Paper cannot be folded in half more than seven times.

This was a fact that Wilhelm Tirtschke knew very well. Hours spent huddled over worn carpet, folding sheets and sheets of paper, littering the folded paper around his feet. He spent his childhood in a naïve daze, believing urban legends and myths in an attempt to distract himself. Soon he became foolishly obsessed in breaking these myths.
However, the years passed, and the same paper which he used to break the myths joined the fire which failed to warm him. His fingers ached with the daily stretch of his knuckles and his once radiant smile grew paper thin. It took even more years for Wilhelm to accept that paper cannot be folded in half more than seven times.
Humans however, are not paper. …show more content…
Alma doesn’t arrive home. Wilhelm stood, waiting for the return of his sister who gave him strength. Many days pass and the father hands Wilhelm the newspaper with a grim expression. Wilhelm’s spirit slowly crumbles as he reads the title: 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke found raped and murdered in Gun Alley.
Five. His first gang fight is in an alleyway with a boy much larger than him, albeit missing some teeth. He squints against the sunlight to see the other boy’s face, as beads of sweat collects upon the nape of his neck. From heat or anxiety, he is unsure. Before the boy delivers a blow that would make Wilhelm’s smile a spitting image of his, the boy is hit on the back of the head with a brick. Wilhelm smiles as his friend, Squizzy, the paperboy, recomposes himself. Covered in purple and maroon, dragging their feet and shoulders drooping, they help each other walk back to Wilhelm’s home.
Six. Wilhelm stares at the other people, detached, watching from afar as he pities the foolish glint of hope in their eyes. Life is not kind. Life will take away everything people love. Squizzy pats Wilhelm on the back, a small act demonstrating his respects. His mother were good people, even if she painted Wilhelm with more red and purple than the gang fights. He watches as the sermon reads the piece of paper and his mother descend further into the