Heartsong (Logan 2)

about raking up the painful past, but unspoken suffer-.

ing just festers like sores in your heart and eventually

bursts and eats you alive inside.

"One afternoon while I was away, my father

invited your mother to go sailing with him. Haille and

I had gone with him before, and on one other

occasion, she and my mother joined him on the

sailboat. I thought there was nothing unusual about

this particular time, and she certainly didn't.

"Imagine her," he said, turning to me, his eyes

bloodshot with tears, "young and beautiful and still

very innocent, dressed in one of her newest sailing

outfits, her face fresh and tender with the morning

dew. She liked my father, actually loved him for his

charm and sense of humor. None of us ever put any

special importance on the attention he rained on

Haille. He flirted and beguiled every female who was

in reach of his smile."

Kenneth smiled to himself for a moment, lost in

some memory.

"She used to say being with my father was

second best to being with me."

His smile faded.

"We were all so happy-go-lucky, the rich kids

enjoying our sailboats and our cars, our clothes and

jewelry, able to go almost anywhere we wanted to go,

almost any time we wanted. We could have parties on

the beach and pay for everything without the slightest

concern. Everyone else envied us. College was nothing more than an expected promise. If we worked, we

worked only to fill time and amuse ourselves. We