How on God’s earth had I gotten into this anatomical discussion with this man I hardly knew? I got up and said I’d walk toward the jetties and meet Haley. Eddie said he’d wait for Fairchild, keep an eye on him.

What is it about fog that is so beautiful? Like snow, it brings its own mood, its own quietness. The blurring of the familiar demands that you notice things you usually take for granted. And at the beach, it is especially beautiful. The horizon disappears, and you can’t tell which is water and which is sky. Vapor swirls around you as you walk, and gulls huddle together on the sand as if the weight of the air were too much for their wings.

I had just started down the beach when I saw Haley coming toward me. She was running along the edge of the tide where the sand was packed tightly and (granted, I’m her mother; I’m partial) looked like a nymph just emerging from the water. The illusion was shattered, though, when she stopped in front of me, breathing hard, and asked if that wasn’t a man out there swimming bare-assed.

“It’s Fairchild. He thinks no one can see him in the fog,” I explained.

“’Morning, Fairchild!” Haley shouted. “Take your Vasotec?” The figure in the water raised his arm in a wave.

I grinned. “Don’t do him that way.”

“Are you kidding? I think it’s great. It’ll relax him. If more men would do that, we wouldn’t be unclogging so many arteries in our operating room.”

Which reminded me. “Your papa’s coming down tonight.” We had started walking toward the Redneck Riviera.

“Why am I not surprised? Coming to the rescue.”

“Which is pretty nice after forty years of marriage, Haley.”

“But, Mama, you’re a capable, intelligent woman. It’s patronizing.”

“Of course it is.” I chose not to admit that I had called him blubbering. Someday I would get it straight in my own mind how much I wanted Fred to look after me. In the meantime I said, “It’s his way of showing love. Mine is letting him do it.”

Haley laughed, which didn’t surprise me. Lord, I had sounded pompous. But the way I look at it, a marriage is a separate entity from the couple who forms it. And whatever it becomes is always a surprise.

We huffed on down the beach, reached the Redneck, and turned around automatically. The fog was beginning to burn off and a few people jogged toward us now, making me wonder if Fairchild had made his exit from the water yet.

I stopped, leaned over, and rubbed my right calf. “Wait a minute. I’m getting a cramp.”

Haley jogged a circle around me while I sat on the damp sand and kneaded the muscle. “You need to take some calcium.”