Can't make it. Nothing to live for. It's too complex… and there's no love…

Once more, Susan slowly wagged her exotically beautiful head in non-conviction; she was so damned confused. Life at its best had never been generous to her, but at least she'd had Cal… for what that had been worth. She looked around at the little three-room apartment, each chamber opening with large archways into the other, only a collapsible screen partitioning off the bed. Thank God the bathroom was private, anyway, she thought sarcastically.

She'd hoped to find something more acceptable within her limited budget, but after canvassing Parksburg, she'd been almost happy to take this third-floor makeshift that had once been part of a rather plush hotel suite, and in the center of the down-town area. Progress had eliminated the hotel and now the street-level consisted of second-rate, low-rent shops; but, at least it was closer to her work, she supposed, and really it was adequate for just the two of them.

Nadine, poor darling, she'd been so brave through all of it, more adult than child, more sister than daughter… beautiful, talented, a rare teenager, indeed, measured by today's standards. And she was going to have a future; she was! Even her father had wanted that for her in his sober moments, but he'd done little, if anything, to prove it to her. Not that he'd been intentionally cruel, nor physically brutal; he'd simply neglected her… neglected both of them, in fact, since the day their baby-girl had drawn her first breath in that Boston hospital; but the last five-years had been the worst, especially the final two that he'd worked as caretaker for Jamey Halo, and she herself, had fallen under the spell of the young TV actor.