The Zombie Who Loved Rainbows

Lily loved exploring behind her grandmother's house, where a giant **palm** tree stood watch over everything. Its leaves whispered secrets in the wind, and Lily always waved back. One hot afternoon, she discovered something magical—a hidden spring with the clearest **water** she had ever seen.

But something was drinking from it. Lily gasped. A greenish figure with messy hair and tattered clothes stood there. A **zombie**! Lily wanted to run, but something stopped her. The zombie wasn't scary at all. He was carefully using a coconut shell to catch the water, then he poured it onto a patch of wilted flowers.

"They're thirsty," the zombie said sadly. His name was Zeb, and he explained he wasn't a real zombie. A wizard had accidentally turned him green during a magic lesson gone wrong, and everyone had been too scared to be his friend ever since.

Lily looked at Zeb's kind eyes and the flowers he was tending. "You're not scary," she said. "You're a gardener!"

Zeb's face lit up. The palm tree above them rustled happily, and a perfect rainbow arched across the sky. Zeb had never seen a rainbow up close before. Lily showed him how to catch sunlight in the water, making tiny rainbows dance on the ground.

"You know," Lily said, "my grandmother says palm trees give good luck to true friends."

Zeb smiled, and for the first time, he didn't feel like an outcast. He had found something better than magic—he had found a friend who saw beyond appearances. Together, they watered the flowers, made rainbows, and promised to meet every day by the magic spring.

Sometimes, the most wonderful discoveries come from being brave enough to see what's really in someone's heart.