Counterfeit

A third-person narrator describes Winnie waking up after plastic surgery in Beijing. She examines her reflection, noting the new shape of her eyes, and thinks about the other procedures that will make her look different. Winnie walks home in the smog and traffic and, in her rented flat, rejects a call from Ava, the only person who knows how to reach her.

Winnie reflects on how Ava, when she saw Winnie packing in their Stanford dorm room, offered to let Winnie use an essay of hers in class. When Winnie asks why she wouldn’t fear getting caught, Ava grins and says she blames Winnie for stealing. Ten years later, when Winnie needed a reference letter to file for her green card, Ava teased Winnie about whether she loved Bernard and then wrote “everything the authorities wanted to hear” (172).

When she reached out to Ava about Boss Mak’s transplant, Winnie quickly perceived that Ava’s successful husband neglected her and she was downplaying her son’s developmental issues. Winnie sums up Ava’s life as great on paper but rotten everywhere else.

When Ava scolded her for cheating with her business, Winnie guessed Ava was angry because Ava felt she deserved a life of wealth—the life she was promised if she worked hard—while Winnie reached out and took it.