“Mahiru is so clumsy.” Adults always say.

Even the children from my first grade, too, said, “Mahiru keeps messing up everything, and we had to help her out.”

Maybe I should just do nothing.

“What’s wrong?” Grandma spoke when she woke up from the futon where she had been resting because of her chest problem. “Why don’t you go out and play?”

I shook my head.

“Mahiru,” said she. “Want to try origami? Grandma will teach you how.”

She got up then, and we went to the tearoom, where she took many colorful papers from a cabinet. And she used one of them to fold up, then down, and transformed it into a cute horse with a horn.

“How?” I said, holding the pink paper, now shaped like a unicorn.

She then folded a rabbit, crane, and frog that would hop when you pressed behind. And she even made a tiny box that you could use to keep small coins.

“Please, show me how,” I said, excited. “Please—”

Grandma grasped her chest suddenly. And she made a painful cry before she collapsed.

That was many years ago. Though, I will never forget what Grandma showed me that day. Because of her, I learned that the world is not a scary place where I must always be afraid of messing things up. It is a place full of beautiful things and shapes. And with my own hands, I could recreate them, just like she taught me.

By the way, Grandma survived that attack. So, we are going to celebrate her one-hundredth birthday this year.