Northern_Lights_2014

left Japan, though she talked dreamily about how she would love to go to see the places that people came from. I added my own note to her collection, “I really enjoyed talking with you, and I hope everything goes well for you.” I wanted to write more, to talk more, to read more, but I barely had time to scrawl that short message before arriving at my stop. She pulled out a small plastic bag and pressed a delicately folded tiny pa- per crane into each of our hands before waving goodbye. I watched as she put her notebooks back in her back- pack and couldn’t help but stare in wonder at the small glimpse I got of her world in those notebooks. Back to Contents 38