Paper Lantern

It started with the dinosaurs and the earthquake.

It started with the dinosaurs and the earthquake.

Actually, it started when I brought home a new insert for our Japanese lamp.  Its wooden frame held squares of rice paper — small screens that projected cut-out shapes of sailboats, spaceships or, in our case, colorful trains moving in circles around the lamp’s center wire.   I removed the train insert and lowered a new cylinder.  Silhouettes of turquoise, magenta and yellow dinosaurs began their slow trundle, moving faster as the light warmed.

Will was three and a half, and dinosaurs were his new obsession. We watched together as the purple brachiosaurus followed the lime green raptor which ran under the peach pterodactyl, which swooped over a volcano in back of a yellow stegosaurus.  He punctuated his rapt attention with patter about dinosaurs.  I watched the crude images of long ago terrors, their colors captured by the confines of the lamp.  I watched Will watching them, enchanted.  He was revved up, bouncing on his toes.  I worried that as soon as I left the room to throw some dinner together, Will would forget the lessons he learned about the lamp — not only is the light bulb hot (so don’t touch it!) but every part of the lamp is fragile, from the rice paper to the easily crumpled inserts. 

The next morning came the earthquake...

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