1001 Cranes Read online

  Keila comes up to me and links arms with me as if everything is fine between us. Nathan leans against the wall and glances at me from time to time. Mr. O squeezes my shoulder. Rachel Joseph’s parents just smile. Rachel shyly comes up to me and presents me with a homemade card.

  “I’ll give this to Gramps and Grandma Michi,” I tell her, but she shakes her head.

  “This card is for you.”

  It’s made out of colored cardboard and tape. When I open it, some paper flowers pop out. Underneath the crooked bouquet are the words “I hope you feel better.”

  I’m not sure if she’s talking about Gramps or my parents’ separation, but it doesn’t really matter. Rachel has written my name on the card in capital letters, and it feels good that someone is thinking of me.

  “Thanks,” I say, but she’s already gone to her parents.

  I haven’t seen Grandma Michi all morning, and my heart feels very heavy, as if it’s overloaded with sandbags and rocks. I don’t know if she had time to read my diary or, if she did, whether she liked it. She didn’t stay in the waiting room, and I heard that when Gramps’s surgery was over, Grandma was the only one allowed to see him.

  I notice that Nathan has moved around the waiting room’s walls, like an arm of a stealth clock, and now is only a couple of feet away from me.

  “You know, I just may be staying in L.A.,” I say to him.

  “Oh, yeah?” he says, and a huge goofy grin spreads over his face. Nathan is definitely not cool, but I like that he doesn’t hide how he feels.

  Grandma Michi walks through the doorway. She’s wearing no makeup, and her hair is all frizzy and unkempt. “The operation went well,” she announces, and it’s like the whole room lets out a group sigh of relief. “The doctor says Nick should be fine.”

  Everyone’s waiting to talk to Grandma Michi, but she heads straight for me. “I read your diary,” she says. “It was very well-written.” She reaches into her purse and takes out a gold box, which she shoves into my hand. She gestures for me to open it.

  Sitting on a pillow of cotton is a red origami crane. It’s miniature, no bigger than Mom’s wedding ring.

  “Oh, the good-luck crane for Mr. and Mrs. O’s display,” I say. “It’s so cute.”

  But Grandma Michi shakes her head. “This one is for you. And I’m sorry, too.” She then grips my hand for a second, and I feel like sparks fly from her touch. Sweat begins to drip from Grandma’s nose and the top of her lip. The same way I sweat.

  Someone pulls Grandma aside to get more details about Gramps’s surgery, leaving me with the gold box. I study my gift and see how it’s different from the thousands of cranes we have folded for the wedding displays: instead of being closed, this good-luck crane is fully open, its wings spread out wide, ready for wherever the wind will take it.

  How to Fold a Paper Crane

  * * *

  Begin with a square piece of paper—ideally one side colored and the other plain. Place the colored side faceup on a table. In all diagrams, the shaded part represents the colored side.

  1. Fold diagonally to form a triangle. Be sure the points line up. Make all creases very sharp. You can even use your thumbnail.

  Unfold the paper. (Important!)

  2. Now fold the paper diagonally in the opposite direction, forming a new triangle.

  Unfold the paper and turn it over so the white side is up. The dotted lines in the diagram are creases you have already made.

  3. Fold the paper in half to the “east” to form a rectangle.

  Unfold the paper.

  4. Fold the paper in half to the “north” to form a new rectangle.

  Unfold the rectangle, but don’t flatten it out. Your paper will have the creases shown by the dotted lines in the figure to the left.

  5. Bring all four corners of the paper together, one at a time. This will fold the paper into the flat square shown to the right. This square has an open end where all four corners of the paper come together. It also has two flaps on the right and two flaps on the left.

  6. Lift the upper right flap and fold in the direction of the arrow. Crease along the line a-c.

  7. Lift the upper left flap and fold in the direction of the arrow. Crease along the line a-b.

  8. Lift the paper at point d (in the diagram above) and fold down the triangle b-d-c. Crease along the line b-c.

  Undo the three folds you just made (Steps 6, 7, and 8). Your paper will have the crease lines shown to the left.

