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The summer Gloria’s older sister Joan drove home with her children from Texas, Billy fell in love. It was an adolescent feeling. He did not understand it or the carnal rush of a teen-aged crush on an older woman. On evenings too hot to remain indoors, Gloria would bring a blanket and they would spread it on the grass. They would lie on their backs and look up at the Big Dipper and the North Star. Gloria would talk about the high school football star she had a secret crush on. He would say nothing because he did not understand the feelings she poured out to him until Joan arrived and she took his breath away. Then he understood.

One evening Joan put her kids to bed and came out of the house in shorts and a halter top and lay down beside them. Joan listened to Gloria talk about all the boys she had crushes on and laughed and told her sister it was part of growing up. Joan said the man Gloria would one day marry she had probably not yet met. Joan talked to them about meeting Tex, her husband, in veterinary school, falling in love with him, and Texas and starting their own animal clinic. Tex was a big raw-boned Texan who handled the longhorns and hogs and other livestock. Joan was petite and took care of the doggies and kitty cats.

Theirs was a thriving practice until Tex began to like bourbon more than he should. When he was sober, Tex was the sweetest man alive. Joan said he could be tender and made her feel desired and loved. When drunk, he became a monster. After the 4th, 5th and 6th chances, she packed up the kids and drove home to Mom and Dad in South Carolina. Joan seemed to feel better about what had happened. Telling the story to Gloria and Billy seemed to release the inner spring that was tightly coiled inside her. One evening she said, “You never talk much, Billy. What are you thinking?” He didn’t dare tell her what he was thinking. It was about her and what it would be like to touch her, to comfort her and feel her body sharing his passion.

It was hopeless and he knew it. Joan was a dozen years older, had children and a husband in Texas who wrote and told her he had joined Alcoholics Anonymous and had not had a drink in weeks. Joan said she was not sure she could believe him but their receptionist told her by phone that it appeared to be true. “He really wants you back,” their receptionist said. “The practice needs you, too. Our patients and their owners want you back.”

Billy had been taking a summer art class and had discovered Vincent Van Gogh. With his brother Theo’s help, Vincent had admitted himself into a lunatic asylum. There he did some of his most amazing work including “Starry Night,” one of the world’s most recognized paintings. That summer Billy discovered he was better with words than water colors. Joan drove her children back to Texas and Billy discovered a girl closer to his age who made him feel desired and loved. But he would never forget the blanket, the sisters and their starry nights together.

Next: Smart geese

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