SUSAN

The gaps in Susan's life begin in her childhood; then, as now, there are sudden blanks and reappearances.  When she's three or four, her mother becomes ill and she's sent to live for a while with her uncle who runs a store in Tuscon.  Then she's back with her parents, but they leave Arizona.  Her father is roping cattle in Nebraska now.  She grows up moving farther into space, vastness, clear and lonely air.  Today she reads a great deal but she was never properly educated, and the beautiful intent eyes will turn inward if someone mentions a word not too recondite, like "recondite".