“Say ___”

Once upon a time, there was a shy little girl named Lily who loved doing crossword puzzles with her grandmother. One day while working on a particularly difficult puzzle, her grandmother asked her, “Lily, if you need me to hold off giving you a hint until later, what would you say?”

Lily didn’t know what the answer was, so her grandmother gave her a clue: “Think about something you say before you ask a question or make a request.”

Lily thought for a moment, but still couldn’t figure it out. Her grandmother smiled and said, “Say…?”

Suddenly, it clicked for Lily. “When!” she exclaimed. “You say ‘when’ before you ask for something.”

Her grandmother nodded with approval and they finished the puzzle together. From then on, Lily always remembered the connection between the crossword clue “Say ___” and its answer “WHEN“.