When You Trap a Tiger

Sam catches Lily looking under her bed and asks what she’s doing, but the latter refrains from revealing the hidden star jars. The older teases Lily about Ricky, then insists on giving her a new braided-crown updo, that of a “warrior-princess” (141). When Lily comments that she no longer looks like Eggi, the younger sister from her favorite story, Sam retorts with “That story is the worst” (141). They discuss the story, and a confused Lily learns that Sam recalls it differently: In Sam’s version, the older sister is the one who lets the tiger in, not the younger. Sam considers the story a sad one as the sisters end up on opposite sides of the sky. Lily always thought it was happy as the sisters survive, but considers Sam’s words. She asks Sam if she’d still run from the tiger, knowing how the story ends. Sam admits she’d “want to do the brave thing” (143) but is uncertain as to what that is.

That night, Lily sneaks into the basement with a star jar in hand and accidentally falls asleep. She wakes to the tigress trapped. She demands that the tigress help Halmoni, but it turns out the creature stole her protective mugwort; the tigress disappears and rematerializes behind her. The tigress offers a new deal: “You return the stories, your halmoni feels better. But here’s the fun part: in order to return the stories to the sky, I must tell them […] And stories are always better with an audience” (147). Lily knows she can’t trust her, but is desperate to help Halmoni and eager to hear the stories. She opens the first jar.

The tigress drinks the colorful starlight that embodies the story, then tells it. The story follows a girl who grows up being able to shapeshift. She’s unhappy living in two worlds, human by day and tiger by night, as it gets lonely bearing such a secret alone. When she’s about to have a baby, she begs the sky god to make them both human, but he only offers a heartbreaking exchange: The baby can grow up human only if the tiger-mother comes to the sky to learn his magic as he needs a successor. The tiger-mother sheds a tear that becomes a pearl, leaving her baby behind with a pendant. The story ends with the tiger-mother taking on the duty of lighting the night sky.

Lily doesn’t like that the tiger-girl had to give up her baby. She asks the tigress if the baby is Halmoni, whose own mother left after giving her a pearl pendant. The tigress says the story is ancient and belongs to the sky again “for all of us to see” (134-35). The creature says Halmoni will feel better but not right away—Lily must release the other two stories first.

Lily asks to bake rice cakes in the morning as the tigress wanted some, but Mom wishes to take advantage of Halmoni’s good mood. Sam suggests going to Dragon Thyme, an Asian restaurant where Jensen works, for lunch. Mom finds it unauthentic, but Halmoni says she loves their sweet and sour, so they go. Mom and Halmoni both say they can make rice cakes with Lily later.

The four converse pleasantly at the restaurant; even Sam is agreeable, though she looks around expectantly when they first arrive and seems a bit disappointed. Halmoni recalls a time when she put mud in a milkshake for Andy, the girls’ father, when he and Mom were dating: “Mud help keep him grounded, think before he speak” (163). When the appetizers arrive, Halmoni loses herself. She insists on serving kosa and starts trying to take other diners’ meals from them. Mom tries to stop Halmoni, repeatedly apologizing. One man says, “It’s okay […] We know Ae-Cha. If there’s anything we can do to help…” (165). Halmoni drops a plate, shattering it. Mom scurries to get her out the door, then asks the girls to collect her purse and pay. Sam refuses, so Lily goes. The girl at the counter gives her some candy and offers sympathy, assuming Halmoni has Alzheimer’s like her grandfather. Lily knows this is all “just a side effect of releasing the star story, but she’s going to get better, so it’s not like the waitress’s grandpa” (168).

On the way home, Mom reveals that Halmoni might have months or only a week to live. Sam is furious. Lily tries to snuggle against Halmoni in the backseat where she’s sleeping and asks what they can do. Mom says Halmoni refused treatment; Sam accuses Mom of “basically killing her” (170) by not forcing Halmoni to do so. When they arrive home, Lily wants to make rice cakes but Mom gently refuses, promising they can do it another time. Lily calls Ricky and asks to visit.

Mom is happy to take Lily to see a friend and drives her to a nicer part of Sunbeam. Ricky’s house is large and fancy; his father greets Lily and chats with Mom. He mentions that his grandparents built the house, which prompts Lily to ask about them being tiger hunters—but she trails off as Ricky wasn’t supposed to tell her this in the first place. Ricky collects Lily and takes her to the kitchen. They gather ingredients, substituting grape jelly for bean paste. Lily isn’t satisfied with the imperfect result: “They aren’t like Halmoni’s because Halmoni can’t make them right now, and I can’t, I just can’t” (179). Lily wants to throw the cakes out, but Ricky calms and convinces her to try them; he says his mother never followed recipes and always created different results. They leave the cakes to bake while Ricky lists his favorite foods. Lily tells him to study so that they can be in middle school together. The rice cakes turn out different but okay; Lily hopes the tigress will think so too.

Lily’s alarm goes off at two in the morning to meet the tigress. She catches Sam sneaking out of a window via the rope she and Ricky used to create the tiger trap. The sisters question each other. Sam wishes to escape for a moment as the house is “suffocating” (182) but won’t reveal more; Lily doesn’t reveal her own plan. They agree to keep their activities a secret from Mom. Lily notes that in her favorite story, the sisters use a staircase and a rope just like them—but unlike those sisters, Lily and Sam are descending to potential “tigers waiting at the bottom” (184).

The tigress eats Lily’s rice cakes, calling them “weird” but “acceptable” (186). Lily uncorks the star jar and its story.

This story follows a little girl and her halmoni. The halmoni tries to tell the girl stories, but she’s too afraid to listen. One night, the girl begins to turn into a tiger. The moonlight reveals a stripe of bright white in the girl’s hair, which the halmoni recognizes as the same dark magic that plagued her daughter. The girl becomes a wild beast who wants to find her mother’s stories; she runs across an ocean which parts for her but denies the halmoni. Worried, the halmoni whispers her love into a jar every full moon and releases it into the ocean, hoping the girl will find her way home.

Lily is upset with this story too—blaming the sky god for failing to uphold his promise, the tiger blood that proves too strong for the girl to resist. She thinks about Sam and wonders if she, too, will run away someday. When she demands to know how this unsatisfying story will cure Halmoni, the tigress cryptically says, “A cure is not about what we want. It’s about what we need. The same is true for stories” (190). The tigress warns Lily not to be late next time as she’s almost out of time.