[EP] What a nice surprise

[st_andingtall]

"Eugene Thompson," repeated the Innkeeper, when Sam finally broke down and stopped searching for the wheelchair guy to ask. "One moment, please. Do you need any--"

"No. I have plenty of towels." What the heck was it with the towels, anyway? Sam shifted his weight to his other foot and tried not to screw up his face too much. The guy was just doing his job. Even if that was literally all he could do. "Um, but thanks."

"You're welcome." The Innkeeper did something that was probably smile, but Sam couldn't have described it, or his face for the life of him. "Ah, yes." He tapped a finger against the rounded black monitor screen that was as almost as old as Sam. "Mr. Thompson has checked out."

"Huh?" Sam's felt the surprise overtake his face and he had to work hard to plant his hands at the edge of the counter instead of reaching across to grab the guy by the collar. "I thought you said we couldn't leave."

"That is correct."

"But Flash--"

"Flash Thompson has checked out."

"How does that even make--" Never mind. The lyrics of Hotel California came to him. "So, you're saying he's dead and I should look for his ghost?"

"I have no record of His Ghost."

Sam rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. "Okay, yeah. Thanks."

After he'd stalked away from the front desk, Sam dropped into one of the round red leather booths in the Copper Cafe and pulled out his cell...which was absolutely fucking useless and he still forgot half the time. "Great. The Innkeeper's useless. Flash has 'checked out'. And I can't text anyone to tell them about it."

Oh yeah. Life in the days before instantaneous communication sucked. And blew.

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[st_makemeastone]

She looked up, blinked and brandished a small square of paper.

"Squares." She wrinkled her nose, "I keep losing count."

There was a bit of a paper mess around her despite ho precise the squares themselves were.

[st_andingtall]

Probably he should be more weirded out about her counting squares of paper than he was, but Sam just accepted it. It didn't mean he wasn't curious.

He pulled a pen from his jacket pocket and offered it to her. "You can write numbers on them to keep track. What do you need to count them for?"

[st_makemeastone]

She considered the pen, logical. Then she took it and wrote a '1' on the piece of paper she was holding before setting it aside.

"I require one thousand."

[st_andingtall]

"For what?"

Ow. Sam rubbed the spot between his eyes and righted himself before crouching down so he could talk to her more easily. Some days she acted pretty normal. Today was apparently not one of those days.

[st_makemeastone]

She gave him a look, because, she was totally normal.

Mostly.

Or not.

"Cranes." Deftly she folded the number one square into a small paper bird and offered it to him. "I will need it back, they don't count if you do not have them all in your possession."

[st_andingtall]

"One thousand paper cranes." Maybe not so crazy after all. He'd read that book in school.

He smiled, took the small crane, and set it aside to help make another. "The wish still counts if I help you, doesn't it?"

[st_makemeastone]

She considered that, then handed him one of the small squares of paper.

"I believe they will count, they just have to stay together. A flock."

[st_andingtall]

The paper was small, especially for his big hands, but he'd try anyway--after he watched her carefully another time or two.

"Do you have to keep the wish secret, too?" The book hadn't been clear about that, as far as he remembered, but maybe it was just because he knew what that wish had been.

[st_makemeastone]

"That does not seem to be a requirement," She deftly folded another, but she didn't divulge the wish might be making.

"Xīnxiǎng shì chéng." A pause and she looked at him seriously, "I do not know how to fold a rooster."

[Translation: May all your wishes come true.]

[st_andingtall]

"I, uh, I don't think you need to fold a rooster." If she did, it was going to be a problem, since everything he knew about origami was from watching her right now. And as far as Sam knew, there weren't any books on origami in the shop or the meager library, either.

He smiled briefly at the thought of a wanted flyer on the bulletin board for origami experts, but let it go to ask, "What did the ... Chinese? words mean."

[st_makemeastone]

It was the year of the rooster, she thought. Maybe. Well, it had been. Once.

"May all your wishes come true." But only with one thousand cranes.