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Heading to Georgia, she got on in Denver, where the temperature never rose above 40 that day, yet she had no coat on, only a thin blanket over a strap blouse. The reason, one must assume, was to show off the tattoo on her chest, a large skull with bat wings. Her speech was genteel, as in, "May I ask you another question, Sir?" This, on a bus where "motherfucker," "fuck off" and every other kind of "fuck" flew about freely. She sat next to a sixty-year-old man whose diction was nearly as formal, as in, "These candies are very good, in my opinion."

A Serbian, he was teaching her basic words, at her request, "zdravo," "dobro" and "bombona," etc.


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