Riding the subway is an adventure especially if you cannot read the signs. One gets lost. One becomes anxious and does not know whether to get off when the other Chinese person in your car does. (Your crazy logic tells you that the both of you must be headed for the same stop.) One woman has discovered the secret of one-to-one correspondence. She keeps the right amount of pennies in one pocket and upon arriving in each new station along the way she shifts one penny to her other pocket. When all the pennies in the first pocket have disappeared, she knows that she is home.
From Crazy Melon and Chinese Apple by Frances Chung, published by Wesleyan University Press. Copyright © 2000 by the estate of Frances Chung. Reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press. All rights reserved.