“Do you feel strongly about things, politically?”

“Dorothy, I’m black,” he said. It was the first time he had called her by name; she appeared pleased, either by that or by his answer.

He began to build sand castles and the girl knelt and dug a hole in the beach so they could get wet sand from its bottom, then she began to use some of the moist sand herself, modeling a face, her eyes on his features and her long, delicate fingers stroking the sand in a way that made his bones turn to jelly. She was right about her talent, he thought, looking at the face in the sand, which did not bear a very good likeness to his own.

Finally when they were messy with sand she sprang up without warning and ran into the water and he followed through a frigid breeze, discovering to his relief that the water covered his skin like warm silk compared to the cooler air. She headed straight out and he splashed valiantly to stay with her. Just before he would have had to quit, she turned and they began to tread water, bodies close but not touching. “You’re a crazy swimmer,” he panted, a pain in his chest.

“We live near a lake. I’m in the water a lot.”

“I didn’t learn to swim until I was sixteen years old, on the Riviera.” He saw that she thought he was joking. “No, honestly.”

“What were you doing there?”

“I never knew my father. He was a merchant seaman, on oil tankers. My mother remarried when I was twelve, to a marvelous guy. My uncle Calvin. When I asked about my real father, all they ever told me was he was dead. So the summer I was sixteen I decided to try to see the world the way he had seen it. Now it seems kind of stupid, but I guess I thought somehow I might be able to find him. At least, understand him.”

She treaded water with very little motion, the white suit submerged, her smooth brown shoulders above the surface looking naked and lovely. “It doesn’t seem stupid,” she said. On her upper lip, above the ample pink mouth, the faintest white dusting had appeared as the sea water dried in the sun. He would have preferred to erase it with his tongue, but he reached up a wet thumb and passed it gently over her lip.