When You Trap a Tiger Flashcards
I can turn invisible.
When You Trap a Tiger
I had plans this summer - not that you care.
When You Trap a Tiger
None of us like the idea of driving in this weather, not after Dad died.
When You Trap a Tiger
Why else would it be lying out here in the rain?
When You Trap a Tiger
My pulse is a wild beast as I scan the road, searching for horrors I don’t want to see.
When You Trap a Tiger
That story always felt special, like there was a secret shimmering beneath the words.
When You Trap a Tiger
It’s a small cottage, at the edge of town, at the top of a hill, across the street from the library and surrounded by woods.
When You Trap a Tiger
She taps the side of the pane, runs her hand over the sill, then thumps a fist right below the glass.
When You Trap a Tiger
I bet she did that all the time as a teenager.
When You Trap a Tiger
But now, in front of the basement door, there’s a tower of engraved Korean chests and cardboard boxes, stacked like a barricade.
When You Trap a Tiger
You’re being a QAG.
When You Trap a Tiger
Her colorful silk tunic and white pants hang looser than usual.
When You Trap a Tiger
Like I was saying, they are wet because we had to stand outside in the rain.
When You Trap a Tiger
The basement flood, so the stuff come up.
When You Trap a Tiger
We lay out food for the spirits and the ancestors and let them feast before we do.
When You Trap a Tiger
I steal something that belong to them - long, long ago, when I little like you- and now they want it back.
When You Trap a Tiger
So the older sister became the sun, and the younger sister became the moon.
When You Trap a Tiger
And inside the bathroom - I see a shadow beast, a mess of black scales, hunched over and heaving.
When You Trap a Tiger
The wrinkles around her eyes and lips are deeper than usual, but she looks healthy enough.
When You Trap a Tiger
She flushes the toilet and stands up, stepping forward, into the moonlight.
When You Trap a Tiger
Also on her nightstand, new: a row of tiny orange pill bottles.
When You Trap a Tiger
The stars are made of stories?
When You Trap a Tiger
And then I get to work, grabbing the stars - the bad stories - in my fists, stuffing them into jars.
When You Trap a Tiger
She grabs a mug from its new home and starts making a cup of tea, even though I don’t really want one.
When You Trap a Tiger
Some people, friends just stick to them.
When You Trap a Tiger
There are different versions of certain fairy tales rom all over the world - even in places that don’t overlap.
When You Trap a Tiger
With one hand, I pat the mugwort in my pocket.
When You Trap a Tiger
It’s like she has a secret life.
When You Trap a Tiger
She’s telling him, I see you and I see the way you could be.
When You Trap a Tiger
I don’t know why she never talks to me about this stuff.
When You Trap a Tiger
It did start raining, and because of my cereal disaster, we’re caught in it.
When You Trap a Tiger
I can’t believe you made those guys help, and then you lectured them like that!
When You Trap a Tiger
Little sisters get scared, and then big sisters comfort them and say, It’s okay, I’ll be the moon.
When You Trap a Tiger
Above us, the first few stars peek out of the evening sky, and I ask them a silent question: What do I do?
When You Trap a Tiger
I can’t stand feeling helpless - like I have to fix it, but I don’t know how.
When You Trap a Tiger
If they stay locked away, they will make her sick.
When You Trap a Tiger
Her stripes blur into blackness, and she’s gone.
When You Trap a Tiger
Not sure how much money that would actually raise, but it does seem like a good way to get the community engaged.
When You Trap a Tiger
I read so many comic books, and plus, I’ve probably inherited knowledge from my great-grandpa.
When You Trap a Tiger
Why are you wearing that hat and why are you holding a pile of rope?
When You Trap a Tiger
It’s not his fault he doesn’t know the bigger picture, and if he wants to talk about comics or hats or anything, I should just let him.
When You Trap a Tiger
I’m not getting tutored because I’m stupid.
When You Trap a Tiger
Well, it’s hypothetical, so…we won’t do that, I say.
When You Trap a Tiger
I take the star jars up to the attic room and hide them under my bed.
When You Trap a Tiger
But looking at these jars, I realize: I’ve found my bait.
When You Trap a Tiger
I force myself to stare into those glowing yellow eyes, those pupils like pools of black ink.
When You Trap a Tiger
We’ve only just begun, and there are consequences to telling the truth.
When You Trap a Tiger
The next afternoon, I announce, I need to make rice cakes.
When You Trap a Tiger
You know she made your poor father eat mud.
When You Trap a Tiger
Aside from the baby, the whole restaurant is silent as people watch, pretending this isn’t the worst moment of all time.
When You Trap a Tiger
I Google a recipe on my phone, and we start throwing stuff together - mochi flour and brown sugar and coconut milk.
When You Trap a Tiger
Even if things aren’t perfect, they can still be good.
When You Trap a Tiger
The granddaughter twisted, trying to escape, and when she did, her black hair caught in the moonlight, which lit up a stripe of bright white.
When You Trap a Tiger
I lift my foot and realize it’s rice - uncooked grains, scattered across the steps.
When You Trap a Tiger
Without an answer, she picks up a piece of kimchi with two fingers and holds it out to me.
When You Trap a Tiger
And the thing I’ve learned is that stories aren’t about order and organization.
When You Trap a Tiger
Chocolate pudding is the fourth most delicious food.
When You Trap a Tiger
But as I stand there, staring at the pudding, that thought settles in my stomach, thick and heavy as mud.
When You Trap a Tiger
I make things better, and I don’t trick people, making them wait for the end while bad things happen.
When You Trap a Tiger
But the embarrassment was never ever as strong as the pride I felt, because she’s pretty incredible, isn’t she?
When You Trap a Tiger
Absentmindedly, I fiddle with the mugwort in my pocket, letting the crinkle and crunch soothe me.
When You Trap a Tiger
It’s hall-moe-knee, not harmony.
When You Trap a Tiger
Suddenly, his self-sabotage over the language arts test and the tutoring makes sense.
When You Trap a Tiger
You do new, brave things, and you find out who you is in not-you situations.
When You Trap a Tiger
I lift the tall, thin jar - and I throw it against the wall, watching with relief as that one shatters, too.
When You Trap a Tiger
Maybe it’s scary to tell stories and share their truths - but I’d rather face them than run.
When You Trap a Tiger
As she walks, the rain lessens behind her.
When You Trap a Tiger
Take your history, understand where you came from and who you are - then find your own story.
When You Trap a Tiger
She makes a grasping motion, as if she’s plucking a star from the sky and holds it out to me.
When You Trap a Tiger
The mistake was creating a world where she had to hide - where she was afraid to be everything at once, fierce and kind, soft and strong.
When You Trap a Tiger
When Halmoni finally does go, I know she’s ready.
When You Trap a Tiger
I am a girl who sees invisible things, but I am not invisible.
When You Trap a Tiger
But somewhere along the way, I’d started dividing my blood into parts.
When You Trap a Tiger - Author’s Note
I worked like this, alternating between writing and research, treating these coincidences as clues, as if I were piecing together a story that had already been told long, long ago and I only had to bridge the gaps.
When You Trap a Tiger - Author’s Note
