The Snowflake

Ages 9-12

Simi folds her first paper snowflake, and when she opens it, it falls in two.

The teacher showed them on the board. Fold the square in half, and in half again, and then into a triangle. Cut on the edges. Simi folds. She makes the triangle. She cuts a notch from one side, and a notch from the other, and then a long cut straight across the middle.

She opens it. It lies on the desk in two pieces, with a thin edge between them.

The girls around her are holding theirs up. Chavy's has a hole in the center, and fine points. Simi puts the two halves on her desk, and presses them together. They come apart.

She looks at the tape on the teacher's shelf.

She takes a piece, and tears it off with her teeth. She lays the halves edge to edge, and puts the tape across the back, over the cut. She lifts it. It holds.

At the end of the day, she asks if she can hang it. The teacher gives her a pin. She stands at the window, and presses the pin through the top corner of the snowflake, into the frame.

The afternoon sun comes through the glass. Light goes through the cut places, and a straight dark line lies on the sill where the tape is.