It was a perfectly ordinary thing for me to satisfy a hunger pang by taking a handful of coins from my pocket, stuffing them into my mouth and chewing away. They were sweet, like candy, but partway through them I realized I had forgotten to check whether or not any of the quarters were the bicentennial version
that I collected for my mother. (She kept some in a fancy box and I took so many as a child that years later I presented her with a bag full of them, and though she was probably too preoccupied to recognize my gesture, I never stopped.) None that I regurgitated were, but a few stuck out as shiny examples of a new mint of silver dollars. I might have made these up because I couldn’t picture the real thing, but one whose edges were already gnawed around had the image of Rosalynn Carter, whom someone beside me pointed out as “Rose”—I wasn’t sure of that name, either, until I confirmed Jimmy’s use of it in another article.
that I collected for my mother. (She kept some in a fancy box and I took so many as a child that years later I presented her with a bag full of them, and though she was probably too preoccupied to recognize my gesture, I never stopped.) None that I regurgitated were, but a few stuck out as shiny examples of a new mint of silver dollars. I might have made these up because I couldn’t picture the real thing, but one whose edges were already gnawed around had the image of Rosalynn Carter, whom someone beside me pointed out as “Rose”—I wasn’t sure of that name, either, until I confirmed Jimmy’s use of it in another article.And the metallophagia? Either a biological response to my recent bloodwork indicating a slightly lower-than-reference result for mean cell hemoglobin (13.4 vs. 14.0-17.0), or a symbolic one for paying too much to get the car fixed again.
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