Reference

Taka, who does "this" refer to?

It is all the same woman. 'This' refers to her as described in the preceding text.

To avoid the confusion, let's suppose the one who brought the story was a younger sister.

So, is it that the younger sister thought the story about the woman who hurried out to the car was funny, but when she told her older sister the story, she didn't know the woman was actually her older sister?

TakaTo avoid the confusion

I see none, really, if you follow the story line.

I think the idea is that we are supposed to understand that the woman in the story is the writer.

The reason I said "to avoid confusion" was that there are only women in the paragraphs I presented and there is no description about their ages, so I just supposed for the sake of convenience that the sister was younger than the woman who climbed on the bathroom scale, otherwise my question would have been like this. It's a bit unclear who is who, isn't it?

So, is it that the sister

enoonI think the idea is that we are supposed to understand that the woman in the story is the writer.

Interesting. Even thought the writer says "a woman I know", do you think the woman is the writer?

Taka enoonI think the idea is that we are supposed to understand that the woman in the story is the writer.Interesting. Even though the writer says "a woman I know", do you think the woman is the writer?

That is a standard storytelling device. It is clear to me that the writer is using that device here. The omniscience gives

I see.

enoon, could you tell me what you think about this question?

Is it that when she was giving the story about the woman who she thought was funny, she didn't know the woman was actually her sister?

Or is it that she knew her sister never thought she would be happy but the fact was that her sister just didn't realize how lucky she really was sometimes, so

Oh. I see your problem now. The thing is not very well written. The sister called with a funny story that we never get to hear anything further about. The woman's day was made better by her sister's story, whatever it was. Her sister's story was just one of the things that made the woman's day better, and it was not a story about a woman who hurried out to her car, etc.

Aha! So the part "When she hurried out to the car—angry that she had to get gas—she discovered her roommate had already filled the tank for her" has nothing to do with her sister's story. It's not about her story, right?