girl on the corner: valley & fremont to valley & sixth

after talking to liz, gloria, abel and jose lozano at the “prayer for the women of juarez” readings by reina prado, consuelo flores and others on first street (after checking out the play by walking into casa 0101 by mistake), 11 PM i turned east on valley blvd., where an asian teen girl in black flagged me down at the corner, she looked scared and i thought maybe there was some kind of trouble, rolled the window down and she jumped in, said i must “please” take her to valley and sixth street like she was one of my daughters at some most absurd spoiled moment—she just missed the last bus—a five minute drive near noodle world where where i was going for dinner, not having eaten all day. her cell phone in hand, her semi-panic at the thought of the twenty minute walk down valley blvd was funny. i thought maybe she was drunk, but the way she talked, she was not drunk, just crazy, “my dad takes me to noodle world. what’s your favorite dish there? do i look vietnamese? are you vietnamese?” “where are you going? i asked. “just home,” she said and i dropped her off at sixth and got a bowl of tom yum.