  9. Lift just the top layer of the paper at point a. Think of this as opening a frog’s mouth. Open it up and back to line b-c. Crease the line b-c inside the frog’s mouth.

  Press on points b and c to reverse the folds along lines a-b and a-c. The trick is to get the paper to lie flat in the long diamond shape shown on the right. At first it will seem impossible. Have patience.

  10–13. Turn the paper over. Repeat Steps 6 to 9 on this side. When you have finished, your paper will look like the diamond to the right with two “legs” at the bottom.

  14 & 15. Taper the diamond at its legs by folding the top layer of each side in the direction of the arrows along lines a-f and a-e so that they meet at the center line.

  16 & 17. Turn the paper over. Repeat Steps 14 and 15 on this side to complete the tapering of the two legs.

  18. The figure to the left has two skinny legs. Lift the upper flap at point f (be sure it’s just the upper flap) and fold it over in the direction of the arrow—as if turning the page of a book. This is called a “book fold.”

  Turn the entire figure over.

  19. Repeat this “book fold” (Step 18) on this side. Be sure to fold over only the top “page.”

  20. The figure to the right looks like a fox with two pointy ears at the top and a pointy nose at the bottom. Open the upper layer of the fox’s mouth at point a, and crease it along line g-h so that the fox’s nose touches the top of the fox’s ears.

  21. Turn the figure over. Repeat Step 20 on this side so that all four points touch.

  22. Now for another “book fold.” Lift the top layer of the figure to the left (at point f) and fold it in the direction of the arrow.

  23. Turn the entire figure over. Repeat the “book fold” (Step 22) on this side.

  24 & 25. There are two points, a and b, below the upper flap. Pull out each one, in the direction of the arrows, as far as the dotted lines. Press down along the base (at points x and y) to make them stay in place.

  26. Take the end of one of the points and bend it down to make the head of the crane. Using your thumbnail, reverse the crease in the head, and pinch it to form the beak. The other point becomes the tail.

  27. Open the body by blowing into the hole underneath the crane and then gently pulling out the wings. And there it is!

  About the Author

  Naomi Hirahara grew up in Southern California speaking both Japanese and English. After graduating from college with a degree in international relations, she lived for a year in Japan, where she was able to spend some time with her maternal grandmother and other relatives. A mystery writer and former journalist, she won an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Snakeskin Shamisen, her third book in the Mas Arai adult mystery series. Her favorite words include pneuma and kuru-kuru-pa. Visit her at www.1001cranesbook.com or www.naomihirahara.com.

  ALSO BY NAOMI HIRAHARA

  ADULT FICTION

  Summer of the Big Bachi

  Gasa-Gasa Girl

  Snakeskin Shamisen

  Published by Delacorte Press

  an imprint of Random House Children’s Books

  a division of Random House, Inc.

  New York

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2008 by Naomi Hirahara

  How to Fold a Paper Crane, copyright 1994 by George Leven
son. Adapted with permission from Informed Democracy / www.informeddemocracy.com.

  All rights reserved.

  Delacorte Press and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Hirahara, Naomi.

  1001 cranes / Naomi Hirahara.—1st ed. p. cm.

  Summary: With her parents on the verge of separating, a devastated twelve-year-old Japanese American girl spends the summer in Los Angeles with her grandparents, where she folds paper cranes into wedding displays, becomes involved with a young skateboarder, and learns how complicated relationships can be.

  1. Japanese Americans—Juvenile fiction. [1. Japanese Americans—Fiction. 2. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 3. Marriage—Fiction. 4. Grandparents—Fiction.] I. Title. II. Title: One thousand and one cranes.

  PZ7.H59773Aam 2008 [Fic]—dc22 2007027655

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  eISBN: 978-0-375-84881-0

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