Charlie Chan Is Dead 2 by Jessica Hagedorn

Author:Jessica Hagedorn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin USA, Inc.

I reflect on this anomaly. Color and smell can deceive me, can make my senses palpitate after things foreign and imaginary. Which is worse, I cannot decide, warm color or cool odor.

The bus, I know, will carry me past the rich greenbelt of Beverly Hills, then southward to the Jewish section with its seedy rest homes and bakeries. Eventually it will reach the flat expanse of Olympic Boulevard lined with Korean signs and shops. The Korean alphabet is not sinuous and cursive like Chinese or Japanese, but stolid, rather no-nonsense, like Korean food—meat, fish, and hot pickles. The bus will speed on. Korean signs will transform themselves into svelte Spanish syllables for burrito and taco stands replacing the Korean cafes and bars. The giant 76 gas station sign on Figueroa Street will loom in my face, an orange and blue eye surveying all traffic to the inner city. Thus, a Sunday afternoon will be a third spent by the time I reach downtown.

In the aisle, a man camouflaged in green army fatigues weaves in and out between the standing passengers. His hair is the color of rust and he holds a red transistor radio in his hand. Muttering “chrissakes” to no one in particular, his voice becomes louder at the lack of attention. His eyes appear gray and as opaque as smoke. He sports a plastic hospital wristband, probably from the county hospital. He looks at each passenger intently but they look through him. The man snorts, turning to the Latina woman next to him, who presses her child closer to her body and uses her grocery bag as a shield. The man repeats himself. “If you don’t understand English—go back to where you came from. Christ. To where you belong. Chrissakes.”

The bus driver turns his head once but does not say a word.

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