One Fold At A Time

A whale sounded from Ison’s study. He turned as he was exiting his lab with a sigh and made his way back to the study. He braced himself for a blast of sound as he approached. Even from outside the room it was incredibly loud. When he cracked open the door, the sound grew to an almost unbearable level. Steeling himself, he threw open the door and sprinted across the room with hands over his ears to a bucket full of flat, origami whales. One of them in the bucket was making the overwhelming sound, but it was hard to tell which one since they were all jumbled together. He really needed to sort them somehow.

It had to be a big one, that much he was sure of. The big whales were supposed to be used over long distances, but his son, Soin, liked to scare him by using big whales over short distances, making it extremely loud.

Ison took one hand off an ear to search through the bucket and quickly mashed that ear into his shoulder, trying to dampen the sound. He grabbed at any big whale he could find, flexing their tails with his one free hand, but the moaning continued.

He had gone through almost every big whale in the bucket, then he uncovered the biggest one at the bottom of the bucket. With a flex of that whale’s tail, the sound cut off, giving Ison a moment of relief. He kept his ears covered though, despite the silence; the message was about to play, and it would be equally or more loud than the whale’s initial call.

Nothing happened though. He couldn’t hear anything and cautiously took his hands off his ears to investigate. With his ears uncovered, he heard a soft sound coming from the whale. Soin’s voice was whispering. “Hi dad. Can I come to your lab?” Then silence.

Of course you can, Ison thought fondly.

“AAAAAAAAAH!!” the voice of his 9-year-old son yelled from the whale.

Ison stumbled backwards, tossing the whale in the air as he narrowly avoided colliding with a shelf of (non-paper) origami models. With ringing ears, he could barely hear his son giggling softly, then, finally, the tail snapped straight again as it slid across the floor, signaling that the recording was over.

I should have known that was coming, Ison thought, frowning, He thinks he’s so funny.

Ison knelt on the carpeted floor to pick up the whale again and pulled on the paper water spewing from its blowhole, starting a recording. “YES, YOU CAN!” he yelled, then waited a few seconds before imitating his son. “AAAAAAAAAH!”

With a mischievous smile, he pushed the water back into the blowhole and dropped the whale into the bucket. He could imagine his son’s cackling laughter at his response.

Ison left the study and entered what he called his “lab”. It was really just a big barn with everything removed that was barn related. He had also added two rooms to the outside with doors leading to the lab. One was his study where he designed and folded most of his origami. The other was for his giant origami, which he called his project room.

Soon Soin burst into the lab from the vestibule, excitement radiating from his face. He twisted the tail of the flat, origami anglerfish he was carrying to extinguish the light coming from the fish’s funny little dangly thing, and set it next to the door.

“Did you make sure you didn’t let anything out?” Ison asked while Soin looked around in wonder.

“Uh huh.”

Ison nodded, taking note to get the little red bird out of the vestibule that he saw flying around as the door closed.

“Dad?” Soin said, looking up with big, brown eyes.

Ison paused. “Yes?”

“Why can’t I talk about the stuff you make when I’m at school?”

Ison cocked an eyebrow. “You yelled at me with a Communication Whale and came over here just to ask that?”

Soin nodded with a smile, curly hair bobbing. “Yep.”

Ison sighed inwardly. He had tried to explain this to Soin several times. Perhaps he needed a different tactic. “Imagine that big tub in your room is completely full of candy.”

Soin’s eyes widened slightly at the idea, but he cocked his head. “What does that have to do with it?”

Ison kept going. “Are you imagining it?”

Soin nodded, eyebrows scrunched together.

“Good. Now imagine that you told all your friends about the candy you have.”

“I don’t think I’d want to do that,” Soin frowned, crossing his little arms. “That’s my candy.”

It was kind of a selfish way of thinking, which Ison knew he should discourage in his son, but it worked well for the illustration. “Yes, exactly! My work is like that candy.”

“It’s only for you?”

Ison smiled, tugging on his brown corduroy jacket. “No, not quite like that. I have to keep it secret so people don’t come asking me for a bunch of silly things like paper pets or whatever. I’m the only one who is able to do this as far as I know.” He squatted next to Soin. “I don’t know why, but since I’m the only one, everyone would come to me asking for one thing or another, and I don’t want that. Does that make sense?”

“I think so,” Soin said, sticking his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants, then abruptly asked, “Can I see your big project?”

“Wait, so you didn’t come here just to ask that question about school?” Ison said, standing slowly.

Soin paused, looking thoughtful. “I guess not.”

