“What are you talking about?” Colleen took her sister’s arm and gently guided her through the crowd, outside to the sidewalk and then to the river’s edge.

Hallie was full on crying by then and Colleen put both hands on her sister’s shoulders. “It’s okay.”

Hallie shook her head. “I’m not like you, Lena. I can’t turn off my emotions. I can’t stop because you say ‘it’s okay.’ I’ve tried to be like you. All my ever-loving life I’ve tried to be like you.” She pointed to the pub. “For God’s sake, you’re Dad’s little lark. I’ve never even had a nickname.”

“Why, Hallie? Why would you want to be anything like me?”

“Because you’re just you.”

“That makes no sense at all.”

“You don’t see it, do you?” Hallie’s voice rose. The mingling couples and families and joggers and amblers all turned their faces toward Hallie and Colleen. But they kept on as though they were alone as they once had been, unraveling life’s mystery, or at least their life’s mystery.

“See what?”

“You’re different, Colleen. You aren’t like the rest of us. You’re a little like Dad, the best of us, and then something more, something almost magical. The way your eyes shine brighter and how you gulp life by the mouthful, how when you put your full attention on someone they only see you, how you laugh and the sound falls through the air.”

“It’s the same as you, Hallie. I’ve always felt that way about you, too.” Colleen couldn’t quell the feelings now; tears filled her own eyes and a breach had been broken or crossed. Everything must be said at that river’s edge.

“No. It’s kind of you to say, but it’s not true.”

“We aren’t the same, of course we aren’t. But you’re amazing. When you aren’t trying to be someone else or . . .”

“Cheating with your fiancé.”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry, Lena. I’m sorrier than I’ve ever been for anything ever. I’ve always suspected that the only reason he stayed with me was because he was caught. He denies it, but he wasn’t going to leave you. He wasn’t. If you hadn’t seen us . . .”

“Well, I did.”

“Ten years. Do you realize you haven’t spoken to me in ten years?”

“I know.”

“And you’re so hard. So . . . hard. Like you’re made of something else now. I hate it so much.” A shudder passed through Hallie’s body.

“I hate it, too.” Colleen spoke the truth. She hated being so cold, but it was all she’d known to do.