1000 Paper Cranes

Chapter 11 - 985

The excitement on her face was overwhelming. I wasn't sure what she meant. Make my wishes come true?

"What? Like a genie?" I asked, confused.

She giggled her infectious giggle and I felt the familiar stab of pain I always got when people laughed, but forgot to tell me the punchline. I hated laughter.

Honestly. I hardly laughed, myself.

"No. Everybody knows that the only way to make your wishes come true is to grant them for yourself." She took another sip of her coffee, her brown eyes sparkling over the white lid of her drink.

I hadn't thought of that before. I mean, I had already burned the two wishes that came true, but I had just attributed that to fate. Could I really make my own wishes come true? Could Robin help to grant one thousand wishes?

"I'll tell you what," Robin smiled at me. "You're nearly finished right?"

I nodded.

"I could honestly be finished by tomorrow night."

"I'm sure you've already planned our date for tomorrow night,"

I tensed as she mentioned our date. The word date felt so formal. It set stomach-butterflies to flight all over again. I didn't have anything planned. I had considered a movie and dinner, but I hadn't done my meticulous planning, yet.

"But what if we spent the evening making your wishes come true?" Robin continued.

I felt a jolt of excitement. She didn't think I was crazy. She didn't find my obsession with folding cranes neurotic or psychotic or anything negative. She just accepted it. No, even better. She had embraced it.

"I think I'd like that," I said quietly.

I was walking awkward, rocky ground. Robin had been the one to ask me out. Well, she had attempted to, at least. She had initiated our trip to the coffee shop. And now she was planning our date for the next night.

"I'll plan it," I smiled. "I will bring the cranes along that I hope to make come true."

I was oddly excited, my first date was not going to be as terrifying as I expected. I was going to be in total control. Conversation with Robin was becoming more natural and less forced with each minute. Maybe Joanna was right. A low-stress pre-date had been a wise idea.

And even Marcus deserved some thanks for busting my nose and laying the path for Robin's and my escape into our coffee-filled paradise.

"Can I ask what some of those cranes say?" Robin asked, her eyes glinting in the lamplight.

"Am I allowed to say? Don't wishes not come true if the wisher says them out loud?" I asked.

"I think that's only true for wishes-on-stars and birthday cakes." She laughed after a moment's consideration. "But these wishes are different. They'll come true because we'll make them come true."

I nodded in agreement.

"Did you know the legend of wishing on a star dates back to Ptolemy? He believed the stars were part of the gods' curiosity about the lives of humans. Seeing shooting stars was like seeing the gods, according to legend. And if you saw their star, you had to state your wish out loud for the god to hear."

Robin smirked as I finished rattling off my fact.

"Well, then consider me Athena, goddess of wisdom and now, apparently, wish-granting. What are your wishes, great hero?" She deepened her voice to sound like an old movie star.

I laughed and then thought about my cranes hanging in my room.

"I want to try sushi. I want to ride a rollercoaster." I blurted.

She laughed her tender laugh that says she cares.

"I think we can handle those. Are all your wishes like that?"

I nodded my head because they were, for the most part. One thousand mundane wishes. One thousand ways other teenagers had lived far more exciting lives than I had ever lived or probably would ever live.

I reflected on all of my wishes; I could remember all of them, all 985 to that point. They were cataloged in my brain:

#1: Finish 1000 cranes
#46: Eat sushi
#57: Go ghost hunting
#141: Be spontaneous
#174: Ride a roller coaster
#382: Learn to cook
#401: Go skydiving

My list literally went on and on and on.

"So? Do you think you can finish by tomorrow? Can we start making your dreams come true?"

I wasn't sure what Robin saw in me. I was tall and kind of gangly. I wore glasses that perpetually slid down the bridge of my nose. I liked old movies and I folded paper cranes like an obsession.

She was beautiful and brilliant. She smelled like flowers and coconuts and vanilla. She was nice, and while not exactly popular, everybody liked her. She cared about people. And how could a girl like that ever even consider dating a guy like me?

And, yet, there we were in a coffee shop, talking about a date. Smiling, laughing, even.

This was not a gift horse I was going to stare in the mouth. I was going to run with this opportunity. I was going to begin living at long last.

That night, after Robin had exhausted me from saying more words in one night than I usually said in a week, I went home and folded only one paper crane.

Quickly, I scrawled, "thank Marcus" on it, then added it to my collection.

In the morning, I would fold my last cranes. In the morning, I would discover life outside of facts and school and studying and books. In the morning, I would discover who the real Jordan Johnson was. I would find the Jordan who was not bound to Joanna Johnson or Jonathan Johnson. I would just be me.