I do not own these characters and make no profit from them.

Interlude on a Garden Isle

Prologue

When their Aloha Airlines flight touched down in Honolulu the day after Christmas, Phoebe looked eagerly out the window. She had been to tropical islands before, but this was the first one she was visiting for a romantic holiday. She and her husband were actually getting three weeks away from the children in this garden paradise. It was their belated, yet much anticipated, honeymoon.

They were flying out to Kauai tomorrow. It was a smaller, much less popular destination for tourists and therefore the perfect choice for them. They wouldn't even have to stay in a hotel. Hal's brother Bob had rented a bungalow for them on the western side of the island, outside of the town of Waimea. Hal's mother had insisted on it.

"The sunsets are spectacular," she said, "But you're so near to the equator that the sun just seems to splash down into the ocean. And you'll get less sun in the morning."

She liked that thought. She also liked that fact that it was on a secluded beachfront. They would have their own private beach. Having their own place also meant that they wouldn't have to eat out for every meal. They could eat breakfast at their leisure and only go out to dinner if they wanted.

After living with the four children in the house and for a time Hal's parents, the privacy was a treat. And cooking for two would be a breeze. They could do things when they wanted and not do anything at all if they wanted. It was three weeks of complete freedom and she was ready to relish them.

The day before had been a joyful occasion. Surrounded by her family, old and new, she had presided over a Christmas dinner to be proud of. Trelawney, who didn't like goose to begin with, had prevailed upon her to substitute roast beef. This was a hit with all the men in the family. Aunt Henrietta was very disapproving of the change in menu and tried to view it as an insult to the family. However her cousin, Emmeline, had been there to smooth things over so it had all worked out.

Saying goodbye to the children had been easier than they had thought. Of course, they were all so comfortable with Hal's parents now that they didn't even feel as if they were being babysat. Emmeline was staying until New Years along with Ben and Bob who had also promised to return on Three Kings Day to make sure that the gift giving would go on.

Prudence had looked a little tearful at the airport, but promises of special treats from Grammy cheered her up by the time they were boarding. After the busy days leading up to the holiday, no sooner had they taken off than she had fallen sound asleep in her first class seat on her husband's shoulder. Thus, by the time they reached Oahu, she was refreshed.

Hal's older brothers Bob and Ben spared no expense in providing them with the best in travel arrangements. Neither she nor Hal had ever flown first class before. There was a limo waiting for them at the airport to take them to their hotel in Waikiki for one night. Although they were staying at the Royal Hawaiian, a glitzy, touristy type of place, they were to have a suite overlooking the harbor and an elegant dinner for two from room service.

In the morning, it would be back to the airport in the limo for a private jet flight for the short hop to Kauai. Once there, Bob had rented them a luxury sedan for driving around the island. The bungalow was the perfect size for two and Bob had been thoughtful enough to set up an expense account at a local grocery.

There was no telephone at the bungalow for added privacy, but Hal's parents had the number of the rental agent in the case of an emergency. Before they left town, there had even been a stop at a local bank for a pack of traveler's checks for other expenses they might run into. Bob and Ben thought of everything.

As a Christmas gift, they had also given her a fine set of new luggage. She was surprised and pleased. Never one to spend an extra dime on herself that she didn't have to, she had been traveling around with the same old suitcase and trunk for years. However, she had no objections to her new brother-in-laws splurging on her.

In addition to being wealthy, they had also done a pretty good job a couple of months ago of humiliating her with their innuendos about her virtue and Hal's self-control before the wedding. Even though they had been intended to needle her husband, she had felt the insult as well.

When they arrived at the honeymoon suite at the Royal Hawaiian, Hal had used it as an excuse to carry her over the threshold for a third time. After laying her down gently on the king-sized bed, he proceeded initiate their second honeymoon with great enthusiasm. Her response was no less enthusiastic. They had already been married for less than three months, but the complete change of venue and the prospect of unlimited time alone increased their appetite for one another. Phoebe was in paradise.

Musings on a Tropical Night

Hal lay in bed with his wife curled up beside him, peacefully sleeping. The night was dark and very quiet. The only sound was the barely perceptible whirring of the ceiling fan turning above them. There was no need for air conditioning. The night air was cool and dry. If he listened very hard, he could hear the sound of the ocean waves on their private beach. Their days in Kauai so far had been everything that his mother had promised they would be, and more.

It was their third night there and since they had stopped for provisions at the local grocery on their way in they had not seen or heard from another soul. They were completely off in their own little world. With no one but each other for company, they were free to make love at will, which they did. And they talked. With no possible interruptions from demanding children, neighbors, or colleagues they were free to talk about whatever they wished whenever they wished.

It wasn't as if they didn't talk at home. In fact they constantly did. But it was always about this child or that, this event or that, this problem or that. It was about juggling schedules and managing workloads. They had to coordinate calendars, keep up with cleaning and laundry, and make sure that they kids were keeping up with their schoolwork. But they had never been able to just talk about themselves.

It was not as if they hadn't talked about themselves. They had had a couple of long weekends together where they had had a few deep conversations. However, it takes time to build up to the point of sharing one's deepest confidences. It had always seemed that just as they were reaching that point, the weekend was over and the moment was passed. There was so much that he wanted to know about her and he knew that there were many things that she wanted to know about him. The time had finally come.

For the first couple of hours after they had arrived, they fell into the old habit. Phoebe wondered if the kids were behaving themselves. He was hoping that nothing was going on at the university that he needed to know about. But after lunch, he decided that he had had enough of that. He invited his beautiful wife to put on her swimsuit and walk down the beach with him. They stood there looking out on the empty horizon.

