the one beautiful girl from his youth had left him at the same time as the city imploded and died back to its husk of its self , and everybody interesting had moved away , including his sisters - tess ( older , perpetually running off with bass players ) and janet ( younger , sensible to a fault , taught by her late mother to be tough and to escape the fate of so many of her peers who got knocked up at 17 and found themselves chained down with commitment for the next twenty years ) .