In the early 1990s, my brother and I used to go to IHOP every night.

We would spend hours there drinking coffee and discussing philosophy and art and religion and literature.

We were sitting in the last booth in the corner where we could see out of both sides

because each side had a row of windows.

And the windows showed a scene of the Dallas LBJ Freeway leading into I-35 and an endless

stream of fast cars.

And even though it was late at night, the stream was still moving.

I noticed to my left way out in the distance, a figure coming off of I-35.

It walked down the middle of the median between the two sections of east and westbound traffic,

and as it got closer, I could see it was a woman in a long white dress.

She had long black hair and wore white veil that flowed behind her like a train.

Well, I blinked and rubbed my eyes and I squinted to make sure I was seeing what I was seeing,

and I watched as she got closer and closer, thinking that when she passed the bridge,

I might be able to see her going down the other side.

But while she was on the bridge, my view was obstructed by a service station, and I didn't see her come out the other side.

She either disappeared on the bridge or crossed the freeway there amid the heavy stream of traffic and went down the grassy hillside. I read about a legend once called La Lorona. I'm sure I'm not pronouncing that right.

She is the weeping woman of the southwest. It eerily fits the woman I saw. The legend says that

the beautiful woman has long black hair and she wears a white gown

and she wanders through the night looking for children to take with her.

Maybe that was just a meth head walking around doing that jerky kind of thing they do

and she had found a sheet to wrap her up with.

I don't know.

...