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/ We were young and our happiness dazzled \
| us with its strength. But there was     |
| also a terrible betrayal that lay       |
| within me like a Merle Haggard song at  |
| a French restaurant. [...]              |
|                                         |
| I could not tell the girl about the     |
| woman of the tollway, of her milk white |
| BMW and her Jordache smile. There had   |
| been a fight. I had punched her         |
| boyfriend, who fought the mechanical    |
| bulls. Everyone told him, "You ride the |
| bull, senor. You do not fight it." But  |
| he was lean and tough like a bad        |
| rib-eye and he fought the bull. And     |
| then he fought me. And when we finished |
| there were no winners, just men doing   |
| what men must do. [...]                 |
|                                         |
| "Stop the car," the girl said.          |
|                                         |
| There was a look of terrible sadness in |
| her eyes. She knew about the woman of   |
| the tollway. I knew not how. I started  |
| to speak, but she raised an arm and     |
| spoke with a quiet and peace I will     |
| never forget.                           |
|                                         |
| "I do not ask for whom's the tollway    |
| belle," she said, "the tollway belle's  |
| for thee."                              |
|                                         |
| The next morning our youth was a        |
| memory, and our happiness was a lie.    |
| Life is like a bad margarita with good  |
| tequila, I thought as I poured whiskey  |
| onto my granola and faced a new day.    |
|                                         |
| -- Peter Applebome, International       |
| Imitation Hemingway                     |
|                                         |
\ Competition                             /
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