Ison shook his head, chuckling. 9-year-olds. he thought, What can you do?, but said out loud, “Of course you can see my big project. Just make sure you don’t tell anyone about it, right?”

“Got it.” Soin nodded eagerly, following Ison to the project room.

Once Ison was in, Soin dashed past him and ran around the massive paper sculpture, bubbling with excitement. Ison smiled, sharing in his son’s contagious joy and walked up to his project. Above head high, the giant, black origami dragon stood partially finished in the middle of the room.

“Can I help?” asked Soin.

“I would love your help,” Ison said, sitting on the floor, “but the dragon won’t become like a real dragon if anyone other than me works on it.”

Soin’s face fell. “Okay. Are you sure?”

Ison hesitated. “Yes. Remember that one time when I showed you how to make a crane? You folded it perfectly, but it wouldn’t carry anything.” He reached back to a shelf and grabbed his own crane and tossed it up, where it stayed flapping in the air, then threw his corduroy jacket onto it.

“Do you want to work next to me and make your own origami?”

Soin nodded, perking up a little. He walked to the paper shelves and looked back to Ison expectantly.

“Use whatever you want except the biggest paper.”

Soin grinned, now excited again, and picked out a square paper about the size of his head. He held it up, imagining what he could make with it.

Ison began his folding. “What do you want to make?”

“A dragon, like yours,” Soin said, spreading his paper next to Ison on the floor.

“I love that idea. Do you remember how to use crease patterns?”

“Yeah.”

 Ison leaned back again and grabbed a sheet of paper from a shelf with lines criss-crossing it. “This is a crease pattern for a smaller version of this big dragon that I used for experimenting.” Ison set the crease pattern next to Soin’s origami paper.

Soin started working on his little dragon, his tongue poking out in concentration while Ison continued the nearly-finished, big dragon. He frowned at the bulky, cumbersome paper. Folding with paper this large was often a bit awkward because of how floppy it could be. He left wooden rods in the legs to support the unfinished dragon’s weight while he folded the rest. The tail, feet, and head were done, and all that remained was to fold the wings.

Ison and Soin quietly worked with an occasional question from Soin, the sound of rustling paper dominating the room. After a few minutes Ison finished the first wing. Soin gasped as the dragon’s tail twitched.

“Looks like we’re getting close,” Ison grinned a toothy smile, butterflies fluttering in his stomach as he continued to the other wing.

Soin was watching more closely now, his project abandoned on the floor. “It’s mouth moved!” he said, pointing.

“Even closer,” Ison muttered, now focusing all his effort into the last details. He faintly noticed his heart pounding, and his belly was a storm of excitement.

“It’s foot!” said Soin with another pointing finger.

After a few more folds Ison stepped back, holding his breath. What would happen if it didn't do anything? He didn’t want to start over. But what if it did work? He would have a 7-foot-tall, walking paper dragon on his hands.

“Why’s it not moving?” Soin asked.

Ison considered it for a moment, then remembered the rods supporting it and gave himself a big eye roll. “I left the rods in the legs. That’s probably why it hasn’t moved.”

Ison knelt down to the clawed feet and carefully removed a rod from one of the back legs, making sure not to disturb any of the folds. The dragon held its form. He removed the rod from the other back leg. The dragon still stood. The next rod came out safely, and he went to the last leg. “Soin, why don’t you go stand by the door in case this gets out of hand.” Soin nodded and slowly walked to the door, cracking it open. His eyes remained glued to the dragon that continued to twitch occasionally.

Ison gently removed the last rod and jumped to an origami-filled wall. Nothing happened. He felt a hint of dread at having spent so long on a failed project.

The black head turned with a crinkle of paper.

Soin let out a whoop at the door and Ison sighed in relief, but remained tense. It was a dragon after all. Every other project, large and small, imitated the thing it depicted. They weren’t exactly the real thing, with their own consciousness or whatever, but they did have the same behaviors as their real-life counterparts. That made him nervous as the dragon appeared to stretch its paper muscles as if from a long sleep.

“Wow,” Soin whispered, then slapped his hands over his ears as the dragon roared. Ison plugged his ears also, eyes wide, and Soin nearly collapsed on the ground, still covering his ears from the deafening sound. It was even louder than the biggest communication whale Ison had.

All became silent except the crinkling of the dragon testing its legs and wings. “Will it breathe fire like real dragons?” Soin asked softly.

Ison had thought of this also. He kept an eye on the dragon as he spoke to Soin. “Based on other projects, it might spew paper flames, but not actual fire. I think real fire would burn it up anyway.” He paused, then added “Do you want to help me try and get it into the lab?”

