The Little Japanese Woman: Part One in the Office Saga

Today, younglings, I will tell you the tale of the Little Japanese Woman.

There was once, in a land far away, a pediatrics Office of the name Mt. Airy, after the town where it resided. In this office, children of snotty noses and babies of screaming toothlessness came in and out; also, those of teenager-hood (thinking themselves too cool for exams), and those too old to come, who came anyway.

In this office worked a young maiden. Her heart was pure and her eyes mischievous, for always was she thinking of her life in another land; the land of Duval Street. It was there that she had her friends of yore and old, and those who guided her with sage wisdom were also there.

This young maiden sat at her computer, and verily and readily did she type and file papers all the day long, until she was weary and sore from her toil. Those around her were her friends, and with good cheer and laughter did they make their path across the lonely days.

One day, when the maiden was smiling in good humor at a harried mother of four, a Little Japanese Woman came in the door. With a jingle and a tiny wrinkled smile, this Little Japanese Woman came to the counter in her tiny Japanese self and crinkled her eyes at the madonna Sharon, who was sitting ready to receive her.

"Hi, hi," said the Little Japanese Woman, in a voice like wind brushing through chimes, "I am here, and for a fundraiser I am selling these." And the Little Japanese Woman took up a box of beautiful origami and placed it on the counter.

Both the maiden Sarah and the madonna Sharon looked upon with eyes that opened wide to see the beauty of these things. And the maiden Sarah took quickly to flight, and she ran up the stairs and pulled a secret fold of dollars from her bag. With these she ran back down to the Little Japanese Woman and said, in a voice breathless and eyes sparkling,

"I would like to buy two of those beautiful things!"

And the Little Japanese Woman smiled a grateful crinkled smile, and said in a voice like a cat thanking a benificent hand for its fish,

"Ah, ah, thank you, thank you."

The madonna Sharon bought one also. Then the Little Japanese Woman left.

But wait, younglings! That is not the end of the tale!

The chief of all these people, the manager Jennifer, who came many years ago from over the sea, did not see the Little Japanese Woman go. When told of all that had transpired, she ran to get her own money, and hurriedly did she press it into the hand of the maiden Sarah, and she said,

"Go, go now, before she is gone from us, and get me one of those beautiful origamis - a blue one!"

And quickly did the maiden Sarah run, but all in vain, for the Little Japanese Woman had disappeared, as a ghost into thin air, and was nowhere to be seen.

But then! The maiden Sarah happened to glance into the window that looks down into the maw and darkness of the evil Coopermanland, where they sell things that no man should buy. And in the jaws of that land of doom, she saw the Little Japanese Woman, looking up fearlessly with her wrinkled face into the hard eyes of the Owner of Coopermanland. And the maiden Sarah hurried to rescue the Little Japanese Woman from her fate.

"Can I buy another one?" she gasped.

"Ah, ah, yes, of course," said the Little Japanese Woman, smiling her wrinkled smile.

Then the maiden Sarah went back to the Office, and the Little Japanese Woman went on her way, with her box full of beautiful origami, and her little wrinkled smile on her face.