The Joy Luck Club

"Do not ride your bicycle around the corner, " the mother had told the daughter when she was seven.

"Why not! " protested the girl.

"Because then I cannot see you and you will fall down and cry and I will not hear you. "

"How do you know I'll fall? " whined the girl.

"It is in a book, The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, all the bad things that can happen to you outside the protection of this house. "

"I don't believe you. Let me see the book. "

"It is written in Chinese. You cannot understand it. That is why you must listen to me. "

"What are they, then? " the girl demanded. "Tell me the twenty-six bad things. "

But the mother sat knitting in silence.

"What twenty-six! " shouted the girl.

The mother still did not answer her.

"You can't tell me because you don't know! You don't know anything! " And the girl ran outside, jumped on her bicycle, and in her hurry to get away, she fell before she even reached the corner.