The Rabbit Who Folded the Sea

How it begins

Juniper Vale folded the sea before breakfast. She meant to fold a paper boat, but the sea was watching and copied her.

First came one neat blue crease from the harbor to the lighthouse. Then another. By the time Juniper pinched the bow into shape, the waves stood in tall tidy triangles and Oscar Reed's ferry had become a hat.

The otter captain looked out from beneath its brim.

'Could you unfold us, please?'

Juniper set the little boat down. She was an excellent paper artist. Her birds could balance on one foot, her boxes closed without string and her festival flowers never minded rain. She had not practiced the sea.

She opened the paper boat. The harbor opened halfway, spilling three fish into a bucket.

Oscar caught the bucket before it tipped. 'Slowly might be useful.'

'I was trying to make a shortcut across the bay.'

'The fish did not know that.'

Juniper looked at the folded water. Between the blue peaks, a crab clung to a mooring rope. A gull stood on the wrong side of a wave, looking insulted. The lighthouse beam had become a crisp yellow fan.

Oscar climbed down from his ferry-hat. He put a plank across the first crease so the crab could reach the wall.

'Who uses the bay?' he asked.

Juniper began counting. Ferries, fishers, swimmers, fish, crabs, gulls. The list grew longer than the folded boat.

'Perhaps we should ask them where the creases go.'

The sea gave a small papery rustle. It had enjoyed being clever, but now a corner of the tide was stuck beneath the pier.

Juniper fetched a larger sheet of paper. This time, she did not begin folding. She spread it on the quay and waited while everyone who needed the water found a place around its edges.

Oscar brought extra chairs.