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Origami Nightingale

By Catori Sarmiento

 

 

I

 

The young man considered what he should say as he steadied a bird cage on the jostling train. Draped over it was a pink cloth, hand embroidered with blue and red pinwheels dotting the bottom hem. For the most part, the inhabitant remained quiet, except for periodically emitting low trills. 

A trinket remained in his pocket. The memory of a child sitting beside the older man in rapt attention, watching him fold a

thin square of paper in a medley of bright colors and gold flecks and several quick whips of his fingers, turning over the paper once, twice, until the figure of a nightingale appeared. He must have given a sigh of awe because the old man laughed as he handed the paper bird to him. More amazed by how a simple flat paper can transform into something wholly different, he pleaded for the man to make another. Step-by-step, the child followed his instruction with undisciplined fingers. The resulting product a poor, crumpled imitation of the pristine creature.