Kusudama Fairy

She was on her way to work on her birthday when an old man, who reminded her of a character she came across in a book, asked her for directions, which she gave. At work, she ate potato chips in celebration of her birthday. She was allergic to potato chips, and would develop sore throat overnight whenever she ate them, so she did not eat them often. The potato chips were unimportant, as was the old man, as was the book she read. They were just the things about her birthday that she thought were out of the ordinary. After work, she met up with her friends to celebrate, but she met her friends often and often ate what they ordered that night.

She summarised the past year in her head on the way home and fell asleep in the taxi cab. In her sleep, she dreamt of being a fairy from somewhere in Japan and who was in love with a samurai, who wore a mask, and she could not see how he looked like. She was wearing an elaborate kimono, which she felt was surprising light. She checked the sleeves and found that she was carrying a kusudama. This kusudama, which is something like a ball of origami flowers, was similar to the ones that she often made while she was awake. This recognition made her aware of her lucid dreaming, which excited her so much that she woke up before she remembered if the love was requited and what the kusudama was for.

She went back to her apartment feeling a little groggy from the drinks she had and the dream she half dreamt. She should have tried to fly. She had read somewhere that one can fly in lucid dreams. Unthinkingly, she went into her room and reached for a plum blossom kusudama that she completed last night and meant it for a gift to a friend. It was blue and green and yellow. The one in the dream was white in colour.

Then lightning struck, and it startled her, and she accidentally dropped the kusudama, and it exploded silently into one thousand little flowers. She did not notice the loud thunder that followed and didn't know what to do, or if she was dreaming, or if she was awake. She was suddenly unsure if she was just holding the kusudama at all, or she came home with a handful of little flowers and thrown it on the ground.

She squatted down and felt the flowers and verified that they were real. She felt a little ditsy and went to get the broom. If anyone was to wake up to see this, she'd say she came home and dropped the flowers which were a birthday gift. She wondered if she should try to throw another kusudama on the ground to see if it happens again. If so, she should do it first and sweep the floor after. But it would also be good to clean up the floor first, go take a shower to sober up, then, try to smash another kusudama to properly observe what happens.

As she swept, she felt that the flowers were hardly moving. Then she noticed that the broom was growing shorter. The flowers were cutting away the broom. They were not glass, but they could cut at the brooms. They did not cut her, but she needed to make new plans. So she sat down on the bed to think.

Then, she remembered what the kusudamas in the dream was for, it was for self protection, and it was a lucky charm that she made for the samarai - a gift of origami love. He was to use them by throwing them at his enemies to elegantly cut them into pieces. She could not remember if the love was requited. But the flowers were to remind him of her in the battle field, and that he must survive to return to her.

She wondered if the kusudamas not meant as gifts would work. And if it was the first time she dropped a kusudama or why this had never happened if she dropped it the last time. She wondered if it happened only because it was her birthday, and if not, she should warn her friends who had previously received such a gift from her. No, the flowers would not hurt them. The kusudamas were meant for them, and they would be protected. Would it hurt their loved ones?

She wondered about how to clean up the flowers on the ground besides having to pick them up by hand. She wondered if she should try dropping another kusudama or just vow never to make anymore and forget that this entire episode ever happened. She could just go to sleep and see what happens when she wakes up tomorrow. Or when she thinks she wakes up tomorrow. She remembers the potato chips because she felt her throat slowly growing sore. If she had not known it, she could not have thought that she was ever a kusudama fairy before.

(For Lay Suan and her happy birthday. )
(sneak.)