A pained look came over Kitty's face, and Janet could tell that she had still not gotten over the man. "It's something a woman doesn't like to talk about," she told her sister, lowering her head to avoid Janet's questioning stare.

"Maybe not a woman," Janet said in a soothing voice, "but a sister… that's something different."

Kitty took another drag on the joint. She had been keeping this bottled up inside her for so long… perhaps if she talked about it, things would look better. Everything about Janet's cabin suggested total honesty and openness. It seemed only natural that she should talk about the only man she had ever loved. "You know, I was very much in love with him," she began, lifting her head and looking at her sister in the eyes. Janet nodded. Sensing that it might be needed, the older woman began rolling another joint.

"Well," Kitty continued, silently grateful that her older sister was making everything as easy for her as she could. "I thought I knew everything about him there was to know. He seemed so open with me, so loving, so patient and understanding. He never talked about marriage, and I never brought it up, but I thought that someday… well…"

"Well, what happened to change all of that?" Janet asked. "It sounds to me as though you had everything going for you. Did he find another woman?"

"He sure did," said Kitty, fighting unsuccessfully to keep a slow burning hatred from her voice. "He found one before he had even met me. Janet, he was married. He had been married for at least a year before I knew him."

A frown came over Janet's face. She could imagine what had been running through her younger sister's mind when she found out. Something like that could be a shock no one would recover from.

"Well, what happened? Did he tell you or what?"

Kitty took a deep breath, sighing to relieve the tension she could feel mounting in her body at the dredging of painful memories.