1001 Origami Cranes

“Can you check the inventory for international order 37831, Naegi-san?”

The department leader asked Kazuyuki.

He nodded his head sitting behind his computer.

“Yes, sir”

Kazuyuki started frantically typing on his keyboard.

Even though his stomach was rumbling, he postponed his lunch to finish his work.

This job at Aozora Logistics was the most important thing to him. It was the only thing keeping him alive since his grandma passed away three years ago.

“Sir, I tracked the status of the shippable goods, order 37831 should be ready for shipment in two hours”

Kazuyuki said to his boss.

“Thank you for your work”

His boss responded with a smile.

“Please take an extra long lunch break, you deserve it”

X

The spring season had started, and the sakura trees were in full bloom.

Not that Kazuyuki paid any attention to them as he walked through the park.

He was only here to take a shortcut, so he could return to work faster.

A man bumped against me with his back, trying to take a photo of the blooming trees.

“Pardon me!”

The foreigner said in perfect English.

Kazuyuki frowned his brows as he walked past.

All these annoying tourists come here every year, clogging up the paths, and getting in the way of business…

He didn’t understand why they would spend all this money to travel here to see some stupid trees.

Didn’t they have something more important to do?

“Look out!”

A girl suddenly screamed in English.

“You destroyed it”

Kazuyuki lifted his foot and saw a crumpled piece of paper underneath his sole.

The girl crawled toward him and snatched the paperback, which she desperately started to straighten out.

He took a better look at the girl sitting on the ground. Her reddish hair was bound up in two buns sitting on top of her head. Freckles sprinkled her fairly skinned face. Her green eyes sparkled with joy and intrigue.

Crumbled balls of paper surrounded her.

“Please don’t do this here, you are littering the park”

Kazuyuki said with a strict voice in his best English.

The girl tilted her head, blowing away a sakura leaf that fell on her face.

“Why can’t I? I am just enjoying the park like everyone else”

She faced her head toward the group of foreigners who were taking photos.

“You can’t just throw balls of paper everywhere”

He responded, pointing at her surroundings.

“These are not balls of paper… these are Japanese cranes!”

Kazuyuki reached down and picked up one of her creations.

He looked at it with a confused face.

“Origami… you know?”

The girl said with a questioning voice.

Of course, Kazuyuki knew what an origami crane was, but this definitely wasn’t one of them.

“I am bad at folding them I know”

The girl said with a chuckle.

“But it is for a higher purpose”

She said looking up at the sky.

Kazuyuki looked at his watch, trying his best to communicate he had to go, but the girl continued talking.

“It is for my sick grandma”

She said with a softer voice.

“So that is why you came here, to Japan?”

The girl nodded her head.

“And I need to fold exactly one thousand of them”

Kazuyuki sighed.

One thousand cranes?

That was crazy, there was no way in the world she was able to accomplish that.

“You know that is just a superstition, right?”

It reminded him of his own grandma being sick, lying in a hospital bed. He remembered the immense pain he felt as the doctor told him that his grandma wouldn’t get better.

Kazuyuki looked down at the ground.

“If the doctors say there is nothing they can do, then that is it…”

What was he even doing here, talking about these personal things to a foreigner?

“I am sorry, I really have to go”

He said to the girl, as he continued his way back to the office.

X

“You seem absent this afternoon, Naegi-san”

Kazuyuki’s boss told him near the end of the workday.

And he was right, he wasn’t able to concentrate after his lunch break.

His mind kept wandering back to the girl sitting in the park.

The girl with a mission to fold a grand total of one thousand cranes, while in reality, she couldn’t even fold a single one.

It couldn’t be that difficult right?

He picked up a page of discarded print paper and attempted to fold one.

After a few attempts, he succeeded.

Kazuyuki was able to remember how his grandma taught him all these years ago.

Could he teach her?

His boss continued.

“Why don’t you take the rest of the day off, and try to get some rest?”

“You have done enough today”

Even though his boss suggested he leave, Kazuyuki was determined to continue.

He couldn’t slack off on his job.

X

On his way back from work Kazuyuki took a detour.

He couldn’t keep his curiosity at bay.

Would the girl still be there?

As he walked through the gate, he saw the girl sitting in the distance.

The park had quieted down, the bright sun was replaced by worrisome clouds.

The girl waved at him as he moved closer.

She still sat in the now cold grass, surrounded by a mountain of failed cranes.

“You have come back… great!”

The girl said with a big smile on her face.

“My name is Emily by the way”

“Naegi… Kazuyuki”

He said as he watched the girl take another piece of paper.

Her hands started folding the paper in odd, impractical ways.

“Wait, let me help you”

Kazuyuki crouched down next to her and showed her how to fold.

“You pull this part afterward and you're done”

“Amazing!”

Emily cheerfully exclaimed.

“You are my savior!”

Kazuyuki brushed it off.

“Please save the praise, I just remembered this from when I was a kid”

“Do Japanese kids learn this at school? We only learned to read and write”

Emily said with dreamy eyes.

“Of course, we learned that too”

Kazuyuki said while glimpsing.

“I learned it from my grandma actually”

He added with a soft voice.

“Your grandma must be a true expert, can I meet her?”

She folded her hands together.

Kazuyuki sighed.

“Impossible, she passed away a couple of years back”

“Oh no, how terrible”

Emily responded with a soft voice.

“I don’t want to imagine my life without my grandma…”

She started folding the origami cranes even faster.

