you get dressed, then you can have a yummy breakfast, ok?"
"Ok mommy," she said, twirling happily to her room. A few minutes later she came back and started eating breakfast.
"Yummy! She said as she took a bite of chocolate chip pancakes. She finished eating the rest of the gooey deliciousness quickly, and then her friends started to arrive.
"Mommy, my friends are here!"
"I see that Susie. Why don't you go join them, and then you can open presents,"
"Yay! Daddy come help me open presents!" she called to her dad, who was preparing the cake.
"I'm coming sweetheart," he said as he finished decorating the cake and put the candles in.
Susie got many presents at the party, but her favorite present was a book called "Leprechaun's Treasure Hunt" that she got from her parents.
"Luke, will you read me my book pwetty pwease?" She asked her older brother, using puppy dog eyes to try and get him to say yes.
"No," he said, too busy on his phone to even look down at her.
"I'll read it to you sweetheart," her dad said as he pulled her into his lap. All the other children crowded around as he started to read.
"Leprechaun's Treasure Hunt"
One day Leprechaun woke up in the morning and realized his pot of gold was missing. He looked in his house, he looked outside, but he could not find his gold. He went on a walk and came up to a deer.
"Hello deer. Have you seen my pot of gold?" He asked.
"No I haven't. Why don't you ask the tree frog?"
So leprechaun walked up to the tree frog.
"Tree frog, have you seen my pot of gold?"
"No I haven't. Ask the wise owl."
So he again walked up and asked the owl,
"Oh wise owl, have you seen my pot of gold?"
"Leprechaun have you lost your pot of gold? Look to your right and behold! A rainbow which you shall use to find your treasure. Follow it to the end, and you will find your gold.
"Thank you wise owl," he answered.
So he followed the rainbow to the end and found his pot of gold. He also learned that if he lost it again he could just follow the rainbow.
The End
After Susie's dad finished reading all the children cheered. They loved the book almost as much as Susie did. Then, as her dad got up to get the cake, her mom called from the kitchen.
"Hey everyone, come look! There's a rainbow!" All the girls ran to the kitchen and looked out the window. Suddenly as Susie looked at the rainbow she had an idea. She would follow the rainbow to the end and find the treasure.
"Honey, can you come help me with the cake?" Susie's dad called to her mom. After her mom went over there Susie went to the kids and told them where she was going, then walked out the door. Moments later her parents came in with the cake only to find Susie missing. They searched the house, and when they found nothing, immediately rushed to the phone and called the police.
"Hello, I'd like to report a missing child. Her name is Susie Martin, she has blond hair and blue eyes, and she's wearing a pink dress with white polka dots on it," she said into the phone. She was interrupted though, when one of the girls tugged on her shirt.
"Not now sweetie I'm on the phone," she told the girl.
"Susie followed the wanebow to find the twesure at the end," she told her.
"Oh my goodness! Officer, we just found out she went to follow the rainbow!"
"Don't worry Ma'am, we're going to send out a search party for little Susie," he answered into the phone.
   "Thank you officer. I'm going to start looking around outside, see if I can find her before she gets too far," she replied as she hung up the phone.
   Meanwhile, as Susie crossed her backyard to the woods she thought about what she would use the treasure for. Would she use it to buy a puppy or a kitty? Or would she buy mommy a pretty bracelet? She couldn't decide. Soon as she walked she came to a river.
"How will I cwoss the wiver? I can't swim," she asked herself. She thought and thought, but could not figure it out. Then she looked to her right and her problems were solved. There was a thin tree branch leaning across the river.
"The twee can be a bwidge," she told herself, and climbed on top of it. She could only walk a couple of steps though, until she started to slip.
"Ahhh!" she said, right before she fell right off the branch and into the river.
"Help!" she cried, but she knew no one could hear her. Little did she know that someone DID hear her. Little 5 year old Max Willis was also running away to follow the rainbow. When he saw Susie fall into the river, he immediately jumped in to save her. They both came up coughing, but alive and ok.
"You saved me! Thank you!" she said after the boy helped her ashore.
"Your welcome. What's your name?"
"I'm Susie. What's your name?"
"Max. I'm going to find the treasure at the end of the rainbow," he answered.
"Hey, me too! We could go together if you want," she said to him.
"Ok," he replied.
With that they walked on together toward the end of the rainbow.
As Susie and Max walked on, Mr. and Mrs. Martin were meeting with the police in the backyard while parents came to pick up their kids from the ruined party.
"Thank you for coming officer. Susie was having her birthday party when she ran off. One of the kids at the party told me she went to find the treasure at the end of the rainbow," Mrs. Martin explained.
"Where'd she get the crazy idea to do that?" the officer asked honestly.
"Oh, we bought her this book called Leprechaun's Treasure Hunt, and I guess she took it too seriously," Mr. Martin replied.
"Ok, well I'm sending out some of my best officers on the job with you folks," he told them.
"Thank you officer," Mrs. Martin said, then turned to her husband.
"Honey, go grab my cell phone for me please. If we get split up we can still communicate with each other."
"Good idea," he said, turning toward the house. He grabbed the phone, and ran back outside and toward the woods.
"Luke, do you have your phone?" Mrs. Martin asked.
