Kajiya wheeled his massive racing cycle in through the back door of Antonio's Pizza Palace. It just barely fit, taking up the entire back hallway of the building....though Antonio had never minded, as long as he got it out of the way again before the restaurant opened in the morning. Closing and locking the back door, he turned and bounded up the stairs that led to his little studio apartment above the shop.
He glanced around as he opened the door. Everything was just as he had left it....which was to say, a complete mess. It wasn't so much the clothes on the floor, or the unmade bed that did it. It wasn't even the few dirty glasses and plates that lay scattered around, or the slightly grungy walls. It was the origami; There was not a surface in sight which did not have paper animals on it.
His coffee table was nesting grounds for little birds. There were dogs and cats and bears and frogs on his dinner table. His mantle was home for a few monkeys, and a big elephant. Even half his kitchen counter was just crabs....rock crabs, fiddler crabs, horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs. They were all folded in varying sizes, and in drastically different levels of complexity. Kajiya threw his coat down on the back of a chair and wandered over to his table, taking a seat....and pulling out an unfolded piece of paper from under a little blue frog.
He began folding. He had gotten the idea earlier, when he caught himself wishing. There was so much going on right now that it made his head spin. The Prop 37 riots, his start into the unarmed combat known as the Duel of Fists, and of course, there was Ahni....But a long time ago, back when he had first started folding (God, it must have been....20 years now?), he remembered being told that anyone who folded 1000 paper cranes could make a wish, and it would come true.
Kajiya didn't believe in wishing himself....wishing was like the easy way out, when you wanted something but you didn't want to put in the work for it. He was doing everything he could to get his life on the right track, but....maybe he could do a little more. And folding Origami certainly couldn't make it any worse....He creased the final folds, and held up a little green paper crane in one hand.
"...One..." He grinned to himself, setting the crane down and digging about for a second piece of paper...
He glanced around as he opened the door. Everything was just as he had left it....which was to say, a complete mess. It wasn't so much the clothes on the floor, or the unmade bed that did it. It wasn't even the few dirty glasses and plates that lay scattered around, or the slightly grungy walls. It was the origami; There was not a surface in sight which did not have paper animals on it.
His coffee table was nesting grounds for little birds. There were dogs and cats and bears and frogs on his dinner table. His mantle was home for a few monkeys, and a big elephant. Even half his kitchen counter was just crabs....rock crabs, fiddler crabs, horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs. They were all folded in varying sizes, and in drastically different levels of complexity. Kajiya threw his coat down on the back of a chair and wandered over to his table, taking a seat....and pulling out an unfolded piece of paper from under a little blue frog.
He began folding. He had gotten the idea earlier, when he caught himself wishing. There was so much going on right now that it made his head spin. The Prop 37 riots, his start into the unarmed combat known as the Duel of Fists, and of course, there was Ahni....But a long time ago, back when he had first started folding (God, it must have been....20 years now?), he remembered being told that anyone who folded 1000 paper cranes could make a wish, and it would come true.
Kajiya didn't believe in wishing himself....wishing was like the easy way out, when you wanted something but you didn't want to put in the work for it. He was doing everything he could to get his life on the right track, but....maybe he could do a little more. And folding Origami certainly couldn't make it any worse....He creased the final folds, and held up a little green paper crane in one hand.
"...One..." He grinned to himself, setting the crane down and digging about for a second piece of paper...