"Wow, you braided my hair really prettily!" The tips of her hair gleamed with pink and orange.
"A simple thank you and 500 dollars would suffice, madame," I jokingly bowed and did a curtsy.
"Five hundred?" She held up her hands and wiggled them, "How many fingers is that? Does that come after ten and velveven? Is that a big number?"
Before I could even speak, she ran towards the shelf and brought me an old bamboo coin bank. She removed the cork at the bottom and started emptying it, tiny buttons and dimes and pennies littering the ground.
She began counting them but, as usual, she stopped at nine.
"Uh, what comes after nine again?"
"Why do you want to learn so badly this time?"
"Because I want to pay you. You said it's worth five hundred dollars," she pointed at her hair.
"You don't have to pay me. It's a joke."
"But I want to."
I gave her a smile, "I'll count this time, then." I started counting and she nodded every time I said a number out loud, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, fifty, one hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, five hundred . . ."
Her eyes glistened with excitement, "It's enough?! I can pay you?"
"Yep," I held 10 pennies and 8 buttons in my palm, "Five hundred dollars. You even have a lot of money left!"
My eyes widened when she wrapped her arms around me, "Thank you!"
YOU ARE READING
keeper of lost things
Fanfictionhave you ever wondered where all lost things go? like, a spare button or some dimes and pennies or your eraser or your pen or your hope or your faith . . . or at some times, even yourself. where do they all go?
