Rain Sparkled Origami

A magic realism story about origami. For more of my writing, visit andrewhenleywriting.wordpress.com

Under the dark velvet skyline of night, raindrops fall on an emerald forest gathered at the edge of Hokkaido. Only nature recognises the true power of magic, so every leaf clings to as much as it possibly can of the sparkling liquid that falls from the sky. Later, these trees are cut down and pulped.

 

Grandma Chen buys a ream of paper from her local market. The sheets are a rainbow of colours which sparkle invisibly. Grandma Chen uses the first sheet, a marshmallow pink colour, to write a letter to her granddaughter Xiao Chen, who lives in London. She then puts the letter and the rest of the unused ream of coloured paper into box and takes the box to the post office.

 

A week later, Xiao Chen receives a package. She opens it and reads the letter. Grandma Chen is proud of her, and hopes she does well with her exams. Xiao is due to take her A-Level’s next month and is set to pass with top marks. But tonight is not supposed to be about studying. Tonight is Xiao Chen’s prom night, and as she reads her grandma’s letter she is sitting on her bed in a long, elegant silver evening dress. It sways as if it were made of mercury, flowing loosely and smoothly. Her shoes are sharp toed pink stilettos. Xiao isn’t sure if they match the dress, but she likes them enough to not care. There’s not much she can do with her black, boyish, face framing bob, but it has been well brushed, and is always straight. Her makeup is as lightly applied as she can manage. Xiao Chen is not going to the prom.

 

No one would take Xiao. She has high Asian cheekbones, but the kids at school can only see her yellow tinged skin. They see slits for eyes, magnified by black, thick rimmed glasses, when in reality Xiao has the big blue orbs of a manga comic character. She is a ricepicker and a brainiac, not to be talked to or trusted. Or smelled, because she ‘smelt of sushi’.

 

She read through her grandma’s letter once more. It told her that the stack of papers was for her origami, for her to continue practising and keep in touch with her Japanese heritage. Everyone else would be out dancing and kissing and clumsily touching each other’s bodies in dark corners. Xiao could almost hear the electric clicks of high heels on the dancefloor, the sound of nova explosions; the death of stars.

 

While everyone lived, Xiao Chen folded paper. She turned in corners and bent edges upwards until she made a cobalt blue cat. It was impressive, but that just made it sadder. As Xiao turned and looked out of the window with longing eyes, the sparkle seeped through the paper. Xiao heard a mewling purr, and felt something furry rubbing against her leg. She looked down and saw a cobalt cat. It jumped on her lap and looked at her with a watery glimmer in her irises. Xiao stroked her new kitten as it continued to purr, then it curled up and fell asleep.

 

Xiao picked up another sheet of her grandma’s paper, ruby red this time, and folded with concentration. She made a dragon. She stared at it for ten seconds and her disappointment grew. It was still paper. Her eyes wandered around the room, feeling foolish. When she looked back at where the origami dragon was, it had disappeared, and an enormous red dragon was standing next to her. A grin crept across its wispy lips as it exuded thick grey smoke from its cavernous nostrils.

 

Xiao stretched out her arm to reach for a bookshelf to her left. Moving carefully so as not to disturb her cat, she grabbed her yearbook. She only had it because her family back in Japan had wanted her to bring one home. On the day they were handed out, Xiao was grateful she had been able to hide hers in her satchel before anyone had written anything mean on it. She held it up to the dragon, who obediently and excitedly blew a dagger of flames that engulfed the yearbook whole.

 

Next, Xiao created four paper canaries of sunny yellow. She lined them up in a row. They were inanimate, so she closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they were flying around her head as if she had been bonked with a hammer in a cartoon.

 

With the cat asleep on her lap and the canaries swooping around the dragon, Xiao folded her grandma’s marshmallow pink letter into the shape of her favourite animal. She snapped her eyes shut, and as they popped open, a pink panda stood in front of her. He offered out his paw and held Xiao Chen’s hand. She slid the cat off her knee and it twitched sleepily. In her silver prom dress, Xiao stood hand in hand with the panda. He put his other paw on her hip and they danced around the room. Outside, the rain sparkled against her window.