Every morning, my father distributes our share of coins to us before we go to school, and he repeats to us the advice we have memorized by heart: Buy useful things. Each of us was very happy when putting the coins in his pocket and drawing in his mind a small adventure that suited the value of these pieces. I will buy colored chalk and give it to the teacher. I will buy a plate of fava beans from Abu Mahmoud. But my brother Wael would hurry to the wooden cabinet that his mother had given him, at the bottom of whose shelf he placed his piggy bank.
We would hear the sound of the metal coins falling into the piggy bank, and this really excited me about what little Wael could save his money without changing it to buy from the grocery store. I often admired his ability to be patient by saving his allowance while we, as adults, couldn’t resist the temptation of strong sweets and the beautiful things that sparkled behind the display glass. I decided once to buy a piggy bank and said to myself: I will put in it all the money I get from my father, mother, and grandmother.
But I couldn’t buy the piggy bank because my money evaporated before I entered the school yard, because the smell emanating from Uncle Mahmoud’s bean cart moved the desire inside me to taste the taste of beans with chickpeas. I felt regret but after it was too late. It occupied me greatly to the point that I wandered away from the lesson explanation and the teacher alerted me.
He said to me: What’s wrong with you, Rabi’? Do you feel something? What occupies your mind today? I felt extreme shame and thought all my colleagues were looking at me. At home, I told my mother: Mom, I want a piggy bank like Wael’s piggy bank. My mother noticed signs of annoyance appearing on my face, so she said: Is this what occupies your mind and bothers you? I told her: I will try to save like Wael. My mother said: Don’t worry, you will have a piggy bank today. Before sunset, I had a piggy bank like Wael’s.
I carried the piggy bank with trembling hands as if I were carrying a treasure. Many dreams circulated in my mind that would fill my piggy bank with money. I would buy what I desired of toys and sweets and participate in the school trip without costing my father the required amount, and I would repair my broken bicycles. Ideas and dreams followed. My mother was watching the emotions appearing on my face and the smile that filled her face, then she gave me pieces of metal coins and told me: Put these coins in your new piggy bank and try to add to them every morning. I put the metal coins in my mind with all my broken dreams.