He accepted everything around him as perfect and symbolic of the life he had led and built for himself.

That was how he could tell there was something terribly wrong with his lovely daughter. He could see his mistakes in her.

She was very much a part of him, he knew that. Like all children she had learned to look at life from the cues she picked up from her parents.

And like all parents they had tried to supply the best model of love that they were capable of expressing. But with one crucial difference: unlike most people, Franklin and Nora Barker had achieved a powerful bond in their relationship.

It carried him through depressing moments even to this day. The fact that her physical presence had ceased to exist had not dulled his sense of her. The things that they had experienced, strangely enough, was not what he thought about the most.

Being a practical man and a successful rancher and businessman who had succeeded in amassing a small fortune, he had learned never to look over one's shoulder.

The present was a result of past actions, of that there was no doubt, but it had little to do with the future.

The future, by way of association, is a function of the present, and that is a new moment every time and never dependent on the past.

The only part of the past that remained inside the psyche of Franklin Barker, was not his memories, but the effects of his experiences.

By allowing his wife to grow he was able to imitate her unique powers. Most men's egos could not endure such a blow.

Few men allow a woman to teach them anything. Their pride will not accept the fact that they must give of themselves to receive.

Franklin Barker feared for his daughter. There was something he had missed along the way that just didn't make any sense.