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My childhood One day, when I was a very young child, I picked one peach in the river. I was very excited then because I said to myself, “It is certainly the very peach that has a boy in!” There is an old story about a peach boy who was born in a peach to become a hero in Japan. In my childhood, as I often dreamed such a foolish dream, my mother was always worried about me. For example, after coming home, I cut that peach by myself and － maybe you can imagine what happened later － I cut my thumb with shedding blood. I cried and cried. On seeing me, my mother collapsed and ･･･ I leave the rest to your imagination. There was, however, only one thing which was helped by my dreamer mind. On a hot summer day, I went climbing a mountain with my family. After a while, I found one butterfly, which was blue, of course, for me at that time. I tried to catch it up ･･･ then I got lost. I cried and cried but my mother was not there. I was lost for a while. Then, that blue butterfly told to me (I just felt so), “God must help you. You may as well try to meet him!” Then, I tried to climb the mountain, just thinking it was closer to Heaven. Eventually and surprisingly, I could reach the top of the mountain. My mother looked very sad but on finding me, she came running to me. I said to mother, “Mother, you are told to come here by God, aren’t you?” My mother said, ”Don’t make a fool! You never know how much I was worried about you ･･･ ” “But this blue butterfly said ･･･ ” On seeing it, it died in my hand. It was yellow and brown, not blue. I thought to myself, “Why ･･･？ ” Now, I have grown up and remember this funny story. I think, maybe, God helped me, disguising himself as a blue butterfly.

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