Page 65 / Riding the subway is an adventure

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.