As a child, I have fond memories of fighting my sister for the opportunity to play one of the many games my parents had lovingly purchased for the both of us. My sister, Aviva, would often take the various games -Connect Four, Monopoly, Candyland- and hide them in her room, a place where I never dared to venture as it would certainly result in my demise. One of these games, Operation, seemed to have a certain power over Aviva, because it was the one game that remained in the family room. At first, I was elated that Aviva had decided to keep that particular game out of the dark tresses of her room, but soon afterward, I began to understand why…

Everyday after school, I would walk the brief ten minutes home looking forward to a bowl of fresh fruit and an afternoon filled with Chip ‘n Dale’s Rescue Rangers and Duck Tails. This was our routine everyday after school until that dreaded game came into our lives. Now, I would walk the too brief ten minutes home and before opening the door I would hear that horrible buzzing and I would know Aviva had been practicing since she got home from school. I would be forced to sit in front of that idiotic looking patient and watch as she seamlessly put the funny bone into place, followed by the “butterflies” and the “adam’s apple”. The “wish bone”, the most difficult of parts to replace on the already scattered patient, was the bane of my existence. I was promised that if I was able to replace our patient’s “wish bone”, I would then have permission to never look at that terrifying game again, but, alas, my hand proved to be less steady than Aviva’s hand. This tradition went on mercilessly for almost six months until the day I finally put the “wish bone” into place. I jumped up with sheer joy and went to the T.V., praying that this was indeed the end of this torture, but as I walked away I knocked into the game and knocked out the funny bone. To this day, that funny bone still haunts my dreams as it led to six more months of medical school taught by my sister.

Now, Aviva and I don’t play too many games together anymore, we’d much rather sit on the couch with Chinese take-out and watch Law & Order, but when Aviva left to start her surgical residency in Atlanta, I ventured up to the attic and found our old Operation game and forced her to play one last time before starting her real surgical career. It took me exactly five minutes to beat her… and it was the best send-off I could give her.