“I still miss her a lot”

Kazuyuki said.

“It gets better with time, but the hole she left behind never fully disappears.

He looked up at the tall office buildings.

“I just focus a lot on my work and try not to think about it too much”

He grabbed a piece of paper and started folding another crane.

“This is fun”

Kazuyuki quietly whispered.

“It is, isn’t it? I feel like a child again!”

Emily responded while enthusiastically bowling her fist.

The two of them spend their time folding until dusk sets in.

“Look at how many we made!”

She pointed at all the cranes lying in the grass.

“These must be hundreds, don’t you think?”

They started collecting the cranes into a big trash bag.

“86”

Kazuyuki said with a confident voice.

“What, only so few?”

She stared at the ground for a brief moment.

“Lucikly, I will be here for an entire month!”

“Let’s continue tomorrow Kazu-kun”

He looked at the ground. Was she really expecting him to help her fold one thousand of these?

Why did he even start helping her with this crazy mission in the first place?

He looked at Emily's green sparkling eyes, she looked so excited, and he didn’t want to disappoint her.

It was a long time ago that he had fun with someone.

“I have work tomorrow, but I will see what I can do”

The young man responded, after which he offered to help Emily carry the bags with origami to her hotel.

The light leaving the tall glass doors illuminated her back, giving the girl an angelic glow.

Emily waved him goodbye in front of the hotel doors.

“Thank you so much for your help today!”

She started fumbling, turning her pockets inside down.

“Please hold up your hand”

“You don’t have to pay me…”

The girl put a sticky-wrapped candy in his hand.

“Enjoy!”

She said with a smile.

“That looks delicious”

Kazuyuki said when he took a closer look at the gift.

“I will enjoy this on my way home”

“Goodbye Miss Emily”

He said before making his way back home.

Exhausted, Kazuyuki plopped down on his bed.

The girl and her cranes spun through his head for a couple more minutes before he fell asleep.

X

The next beautiful spring day, Kazuyuki entered the park again, now carrying two lunch boxes he bought at the convenience store around the corner.

Underneath the vibrantly pink cherry blossom trees sat the extrinsic Emily, surrounded by even more cranes than she was yesterday.

The quality had improved drastically compared to when he first met her. They went from unrecognizable balls of paper to sharply folded masterpieces.

“Hello there!”

Emily yelled, her voice full of enthusiasm.

“Glad you came to help”

Kazuyuki laughed.

“I am only here to bring you lunch, I have to go back to the office”

He handed her the lunch box.

“This looks delicious, did you make this yourself?”

Kazuyuki rubbed the side of his head,

“Haha, I wished I could cook like this. My grandma used to make my lunch for me when I was little.”

“Now I have to buy them from the convenience store”

He opened the box and started eating.

“It is just not the same”

“Stuwl deluwsicious”

Emily said with her mouth full.

After work, Kazuyuki returned to the park to help Emily, a process they repeated until the last sakura leaves had fallen from the tree.

“998… 999… 1000!”

Emily yelled as she finished folding the last crane.

“We did it!”

She shouted as she jumped up and hugged Kazuyuki.

“We folded one thousand, four digits!”

“Congratulations!”

Kazuyuki responded.

The happiness he felt after completing this impossible task was subdued by the fact that Emily had to go back home now.

“Wait, I need to fold one more”

She grabbed another piece of paper and carefully folded one last origami crane. It was clear to Kazuyuki that she put in extra care, taking a lot longer than she usually did.

"Where is that last crane for?”

A smirk formed on Emily’s face.

“I am not telling yet”

Using his connections from Aozora logistics, Kazuyuki helped Emily ship the bags of cranes to America, to the nursing home Emily’s grandma was staying at.

Afterward, he helped Emily bring her luggage to the airport and waved her goodbye.

“Goodbye Emily, I hope your grandma gets better soon”

Kazuyuki said with a smile on his face.

But Emily wasn’t ready to say goodbye just yet.

She grabbed a white box out of her suitcase and gave it to her new friend.

“Please, only open this when you get home”

She said with a cheerful voice.

“I..I am sorry. I don’t have a gift for you”

Emily shook her head.

“You are wrong”

“You gave me one thousand gifts already”

“I couldn’t be more grateful, I would have never been able to do this alone”

Her voice cracked.

“Goodbye Kazu-kun”

X

Back at home, Kazuyuki opened the little box Emily gave him.

Inside he found one wonderfully decorated, glittery crane along with a note.

“For you, the 1001th crane”

“xxx, your friend Emily”

A singular tear dropped along Kazuyuki’s cheek as he took the crane out of the box and placed it in a prominent place on his shelf, next to the picture of his deceased grandma.

A couple of days later, a letter appeared from America. He opened the envelope and saw a picture of Emily and her grandma surrounded by a sea of cranes.

She told him that her grandma was already feeling better.

Had the mysterious power of the cranes did its job?

Impossible to tell.

Regardless, Kazuyuki had a great idea.

The next day, he returned to the office carrying a box full of colorful cranes he made.

He gave one to each colleague, decorating the dull office.

“You seem quite cheerful this last month Naegi-san, what happened?”

His boss asked.

He told him about Emily and the cranes they folded for her grandma.

“And that is why I am bringing you all cranes, to bring back some color now that the sakura season is over”

Even though Emily had gone back to the other side of the globe, her presence could still be felt through Kazuyuki’s new sense of optimism.

“I cannot wait for the next spring to arrive”