"All right, Baby, all right! Don't be jealous," she said, reaching her free hand around to stroke the huge animal's massive crown. "I love you… you know I do… God, you ought to… you old wolf…!"

He licked at her hand and she continued to pet him affectionately. Lord, she thought, what would she ever have done without them these many lonely months passed…? They had become her whole life… her pets… her loves… her only companions! Oh yes, there'd been Daddy and Mom and Lee… three empty shells of the loving, close-knit family she'd been a part of in Tucson before the great and new existence had come to plague them, to weave imprisoning cocoons around them… social cells within which one might smother in dignity with his individual hang-ups… Her sweethearts! They were so far superior to the human animal… and the good Lord knew how much she loved her mom and Daddy… her handsome Daddy… yes, and even Lee… but damn him, he'd been absolutely obnoxious the night before…!

If it hadn't been for him, she might have enjoyed some kind of time… at least, lessened the letdown of Ron Carter's nonappearance. She hadn't lied about Friday nights being their best times, because both of her parents were generally gone. For Daddy, it was a late working day, then Civic Club. Later, he joined her mother at the Breynar Country Links for whatever it was that kept them until five and six o'clock in the morning… that preliminary weekend stage that personified upper middle-class success. After all, a bank manager and his wife were expected to move in exclusive circles, and they did… but the hollowness was so blatant anymore in both of their adorable faces…

Oh damn! She wasn't going to think about that disgusting, heartbreaking nonsense this morning! No! It was too beautiful of day, and she had her closest darlings around her… Yet, she couldn't shake the anger she felt toward her twin…