Paper Skyline

The lamp clicks on. A boy by the window writes a wish on a notebook page, folds it into a paper plane and lets it go. The glass melts into ink and watercolour, and suddenly the plane is over Paris. Glide it past rooftops and clouds for as long as the air will hold it, then draw a better plane in the notebook: wider wings, tougher paper, a tiny engine. Every upgrade carries the wish a little farther. And somewhere along the way, each city's keeper wakes: a stone gargoyle above Paris, a yellow taxi tearing down a New York avenue, the Sphinx rising from the sand. For a few quick seconds you'll need steady thumbs, until it gives way, grins and takes a bow.