On Saturday morning, Amina carried her little brother Nico's wind-up robot to the kitchen table. Nico was outside drawing chalk roads on the sidewalk, and Amina only meant to look at the robot for a minute. She had to build something that moved for science class, and she wanted to see how the robot's gears worked.

She turned the metal key once. The robot waddled across the table with a whirring sound. "Cool," Amina murmured. She turned the key again, a little harder this time. Snap.

One of the robot's small plastic legs broke off and skittered across the floor.

Amina's stomach dropped. Nico loved that toy. He brought it on car rides, lined it up beside his books, and once tried to feed it cereal at breakfast. Amina picked up the broken leg and imagined Nico's face. For one second she thought about sliding the robot back onto his shelf and pretending she had never touched it.

Instead, she went outside. "Nico, I need to tell you something," she said. Her voice sounded smaller than usual.

Nico looked at the robot and his eyes filled with tears. "You broke Zip!"

"I'm sorry," Amina said quickly. "I shouldn't have used it without asking. But I want to fix it if I can."

They carried the toy to their grandfather's workbench in the garage. Grandpa showed them how to line up the cracked piece and use a small amount of strong glue. While they waited for it to dry, he helped them cut a tiny cardboard brace to make the leg steadier.

By evening, Zip could wobble forward again. It was a little slower, and the repaired leg had a silver stripe where the glue had dried, but Nico still smiled when he wound the key. "Now Zip looks like a robot hero," he said.

Amina laughed, relieved. She had made a mistake, but telling the truth had made room for a better ending.