Asakiyume mita

It's a choose-your-own post ;-)


This was my post for the prompt word "string."

"How long before we have enough people to form a real dojo?" Violet asked her dad. Only two families had come to her dad's open house ("Learn Dreaming Butterfly Martial Arts," the posters had said).

"How long is a piece of string?" her dad replied morosely.

How long was a piece of string?! Was THAT where the answer lay? Well then, Violet would find out. She crammed a tape measure in her pocket, & every piece of string she encountered, she measured. She'd get an answer.

I just tossed it off and then fell in love with the idea of Dreaming Butterfly Martial Arts. I want to learn them! Violet's dad, count me in!


I was leaving the supermarket the other day, and as I passed the 5-gallon water-cooler refills, a boy in his late teens approached me and said, "You see these water bottles? I have one at home, an empty one, and I put change in it."

"Oh yeah?" I said.

"Yeah. I've filled it up to here." He pointed to about one-tenth up the bottle. "Guess how much money that is--more than 150 dollars!"

"Wow! Think how much you'll have when you fill it to here," I said, pointing at the top.

"I bet several grand. Maybe 10 grand!"

"Maybe," I said.

"I don't put all coins in," he said.

"Just the silver ones?" I suggested.

"Yeah, just the silver ones."

"What will you do with the money?" I asked. By now we were both outside the supermarket.

"Well I'll save some of it so I can help if there's a family emergency. I want to be able to help."

"That's really great. I'm sure your family will appreciate it."

We talked a little bit more--about wheat ear pennies (which he called "hay pennies," which I initially understood as "ha'penny," which caused some confusion), about his dad, who redeems bottles and buys lottery tickets with the cash, and so on. He was not your average young teen, but a very pleasant person to talk to.