Mam's Paper Tiger

For years, mam carefully sliced open the wrappings around christmas gifts and saved them on top of the fringe in a thick stack. She set the paper down, plain side facing up, and began to fold it. A little paper tiger stood on the table the size of two fists placed together. The skin of the tiger was the pattern on the wrapping paper, white background with red candy canes and green christmas trees. Its tail twitched and it pounced playfully at my finger. Ors it growled, the sound somewhere between a cat and rustling newspapers. Mam said, this is called origami.