"Yes, I have my phone. I'll call you if I find anything," he answered, a bit annoyed. They split up, and started searching for a clue that their daughter had been their way.
No sooner than ten minutes after he started walking, Mr. Martin got a call from his wife.
"Honey, I think I found something. In between some trampled bushes by the river I found the ribbon that was in Susie's hair," she said through the phone.
  "Oh, great job! I'll be there as quick as I can. See if you can find anymore clues," he said, his hope rising as he rushed toward the river. When he got there he immediately stopped when he saw what was ahead of him. A thin tree branch was laid out across the river, but some of the branches were broken off into the river.
"Do you think she fell in? She can't swim, she could have died!" Mr. Martin said, extremely worried.
"No, wait, the river isn't that deep. Maybe she found a way across," Mrs. Martin replied, still hopeful.
"There's only one way to find out," the police officer answered as he crossed the river. Soon the rest of the officers followed, along with the Martins.
"Where's Luke?" Mr. Martin asked.
"When I called and told him about the river he found a clearing where the river was dried up, and went on ahead. If we hurry we can catch him," Mrs. Martin replied.
  As the Martins followed the kids' trail, Susie and Max were traveling fast. While they walked they discussed what they would do with the treasure. Susie wanted to buy something for Luke, and Max said he was going to get a new pet turtle, since his other one died. Suddenly they froze as an enormous grizzly bear appeared in front of them.
"Max! What is that!" Susie asked, terrified.
"I don't know, but it's big and scary! Come on, hide behind this tree!"
They huddled together for a while, terrified of what the giant creature would do to them. Their fear of the bear was soon forgotten though, as more danger crept toward them; footsteps, followed by two loud gunshots. The bear, looking about as afraid as the two young children felt, disappeared as quickly as it had come. The children held there breath and pushed themselves against the tree, trying to hide as the figure walked toward them. Suddenly Susie carefully looked over her shoulder, gasped, and immediately jumped up, running toward the man. There, standing in front of her, was Luke, phone pointed forward, sound effects app open, the gunshot sound ready.
"Susie!" he cried and immediately ran toward her.
  "Luke, you found me!" Susie said, excited to see her big brother.
  "Susie when I call mom and tell her I found you, you're going to be in so much trouble! Why would you run off to find some treasure that doesn't exist?!" Luke said angrily.
  "It does exist!" She said stubbornly.   "No it's not, listen, Susie it's just a story. The treasure isn't real." He reached for his phone only to realize that he had thrown it when he saw Susie. He picked it up and realized that it had hit a tree and shattered.
  "Oh no!!! How am I supposed to call mom?"
  "Can we walk home?"
  "I guess so, but I wanted to let mom know first," he said. He looked around then realized that he didn't know which way he'd come from.
  "What's wrong Luke?" Susie asked.
  "I think we're lost," he answered worriedly.
  When they heard that, Susie and Max began to cry.
  "I want mommy," she said between sobs.
  "Me too," Max answered.
  "It's ok Susie, we're going to find mommy let's just keep walking," Luke said softly.
So they continued on for what seemed like hours to Susie. Just as she was about to ask Luke to carry her, they come upon a clearing. Suddenly, all her weariness forgotten, Susie gasped.
  "Luke, you said the tweasure wasn't real!"
  "Susie what are you talking about?" he said annoyed.
  "Look!" she answered.
  Luke gasped. For under a tree was a large red X.
  "Woah!" he said, amazed.
  "Dig it up! Dig it up!" Susie sais as she jumped up and down excitedly.
  "Yeah, we want to see the treasure!" Max added.
  "Fine," he answered, thinking this was a waste of time. He got down on his knees and began cupping sand in his hands. Suddenly, as he dug deeper, he gasped as he pulled out a large heavy chest.
  "I told you it was real," Susie said.
  "Open it!" Max said.
  "Ok, ok calm down Max," Luke said as he opened the chest. Just as they looked in at thousands of gold coins, they heard frantic voices behind them.
  "Luke!! Susie!!" someone shouted.
  "Mommy!" Susie said and ran off.
  "Susie, wait!" Luke called and chased after her. Not knowing what to do, Max continued to stare in amazement at the chest.
  "Oh, I'm so glad you guys are safe!" their mom said in relief.
  "Luke, why didn't you call us?!" Their dad said, enraged.
  "I'm sorry! My phone broke!" he said, trying to defend himself.
  "Mommy, mommy! We found the tweasure!" Susie interrupted.
  "Sweetie, I need you to listen to me very carefully. The treasure you read in the book isn't real, do you understand? I don't ever want to running off like that again," her mom said.
  "Mommy it is real!" Susie said.
  "Yeah, mom she's not kidding. We dug up a chest full of gold, come look!" Like said, and they ran off toward the chest.
  "Woah!" their parents exclaimed in complete shock. They spent several minutes collecting he treasure and discussing what to do with it before making their way through the woods. When they got to Susie's house they called Max's parents, and split the treasure in half for his family.
  "Well Susie, now that the excitement's over, you get a timeout. You do not run away like that," her mother said sternly.
  "I'm sorry mommy," she said sadly.
  "I know you are. Now after you come out of timeout, daddy and I are going to take you to the store to buy a nice present for Luke," she said as she led Susie to the timeout corner.
  "Yay!" she said, never happier to be in timeout.