Monku was growing up to be an exceptionally inquisitive and smart monkey. He loved to read and what he didn’t understand he would go and ask grandpa, dad or mom, sometimes all three. So he was reading this book which talked of leprechauns and how they hide pots of gold at the ends of rainbows. Monku wasn’t so convinced so he went and asked gramps, “is there a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow?”. Gramps thought about it for a second and then said “no, but then no one has seen the end of a rainbow either”. Not thoroughly satisfied by the answer he went and posed the same question to dad to which dad replied “no, I’m not even sure if there is an end of a rainbow”. Well obviously there was an end of a rainbow, dad and gramps probably just didn’t go looking thought Monku. Still unsatisfied he headed off to ask maa about it. She was busy adding the finishing touches to a document but when Monku asked the question she looked up, thought for a second and replied, “well why don’t you go find out, I’m sure it’ll help a lot of people to know the answer to that one”.
So that was how Monku ended up high on the baobab tree looking to the west early one morning. He had been coming up here every day for the past 15 days since vacations started. This was rainbow season, just towards the end of rains, but for 15 days there had been no rainbows. Maybe I’ll get lucky today is how Monku woke up every morning. He was optimistic if anything. He used to come with supplies to last him through the day, peanuts, bananas, water bottles, raincoat. There!!!! A rainbow appeared and not so far away either. Monku was off the stout tall tree in a jiffy and running over the open veld. He made a dash for the end of the rainbow that appeared closer to him, just over that hill, past that small village. Monku ran across farms, over the tops of huts, through the markets, and was soon bounding up over the hill. As he reached the top the ranbow seemed to have shifted. So now he needed to go through the forest across river (thankfully they had made a bridge over that river last year) and then again over the next hillock. He kept running, he ran for so long that by the time he reached the top of the hillock it was almost bright and sunny. He was worried the rainbow would go away if the sun grew any brighter. Just as he reached the top of the hillock he heard a deafening roar, it was a waterfall. A massive waterfall on the other side of the hill that fed the river which he had just come across.
And there it was. The end of the rainbow going into the waterfall. Monku was heartbroken…. even if the leprechaun had hidden a pot of gold there it was probably all gone by now, nothing could possibly withstand the vehement onslaught of the powerful waterfall….. that water wall had cut a path through the hill what chance did a mere pot of gold stand in front of such power. Well at least he knew there was an end of the rainbow and that if one ran long enough one could reach it….. consoled by this thought, a bar of snickers and a drink from the water bottle in his bag Monku started to walk back…..