May awoke to pain. An all consuming pain that seemed to come from everywhere and went on and on. She screamed in agony, but all that came out of her mouth was a croak like a frog.

"You had better increase the dosage of pain killers another 2 mg," the doctor attending her told a nurse. After a time the pain was reduced somewhat, but was still there - everywhere in her body.

"May," the doctor told her, "you've been in an auto accident. You're in the hospital. It will take you some time to recover, but we're taking care of you. Try to get some sleep."

May lay there in a semi-conscious state, as memories returned. She was glamorous May, the adventurous twin. Not like her twin sister, June the drab twin. No, not like June with the same boyfriend since she was fourteen. June who dressed in drab clothes and occasionally in her, May's, year old castoffs. June who stayed at home and studied every night, and who occasionally went to the movies or a dance with her stodgy steady boyfriend.

No, she was glamorous May, the twin with a new boyfriend every couple of weeks. The girl with the flashy long red hair, the bright smile, and green eyes, not that June didn't have long red hair and green eyes. She was just much quieter. She, May, was the life of the party - every party, every week. She was the one who dressed smartly in the latest fashions and brightest colors to show off her 34D-22-34 figure and tease all of the boys.

She was May - the first to lose her virginity, in all of her holes. She was the one who went out every night - well all most every night. The one who danced and laughed and had a good time.

Yes, she was May. The first one to try alcohol and then drugs, if for no other reason than to be popular and to have a good time. And she had, had a good time that is, all through high school. She had dated the hottest boys, gone to all of the football and basketball games, and knew all of the players by their first names and how long their cocks were.

She was the one that swam and sunbathed all summer, rather than help her mother in the garden, or with the laundry, or dishes. No, those weren't for May. Let drab June take care of them.

Of course June was the one that graduated second in their high school class behind her valedictorian boyfriend. May had graduated next to last in a class of four hundred, but she had graduated - somehow.

But none of this was important. She was May the first born, even if it had been at five minutes to midnight on the thirty-first of May. Poor June had to wait until ten minutes after midnight on the first of June to be born, and that was how their mother had named them.

May, of course, had never worried about any of this. She was May, the first born. Glamorous and beautiful May. It wasn't for her to worry about others. And so May had gone through life like that, only concerned about herself and her fun.

May returned to consciousness many times after that, but always to pain, a deep all consuming pain. Pain and a growing fear. For she was May and these things didn't happen to her. Things like this happened to other, drab people, not to glorious, glamorous May. She wanted to tell the doctors this, but her voice, her sweet melodious voice, didn't seem to work anymore and all that came out were croaks. The nurses gave her water to drink and it helped her throat some, but her voice didn't sound the same. It just wasn't right and May couldn't figure out why in her drug-induced state of calm and reduced pain.

When the drugs were reduced, so she could think again, the pain, the eternal pain, returned - white hot and with a vengeance. And so May went along for a considerable time in her drug-induced state. The nurses fed her and tended to her, but there were only soups or very soft food to eat, and there was water to drink.

May never wondered in her drugged state why she never got out of bed to go to the bathroom. The catheter in her took the urine away along with the blood that she was continuing to lose, but she didn't worry about any of this; not the number of days that she had been there, why she was there, or how she had gotten there. Everything was lost in the haze of the powerful painkillers the doctors were using to keep her from screaming all of the time from the pain.

The pain was by now like an old friend to May. It was always there. It never left her. It was her constant companion. When the drugs were at full effect it was bearable. When the drugs started to wear off, it became unbearable, and May screamed.

May had a number of visitors. Her drab twin sister and her equally drab mother and father had been there many times, as had the pastor from their church. Often she had not seen or been aware of them, still they came. But none of her friends had been here to see her and in her more lucid moments May began to wonder why. Of course then the pain would return and May would scream until the drugs took her again, and then there was no wondering.

When May had been in the hospital for well over a month, she had started to recover and heal. The drugs were reduced with the reduction of the pain, and May could think again, some of the time anyway.

She began to wonder how she had gotten there. What had happened that she was in the hospital. She began to search her memories for the reason. With the reduction in the level of pain and the consequent reduction of the drugs, it was possible for her to think at times, and she tried desperately to remember the last days before being in the accident.

She remembered sunbathing on Friday. That was during June, and she had graduated from high school several weeks before. She had also turned eighteen.