She is a wise woman. She lives in a raised house at the edge of the village, by the rice patties. She has two chickens and a dog, she loves that dog. She lives off of the land and one rarely sees her for she is very old. When the villagers have a problem, they go to her. She helps them. She gives them life. Many say she is the spirit of the nearby mountain that towers over our village, we must not upset her for bad things will come. I do not believe this, for I have come to know her, to hear her stories. She is wise, yes, but she is no spirit.

Many of the days with her are spent folding cranes. She says that when you have folded one thousand cranes your wish is granted. So I sit with her and fold, so I can get my wish. As we fold she tells me stories of her life.

She was once a rich merchants daughter. She grew up able to read and write for she lived at the royal palace. Her mother was one of the Empress’s ladies in waiting. That is how she came to know the Emperor’s son. When at first he proposed, she was unsure. She did not love him but being an Empress someday was every girls dream. Her father pushed her though and she consented. She had a child, but he died at a young age. After that she could have no more children. Her husband took on a second wife. She ran from the palace, in fact, she ran to this very village. She married a rice farmer and they grew old together, but it has been many years since he passed on. She does say that every night, a nightingale comes and sits by her window and sings her to sleep. It is her dead husband, she tells me

She is folding so that when she dies she will become a nightingale in the next life. For then she can fly free with the man she loved. I ask her if she thinks I will get my wish. She tells me that if I dream and want and hope, and if it really is my deepest wish, my legs will move again, I will walk. So I sit with her, and dream and want and hope.