Paper Wings and Missing Things

Part 13

Anna sat and made cranes, because at least they had paper. She had the dim sense that her parents were telling her she needed to go home and go to bed, but she had been wobbling on the edge of tears for the last few hours, and they seemed afraid to press her.

At some point, her fingers stopped working, and she stared at the table of magazines, overflowing with sloppily folded origami. A door opened with a bang, and she started, but the nurse walked past without a second glance. At some point, her eyes slipped closed, but she forced them open again.

Looking up, she imagined the ceiling bending in half, folding along a crease. The ceiling tumbled down, and now Jacob loomed above her, yelling, because she fell with it. Somewhere deep in the earth was a place where paper birds stopped during their migration back to a 2D world. They flew past her in droves, stirring her hair with their beating wings and blocking out Jacob's face far above.

"Ms. Parker?"

She blinked. Everything was still and frozen in the waiting room, the passing time killed by a ticking clock. A woman with an official-looking uniform and a clipboard leaned over and drew her face into a sympathetic smile.

"Is he alright?" Anna asked, twisting her hair around her fingers.

"He's awake again," she said. "He's asking about you."

Anna jumped to her feet, but a magnet on the soles of her shoes reminded her that she had broken into his house. She had been there to condemn him; what kind of lousy savior did that make her?

"Ms. Parker?" The nurse touched her arm lightly, and Anna flinched. The older woman drew back, hesitant. "He's...he's still delirious."

For the second time, Anna followed her to the room. They stood outside for a moment, the nurse trying to make eye contact and Anna deliberately avoiding it, before walking in.

Jonas' tanned complexion had never looked paler. His hair was more gray than brown in the harsh light, and the creases in his face looked as if they had been etched into him with a knife. For a moment, his eyes glossed over Anna entirely, then, with an effort, he focused on her.

The nurse inclined her head. "I'll be here," she half-whispered. She slipped out, closing the door behind her.

"Hello, Mr. Jonas...how do you feel?" It was a stupid question, but Anna was in a humor for stupid questions.

His mouth opened slightly, and he rolled his tongue around the edges of speech before forcing it out. "They said...you saved my life." His voice reminded Anna of a stone grating against a blade edge.

"I-I called the hospital," she answered after a moment.

He lay back, breathing carefully. "I don't want to die."

Anna glanced nervously around the room. Whatever else she was here for, she knew she was not qualified to talk about this. That's good was, she thought, the worst thing she could possibly say. Frantically, she searched her mind for an alternative.

"I don't want you to either."

He propped himself up on one arm. "You hate me, don't you?"

She swallowed. "No. I don't hate you—of course not."

"Then what?" There was genuine curiosity in his voice.

She stared fixedly at the black-and-white picture over his head. "Mr. Jonas..." After a pause, she glanced down at her hands and was surprised to discover she was still clutching a wilted crane.

"Origami?" he asked, following the direction of her eyes.

Surprised that he was able to see it, she nodded. "Have you ever tried origami, Mr. Jonas?"

"Not...really."

"I could show you how to make a crane," Anna offered. She almost laughed at the ridiculousness of it.

He raised an eyebrow. "If you're prepared to teach the clumsiest man alive."

She laughed and dropped into the chair near his bed. "Let me try."

He held out his hand, and she gave him the sweat-dampened crane. He turned it over, then said, thoughtfully, "I saw one like this, the other day."

"Where?"

He smiled, a real smile this time, one that eased the pressure in his face instead of tying it up. "I'm still not entirely sure I didn't dream it. I got up to get some water and switched on the light downstairs, and I looked up and saw the silhouette of a crane in the chandelier."

For a moment, Anna was perfectly still. She still saw Jacob's hands toying with his last crane—probably the last origami animal he had made since then. But he had left it behind, and Jonas had found it instead, and now, Anna was sitting there trying to remember Jacob's grin when Jonas was finally smiling, looking with simple pleasure at her makeshift creation.

She leaned over to the desk and took a piece of paper. "Let me show you."