She looked just like my Mary had when she was in her twenties. She had long brunette hair just like Mary and was quite overweight and dressed as a cow...irl. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. I did notice that she didn't seem happy as her partner left her and went to one of the women dressed as a prostitute.The cowgirl lady sat down and I couldn't help myself. I got up to sit next to her. "Hello, my name's Ed," I said to her.She looked at me with a slight smile and said, "Hi, I'm Marie. Pleased. “I’m nineteen.” Thomas finished his bow and leaned back against the mantle with an air of insouciance. “Always nineteen.”“Well, that’s very strange. I’m eighteen, but not always.” Brittney laughed again. “For example, just a few weeks ago I was seventeen.”“I see.” Tom smiled. “What sort of games do you like to play?”“I don’t know. Mostly 4x strategy games.” Brittney looked around the room. Where had all the ornate furniture come from? The fire cast everything with an orange glow, but offered no. I decide I need a run. It's been a few days. I ran on Friday, in Sydney,around some random parks, whilst going over what "push in the back" was,and "holding the man", and all the other stupid rules of football.It only occurs to me now that I did exactly what Linda, my NETS nursefriend said I should. I showed interest in their silly little boy games.What would Susie Hall say about that?But it didn't feel like selling out. If I liked this guy, which I had,showing a bit of interest in the things. His taste for liquor was just aseclectic as his food choices. Not just the single malt Scotch or small batchBourbon that the cognoscenti rave about. He had Absinthe brought over fromSlovakia, Raki from Turkey, and a particularly favored Grappa-like drink fromsome place in Spain.I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, asMiddle America as apple pie and biscuits. That may have been what attracted me,at twenty, to this man, so much my senior. He entered my life like a tornado,sweeping everything before him..