Pictures of You: Avital Gad-Cykman

“The Hat,” by Avital Gad-Cykman

The most important thing here is the hat. Such hats are in fashion, but to make sure nobody considered me morbid for wearing the hat my grandfather left me, I made an orange woolen pompom and fixed it to the top. It doesn’t cross my mind that it might have the opposite effect.

I am not thinking about any of it, anyway, as I am traveling to Eilat where the air is so hot and dry you seem to be walking into an oven once you get off the bus. I walk hand in hand with a boy, and we collect shells on the beach and speak about the universe.  He breaks my heart, but I am at peace just this minute. I have the hat. It’s love forever.

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Avital Gad-Cykman was born and raised in Israel, lives in Brazil and writes in English. Her book, a flash collection titled “Life In, Life Out” is published by Matter Press (http://matterpress.com/press/). She is the recipient of The Margaret Atwood Society Magazine Award, Hawthorne Citation Award and a finalist in several contests, among them the Iowa Fiction Prize for story collections.