Page 10 of The Incredible Kindness of Paper

Chloe

Out in Astoria, Chloe popped into the little stationery store in her neighborhood. She smiled as she greeted Jackson, the teenage boy behind the register, then headed straight back to the aisle where the origami paper was kept. Except this time, the shelf was empty.

“Hey, Jackson? Looks like you’re out of my origami paper.”

Jackson walked down the aisle she was in and frowned at the shelf. “Yeah… there’s some big shipping issue going on. Boss says we might be out of stock of a bunch of stuff for a while.”

Chloe stared at the empty shelf. She needed that paper.

How was she supposed to embark on her big, city-healing project if she couldn’t make her roses?

She knew from experience that this shop was the only one within a reasonable radius that reliably carried a decent selection of yellow origami paper.

The best you could get anywhere else nearby was a rainbow pack with a measly few sheets of yellow.

“Maybe try Little Tokyo,” Jackson said.

“All the way in Manhattan?” Sure, Astoria was part of New York City, but it was an outer borough. Chloe didn’t go into Manhattan all that often. It was intimidating.

Jackson shrugged apologetically. “Or you can wait a few weeks for the shipping issues to resolve.”