“Let her find it,” she whispered.

Willa looked at her teacher, took a breath, and began again.

The words came out in the wrong order, but she finished.

Then she smiled at us with such triumph that I hardly noticed I was crying.

Afterward, I gave her a paper flower.

She asked if butterflies got nervous in real life.

I said I didn’t know but believed they probably did.

She decided butterflies must be brave, then, because they flew anyway.