Soin hesitated, still at the door on wobbly legs. “Sure.”

Ison nodded, moving around the dragon into a position he could push from. “Come help push.”

Soin took his place next to Ison and they started pushing at the legs, trying to get it to move to the door.

They managed a few steps, then the dragon leapt from their push and landed behind them. Soin yelped as they both fell to the floor. Ison groaned then whipped around, still on the floor, as a great crumpling sound came from the dragon. He gaped at finding the smaller dragon that Soin had abandoned getting smashed between the big dragon’s jaws.

Soin yelled at the dragon. “Hey! I was working on that!” then stomped over and pulled his crumpled project from its mouth. A deep growling sound came from the dragon’s chest as it focused its attention on Soin.

“Soin, please come back here.” Ison said, hands trembling on the floor. “I don’t think dragons like things being taken from their mouths.”

Soin scrambled back to his dad’s side while the dragon deftly leapt across the room to the door that was still slightly cracked. Ice ripped through Ison. “Oh no.” he whispered and sprinted to the door as the dragon pushed it open with its snout and slipped into the lab.

“What?” said Soin.

“It just ate your project. What do you think will happen to the animals in the lab?”

Understanding came across Soin’s face. “Oh. That’s not good.”

“Yeah. Not good.” He beckoned to Soin as he cautiously entered his lab. He let the door close behind him. “No,” he whispered, then “NO!”

Ison screamed, fuelled by anguish and anger, as he saw the dragon bounding through the barn that was his lab. In the few seconds the dragon had been in the lab, it had created a trail of smashed paper creatures leading from the project room door. The destruction made Ison want to cry. This was his life’s work. Ever since he had discovered his strange talent, he had been creating this place of paper life. Now trees were crushed, origami rabbits and birds and anything that could fit in the mouth of the dragon lay strewn about in smashed paper lumps.

“I hoped I would never have to do this.” Ison said, his typical straight back slouching some. “Soin, can you get the hose and turn it on?”

Soin nodded solemnly, picking up his dad’s emotions. He carefully made his way to the edge of the room to turn the hose on while Ison crept toward the paper dragon. The spray head on the hose dripped as Soin turned the water on and unrolled the hose, stalking towards the dragon.

Ison was a few feet from the dragon, which was hunched over and gnawing on a life-sized, origami pig, when his son arrived. “Spray the dragon when I say.”

Soin readied himself, pointing the sprayhead at the dragon. Then as the dragon looked up from its papery meal, Ison slammed into its side. “Now!” he yelled.

Ison and the dragon tumbled to the ground. The dragon quickly regained its balance, but came face-to-face with an onslaught of water, though it didn’t seem to mind.

“Keep going!” said Ison, “Spray until it stops moving.”

The dragon rounded on Ison, fury in its black, paper eyes. Ison leapt for its legs, ripping at the paper. The dragon howled as if in pain. Ison kept ripping.

Finally the dragon’s movements became sluggish under Ison’s ripping and as its paper became soggy. Ison stepped back and let Soin’s spraying do the rest of the work, tears flowing down his face. He knew it was his fault – and he was angry because of it  – but that didn’t fix the tears of anger and sorrow, let alone his whole lab.

“Well that didn’t work,” said Soin matter-of-factly, setting down the hose.

Ison chuckled, shaking his head. “Not at all.” The ball of paper that used to be a pig sat in front of him. He didn’t want to look at the rest.

“Most of the forest is still good,” said Soin.

Ison finally picked up his head and almost started crying anew at the scene. True, the forest was still mostly intact, but there were very few animals moving anymore. A few birds still flapped around high in the barn’s rafters, and only one pig had been destroyed while the rest remained in their herd, munching on paper grass. Many of his smallest creations were still crawling around, though a few had been crushed as the dragon tramped about. Most of all, Ison noticed the general destruction of much of his work.

He looked over to the vestibule. At least that didn’t get opened, he thought.

Then it opened to reveal his wife poking her head in. The red bird he saw earlier flapped into the lab above her head.

Steri looked around at the carnage and at the mass of dripping, black paper with wide eyes, then at Ison. He smiled weakly at her as she rushed to his side and put a comforting arm around him. “What happened?”

“I did something stupid,” Ison said angrily.

She rolled her eyes. “That doesn’t help me know what happened.”

Ison hesitated. “I made a dragon.” He felt stupid just saying it. “I should have known this would happen.”

Steri hugged him tighter. “Oh no. I’m so sorry. How are you going to rebuild?”

Ison sighed with drooping shoulders. “One fold at a time, I guess. This was such a special place, and I would like it back. But it will take a long time.”