Folded secrets
Sarah a normal everyday girl, decides to follow a mysterious trail of origami trying to find it's secrets...
Sarah is an ordinary girl, her life doesn’t consist of much else besides going to work and enjoying coffee. Similar to many other millennials.
There is however one very exciting thing happening lately.
She goes to work through this little lovely park where she buys a cappuccino and sits on the bench in the middle of the trees.
Her hazelnut eyes followed orange and red leaves falling around her. Just sitting in the moment, before she faces the reality of adult life.
But what she is really looking forward to seeing is a little paper crane, carefully placed at the bench right across her.
They started appearing a couple of weeks ago, and they are there every day. Some mysterious stranger just strolls by in the morning leaving paper cranes in his wake.
She sips her coffee and lets her mind wonder. Who is behind these? What is their meaning?
Before she gets too dreamy her alarm clock goes off. Ripping apart the veil of fantastical and bringing her back into a cold sad reality.
With a sigh, Sarah gets up and heads to work. Where she will fill out forms and print out papers, living a normal boring life…
She walked about ten steps before she stopped. Not this time.
Her pumpkin hair flowed in the wind as she got back to that bench and picked up the origami. Butterflies in her stomach started to rumble. There were written directions at the crane.
Without hesitation Sarah followed them, she didn’t have to go very far, before finding another origami animal, this time a little frog, sitting by the puddle of water.
The same as with the crane, there were directions written on them. Sarah didn’t stop.
The paper trail continued, from a frog to a butterfly in front of an Italian restaurant, to a family of little turtles hidden in the midst of flowers at the flower shop on the corner.
There were more directions and the deeper into the mystery she got, the more excitement she felt. So many questions popped into her mind.
They were so pretty, precisely folded. Were they all here, every day?
She couldn’t stop. The origami took her so far from the park. She was already late to work. Someone was going to call her soon. But… There was something about the little paper animals, she knew it.
She went on and on until she stopped in front of a little cafe. With origami in their logo and a paper dragon waiting in the window.
Sarah breathed in the cold air, with a trembling hand she opened the door. A little bell rang above her head as she stepped inside. Strong smell of freshly brew coffee hit her in the face.
“Hi there! What can I do for you?” asked a barista.
“Ehm… I am sorry… I was following these origamis all over the place, they lead me here,” she said.
The barista smiled. “I see,” he pointed at a woman sitting in the corner of the cafe with a giant cup of cappuccino, folding colored papers. “You should go talk to her.”
Sarah a little bit hesitant went over. “Hi there,” she said.
The woman raised her head from the origami. She met Sarah with the clearest eyes of an ocean color. Deep wrinkles revealed with a heart-melting smile. “Oh hello dear,” she said, “care to join me?”
“Yeah I guess so,” said Sarah, the smile so contagious that she could feel the corners of her mouth stretching.
“Did you follow the paper trail?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
“Yes. Although if I may be honest, I actually have no idea what is going on.”
The old lady laughed a deep and sweet sound that made Sarah laugh as well.
“Oh, my sweet child. Where did you find the first one?”
“In the park at the fifth. Little red crane.”
“I love that place! We used to go there with my husband every day. Sitting at the bench, taking in the calmness around us. You see, all of these are places that we used to visit on our walks, every time landing here at the Origami Café,” her bright aura fading for a second, “He is no longer with us… but I honor his memory by creating my little buddies and leaving them at the places that he loved so much.”
Tears burst into Sarah’s eyes. “That… is beautiful,” she said, hardly stopping sobs.
“Yes. He was a beautiful soul. I loved him very much,” she smiled again and wiped away a tear from Sarah’s face. “Don’t you cry my dear. What is your name?”
“Sarah,” she said sobbing.
“Nice to meet you, Sarah. I am Victoria,” she said and gave her a piece of paper. “If you have a little bit of time in this fast world, I can show you how to fold these.”
“I would love to!” said Sarah and wiped her face, before starting to follow her the steps.
In no time she had a crane in front of her and they laughed about her many messed-up attempts. After a while, Sarah asked.
“Why the directions?”
“It gets lonely at my age, there is not much to do besides sitting in cafes,” said Victoria smiling, “Whenever someone follows the origami I at least get someone to talk to.”
And so they talked. Sarah sat there for hours with Victoria, taking in the wisdom of an older woman and when she left, she made a promise to stop as often as she could.
Victoria was smiling the whole time, creating one paper animal after the other.
Since then Sarah doesn’t go to the little park at the fifth on her way to work. Instead, she stops at Origami Café, chatting with her newfound friend.
And if she can’t make it. She makes the time to leave a paper crane on the bench so Victoria always knows that she thinks of her.