One Thousand Origami Cranes on Neptune
By Jenny Hart
Listen to a reading of this story by Jenny:
“Would you love me on Neptune? Where diamond raindrops fall, and hearts gets crushed?”
She’s written a note of course. She never says these things to my face. She scrawls them in ink on pink paper scented with her perfume and leaves them lying around the flat.
“Would you love me on Jupiter? Where swirling storms rage until centuries fade?”
It is my birthday. She presents me with an orchid. Its waxy petals are white with a throat veined in deep purple. Moss twists around its roots and its odour thickens the air.
“Would you love me on Titan? Where rain falls so slow, you’d think time had stopped?”
She’s left the door to our balcony open. The carpet is a swamp. I pull back the voile curtains and they merge with my skin like a cold transparent shroud.
“Would you love me on Mercury? Where the dawn breaks twice, and the nights freeze your soul?”
I fold her note into an origami crane. There is a superstition in Japan. If you fold one thousand origami cranes you can make a wish. I have nine hundred and ninety-nine to go.
“Would you love me on Venus? Where days turn backwards and last nine months?”
I have made a flock of cranes. From her pink paper. From the electricity bill and the mortgage statements and the overdue service charges she always took care of. From take away menus and discarded lottery tickets. From pages of her favourite books. From scan photos.
The room is full of cranes, and I can’t count if I have enough for a wish. The wind rips them from the balcony, and they fly away. To Neptune and Jupiter and Titan and Mercury and Venus.
“Do you love me on Earth?”
I fold the next crane.
Jenny Hart has always enjoyed writing and during the Pandemic Lockdown of 2020, she started her writing journey in earnest, studying with Adam Z. Robinson from The Book of Darkness and Light theatre company. She has since developed a portfolio of short stories and poetry, and is working on a novel.
She lives in England, across the road from a cemetery, with her two cats, Jason and Jeff.
You can follow Jenny on Instagram: @JennyHart2001 Threads: @JennyHart2001 and X/Twitter: @JennyHart2001
Equal parts beautiful and heartbreaking. Thank you for sharing your writing Jenny.