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him,
    Andrew truly fell in love and knew, with the positive certainty that
    happens few times in any life, that he was incredibly fortunate, that
    what was happening was for always, and
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that, despite the cynicism of the times, for himself and Celia there would
    never be separation or divorce.
    It was that word "divorce," Andrew told himself when thinking about it
    afterward, that had kept him unattached at a time when many of his
    contemporaries were marrying in their early twenties. Of course, his own
    parents had provided that rationale, and his mother, who represented (as
    Andrew saw it) the divorc~e non grata, was at the wedding. She had flown
    in from Los Angeles like an aging butterfly, announcing to anyone who
    would listen that she had interrupted the shedding of her fourth husband
    to be present at her son's "first marriage." Andrew's father had been her
    second husband, and when Andrew had inquired about him he was told, "Oh,
    my dear boy, I hardly remember what he looked like. I haven't seen him
    in twenty years, and the last I heard, he was an old rou6 living with a
    seventeen-year-old whore in Paris."
    Over the years Andrew had tried to understand his mother and rationalize
    her behavior. Sadly, though, he always came to the same conclusion: she
    was an empty-headed, shallow, selfish beauty who attracted a similar kind
    of man.
    He had invited his mother to the wedding-though he later wished he
    hadn't--out of a sense of duty and a conviction that everyone should have
    some feeling for a natural parent. He had also sent a letter about the
    wedding to the last known address of his father, but there had been no
    reply, and Andrew doubted if there ever would be. Every three years or
    so he and his father managed to exchange Christmas cards, and that was
    all.
    Andrew had been the only child of his briefly married parents, and the
    one other family member he would have liked Celia to meet had died two
    years earlier. She was a maiden aunt with whom Andrew had lived through
    most of his boyhood and who, though not well off, had somehow scraped
    together-without help from either of his parents-the money to sustain
    Andrew through college and medical school. It was only after her death,
    when the pathetic remnants of her estate, worth a few hundred dollars,
    lay exposed in a lawyer's office, that he realized how great the
    sacrifice had been.
    As it was, at the wedding Celia had taken Andrew's mother in stride.
    Assessing the situation without anything's having to be explained, Celia
    had been cordial, even warm, though not phonily effusive. Afterward, when
    Andrew expressed regret about his mother's bizarre behavior, Celia
    responded, "We married each other,
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darling, not our families." Then she added, "I'm your family now, and you'll
    get more love from me than you've ever had in your life before. "
    Today on the beach Andrew was already realizing this was true.
    "What I'd like to do, if you agree," Celia said, continuing their
    conversation, "is go on working through most of my first pregnancy, then
    take off a year to be a full-time mother. After that I'll go back to work
    until the second pregnancy, and so on."
    "Sure, I agree," he told her. "And in between being loved and getting you
    pregnant, I plan to practice a little medicine."
    ' ' 'You'll practice lots of medicine, and go on being a fine, caring
    doctor."
    "I hope so." Andrew sighed happily, and a few minutes later fell asleep.
    They spent the next few days learning things about each other which they
    had not had time for previously.
    One morning over breakfast, which each day was delivered to their bungalow
    by a cheerful, motherly black woman named Remona, Celia said, "I love this
    place. The island, its people, and the quietness. I'm glad you chose it,
    Andrew, and I'll never forget it."
    "I'm glad too," he said.
    Andrew's first suggestion for their honeymoon had been Hawaii. But he had
    sensed a reluctance on Celia's part and switched to