Mini Mission: Wing coin balance

"That's what it looks like," Storyteller announced proudly as she sat down next to her money box. The other children looked suitably impressed, what else could they show but pure admiration for this masterpiece? She had made her money box herself. With the help of the adults, but the design was hers and she had glued everything together herself. You could see that, but no one wanted to admit it, so the children's faces were full of admiration. They thought it was cool, no question about it!

Its design was a little crooked and, even with the best will in the world, there was no symmetry in this money box. It was supposed to represent a Kamishiba, as the wings on the head revealed. But these were a little chunky and had slipped slightly before drying. The white color was unevenly distributed on them and the green and blue spots also shimmered with varying intensity. Some of them were slightly runny and formed color noses on the edges of the wings. The head was surprisingly large to allow enough space for the coin slot. Wing coins were supposed to fit through it and they were a little more bulky. The body was also large and thickened towards the bottom. This was unfavorable for the Kamishiba, but it ensured that the tin could collect many Wing Coins before it was forced to be destroyed. Here, too, the colors were applied in different thicknesses and the fur trim on the shoulders had been completely omitted, but only after several attempts, as some crumbs on the shoulders revealed. Here at least an attempt had been made to depict the protruding fur and these traces had then been thickly covered with paint.
The tail was thick and quite short, the flame at the end looked like a lump. It wasn't aesthetically pleasing, but prevented it from breaking off. There was a hole at the bottom which was sealed with a rubber plug. This meant that the tin could be emptied without breaking it open, as the child was far too proud of her work to destroy it.

And so a somewhat deformed Kamishiba child now stood on the bedside table as a money box and of course had to be admired by everyone when the children decided to use the hot day to eat ice cream. And the Wing Coins needed for this were in this tin. Storyteller had saved up especially for this so that she could give out the first ice cream of the year.

"This is my bank," she announced, carefully patting the money box. "All my savings are in there." 

She took out a small booklet. 

"And they're listed there too."

This earned her an astonished murmur.

"You're already that good at math?" Jaden was impressed, but Storyteller waved him off.

"What? Nooo. Najima does that for me, of course. That's just way too many numbers, an adult can do it much better." She nodded as if she were talking about the work of a servant who was doing a good job.

"This is where Najima records all the numbers." She opened the booklet. "When I take something out, she makes a line in front of it." She pointed to a line. "And when I put something in, she makes these crossing lines in front of it." She leafed through her book. "And every month she adds it all up and then writes the number in red in capital letters underneath." She showed it to her friends. They nodded, suitably impressed.

"So I always know how much money I have, yes." She grinned broadly as she put the book back in the bedside table. "You should do that too. Azalek says you always have to keep track of your finances."

Jaden glanced briefly at Eliphas, who just shrugged his shoulders. The word finances didn't mean much to them and they didn't understand why they needed an overview. You could tell when there wasn't enough for the next ice cream, couldn't you?

Storyteller grabbed her can and turned it upside down. It tinkled inside as she removed the rubber stopper. "Let's do it then," she grinned again, this time much more adventurously. "Let's raid the ice cream parlor then, shall we?"