The Day the Rain Didn't Stop

This is a magical story inspired by a rainy day. Find out what happens to Hayden as he watches the raindrops trickle down the window.

Sydney was grey and gloomy. Dark clouds covered the whole city and the people were miserable. Not what you'd expect in Australia. In fact, it was quite unexpected and brought with it some even more unexpected events.

A particularly heavy downpour had woken Hayden from his dream in the middle of the night, just when his dream was getting good. He got out of bed as the rain lashed at the windows, clearly trying to get in. He watched it fight the wind as it howled at the trees in retaliation, their small branches dropping to the ground in defeat. Hayden was sure the windows were going to break.

It was still raining in the morning when it was time to walk to school. Big heavy raindrops crashed into his umbrella and streams of water ran alongside the pavement creating big puddles to jump over. His shoes were soaking.

It rained all day so they couldn’t go outside at recess or lunchtime. On the way home from school, a car drove through a puddle spraying all the children. Parents were angry. Children cried. It was a miserable day.

Back at home, he sat in the living room, watching the raindrops race down the window. You wouldn’t know it but there’s a certain magic in the air when it rains that only children can see.

“Come on little one,” he said aloud to a tiny raindrop that was losing the race to the bottom. The raindrop wiggled and went a little faster.

"Whoa, did you see that, woohoo, come on little one".

Hayden desperately wanted the raindrop to win the race. As he watched more closely, he realised it sparkled, gold and glittery.

"Wow, you're such a pretty little raindrop".

The raindrop smiled. Confused but excited, Hayden willed the raindrop to get to the bottom, his eyes fixated as it rolled down the window. It was winning. Hayden's face was pressed to the window as it reached the bottom.

Boom.

He was gone.

Rubbing his eyes, Hayden found himself sitting in front of a little golden car.

"Hello Hayden," said the car brightly, to Hayden's alarm.

"Er... hello".

"Thanks a lot for your wishes, I actually won!" The car spun its wheels.

"I can't believe it. I'm actually going onto the championships." The car circled twice before coming to a halt right in front of where Hayden was sitting. He was speechless.

"My name is Aurum. It's actually Latin for golden dawn, " the little car proudly said. And you are Hayden. It means hay valley in Old English. "

Hayden stared at the little car in disbelief.

"Come on, we haven't got all day, we have a race to win" chortled Aurum as he opened his door for Hayden to hop in.

Aurum drove on the wrong side of the road weaving in and out of oncoming cars, then took off into the air floating above the cars and into the clouds.

"That's better! I'm a good driver, honest" swerving from left to right as Hayden opened his eyes again.

"Oh, you think so do you" laughed Hayden looking out of the window only to see marshmallow clouds covering the car. "Tell me about this race, the championships, who are we racing against? What are we racing for?"

“Hold on, hold on, I'm concentrating here,” said Aurum dodging a car who'd cut in front of him in the clouds.

BEEP BEEP

As they pulled up to the track, which appeared to be in a big black cloud, Aurum finally let Hayden in on what was going on. "We're racing against the biggest roundest cars you've ever seen in your life, they think they're brilliant. Whenever it rains, they're always the ones in front, because they're so big and heavy. Well not this time. This time they're going to compete against me, small and speedy". Aurum spun his wheels in excitement.

“Who's that?” asked Hayden pointing at an angry red car with steam coming out of its headlights.

"Oh that's Ira" said Aurum rolling his eyes in disgust, she's always in a rage, angry and frustrated, that's why her paintwork is so red. You see, up here, you get your paint based on your personality. Some reds can mean and angry but other brighter reds mean love. Bright blue means bossy and light blue means calm. Purple is quirky and yellow is fun, like me" he said with the biggest brightest beam across his face. He winked and Hayden couldn't help but smile.

They pulled up at the starting line. On either side, black and white checkered flags waved in the wind as the storm brewed and it was nearly time to...

GOOOOOO!

Aurum pulled off as fast as his little tyres would take him, whilst Hayden braced himself, holding onto the dashboard for his life.

Ira sped forward forcing many of the other cars out of the way as she bustled into second position. The cars bumped into one another and Aurum swerved left to avoid crashing. He hadn't seen the big grey car from another rain cloud and ...

BASH

They went straight into the back of it. The car was solid and didn't budge.

"Watch it kids, you've got no chance of winning" he laughed, a slow loud deep hollow laugh as he blew smoke out of his exhaust pipe, leaving Aurum in a spin.

"Quick, we need to gain some ground, go that way!" Hayden pointed to the right at a space in the cars all trying to get to the finish line as fast as they could.

"YES!" exclaimed Aurum, spinning his wheels, speeding straight past the other cars staring at them, beeping their horns.

"See you later suckers!"

BANG! Thunderstruck.

"9 seconds" piped Aurum.

CRASH!

There it was, first lightning, then came the rain. Harder than ever now.

The sky was black and there was a pile-up ahead, with many cars stuck together. They weren't happy. But all it would take was a big car to bump into them and make them all go faster as a group. Hayden and Aurum didn't want that to happen, nor did they want to get caught up in the rainbow pile-up of cars of many colours.

"OK, you need to speed up, do a swift left, then 100 meters and a tight right," said Hayden looking ahead. He'd taken the position as navigator and he was pretty good at it.

Aurum followed Hayden's instructions and they flew past the pile up, much to the annoyance of all the other cars.

"You think you're so clever Aurum" screamed Ira who was stuck in the middle, her red paint glowing even brighter than it was before.

"Woohoo!"

"YEEHA!"

"We're so close now".

Up ahead was a big grey car. Wolf. Aurum's archenemy and bully.

"Oh no, not Wolf" quivered Aurum. "He's trouble".

As Aurum pulled up beside Wolf, he turned and laughed.

"In your dreams Goldie".

"Ignore him" encouraged Hayden. We've got this".

Head to head they ventured towards the finish line. Nothing standing in the way of either of them. Wolf was much more powerful whilst Aurum was small, fast and nimble.

Wolf bumped sideways into Aurum giving him a push. Aurum skidded and lost control for a few seconds.

"Straighten up Aurum, come on, we can do it".

Aurum straightened his wheel and picked up speed, catching up to Wolf who was almost at the finish line.

But Wolf seemed to be in a bit of trouble. He didn't seem to be moving. Was he stuck?

"I need fuel" he yelled to his team. "Get me some fuel now". Wolf's crew were running over to help with the fuel tank in hand, just enough to get him over the finish line.

"Come on Aurum. Let's goooooo!".

Aurum and Hayden sped up, battling through the rain, windscreen wipers going as fast as they could.

They could see the finish line but Wolf was starting to move again.

Neck and neck with Wolf, Aurum closed his eyes for a second and spun his wheels faster.

They crossed the line. But did they cross before Wolf?

"What now? Did we win?"

Aurum was out of breath, look at the scoreboard.

1st Place - Aurum and Hayden

2nd Place - Wolf

3rd Place - Claret

"Thank you, Hayden" beamed Aurum, "I couldn't have done it without you".

Hayden knew this would be an adventure he'd never forget.

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