When I was little, fifty years ago, my parents used to own a van which could turn into a camping car and we often went to the North American national parks. It might be one of the reasons that when my parents visited an art gallery, they decided to purchase an oil color portrait, painted by Jim Abeita.
I guess that the portrait and the idea of a gallery left a very strong impression on me, as when one of my fellow kindergarten friends wanted a painting I drew, I told him I would sell it to him. An exchange was made but when my mother found a few coins in my kindergarten drawer, she told me that I must give them back. The next day, unwilling to do so, I decided to keep one coin just a little bit longer, in my mouth…Then I happened to swallow the nickel coin which got caught in my airways, luckily enough vertically and not horizontally. The teacher didn’t believe me at first and sent me to the principal who called my mother who left work early and came to pick me up.
At the hospital, I remember my father holding me high in the air, so I would be able to see the X-ray photos through the high windows of the corridor. There it was, a dark shadow in the middle of my throat. When I woke up from the anesthesia, I told the Dr. That I would like to have my nickel back.
He laughed and gave me a nickel out of his pocket and until my late twenties, I always believed it was actually the very same coin.
Dafna Avidan