"It's really just the two of us," she said wonderingly.

He looked at her and picked her up to kiss her. Suddenly he had a naughty idea and running down the beach he splashed into the water and tossed her in. She came up sputtering and vowing revenge. They chased each other around the beach and through the water, stopping every once in a while for a passionate kiss. He felt like a kid again. When they were finally breathless, they spread out the towels and lay side by side. When he had caught his breath enough to speak, he leaned up on his elbow and said, "I love you."

She smiled at him. Without a word her beautiful blue eyes, reflecting the color of the sea and sky around them, answered him. He fell on her as she pulled his mouth down to hers. Realizing they were completely alone, he made love to her right there in the middle of the beach. Feeling even more daring he invited her to go skinny-dipping in the ocean. Laughing once again, she beat him to the water. The cool Pacific felt good after the burning sands, but not nearly as good as his wife's body next to his own.

After that there was no more talk of kids or work. It was talk of them. Free of the mundane topics forced upon them by ordinary life they were able to ask one another all the questions that had built up over the months once they had realized they were in love with one another and made their commitment to spend their lives together. As they talked Hal began to sense that his past life had been a mere prelude to this life that he now was sharing with this beautiful and sensuous woman.

She felt the same way. As they had walked along the beach that evening at sunset holding hands, she told him that she had never really felt alive until she found out that she loved him. This idea of romantic love, of sharing her life with a soul mate was not one of her expectations from life.

Marriage was a duty, a social contract to be fulfilled. Only the lucky in her world would marry such a person, a person with a deeply felt passion for the other. The lottery of family expectations and requirements rarely hit the jackpot for any of them. Her parents' relationship was exceptional.

She had known that she would not have such marriage. Her betrothed from birth stirred no great feelings within her. He was compatible, acceptable as a mate, but really nothing more. She had traveled the world and of course met men everywhere she went. There were a couple of passing fancies. In any case, she could look, but she could not touch. She had never met anyone who really interested her anyway.

Now, thousands of miles away from everything and everyone else in her life, her destiny was clear. Some luck of the draw had helped her escape that fate. She was indeed one of the fortunate ones. But it frightened her sometimes.

Sometimes she feared that it could all slip away. She was afraid that she would wake up one morning and discover that it was all a beautiful dream. But here in this island paradise it felt real. This was not a place she could have dreamed or a love that she had ever imagined.

Hal loved to listen to her. It wasn't just her low musical voice or the beauty of her speech. He enjoyed her fantastical constructions of life. When she spoke of past lives and loving him before she was born, he could almost believe her.

The sky seemed impossibly clear out here in the middle of the ocean. At night they would lie on the beach side by side. He would point out the various stars and constellations and she would tell him of their mythological origins.

It seemed that everything in the natural world that he understood through scientific knowledge, she saw through the eyes of a poet. It was as if they were a modern astronomer and ancient astrologer conversing across the millennia. She always looked most beautiful to him in the moonlight.

She was Phoebe, "pure light" in Greek, the goddess of the moon. In the day, she seemed to him to radiate a golden light, reflecting the sun in her honey-blonde hair and pale golden skin. But at night the light turned silvery. Her skin took on a milky white appearance and her hair shone like white gold. At either time, her eyes were a lovely blue, almost like stars or perhaps even the evening star, Venus. They always shone with love for him. In his more fanciful moments, she seemed to be his own personal goddess of love.

When he told her she laughed. She accused him of rejecting his scientific mindset for her romantic one. However, he was rejecting nothing. Instead he claimed that there had always been a poet inside him who was just waiting for her to release him. She had transformed his scientific vision of the universe and overlaid on it her philosophical view of the cosmos.

She was also highly intelligent, despite her innate romanticism, and her conversation was stimulating and even didactic, but never esoteric. She shared his love of knowledge and learning. But she viewed things through an aesthetic, rather than a scientific, lens.

She had discovered within him an unknown part. It was a part that was hers alone, to be shared by no one else. She had unlocked a region in his heart that had been waiting for her his entire life. He had never known that he could understand the world through the eyes of a romantic. She had shown him that love and beauty could coexist science and numbers. Her love for him had forced him to search deep within himself to match it with his own for passion and intensity. She was moved when he told her that.

Because she was his second wife and he had dearly loved his first wife, he knew that she was always a little fearful that she might not "measure up." When they had gone to bed on Christmas Eve he had tried to reassure her that he loved her as he had loved no one else.

She was his angel wife, his little bit of heaven that wandered down to fill his life with love and beauty. There were no ghosts between them. However, chances were very good that there might be someone else, their own little angel sent down to earth to bless their lives and their love.

She had amused him since they had arrived. She had suddenly realized that her appetite had increased and that she was eating more than normal. He was having fun with her. He told her that it must be the sun and sea, that all this outdoor activity was making her feel hungrier. He didn't tell her that he thought that she was eating for two now.

In addition to feeling more hungry, she was also more tired. At home, he had attributed that to her busy schedule and late nights at home. Here he once again attributed to the sun and sea. It was amusing, almost a game. She seemed to have no idea that it was possible that the miracle had already happened. In fact, she kept talking about a "honeymoon baby."

"We missed our chance on the first honeymoon," she explained. "It must not have been long enough. Now we have three weeks."

He had soothed her and said, "Of course we do. Before you know it, you'll be sick every morning and then you'll be sorry."

He liked to tell her that because it annoyed her so much. She would try to smack him, he would grab her wrist and kiss her and then take her off to bed. If he was really worried about it, he wouldn't be teasing her so much. But all the signs were pointing in the positive direction. The only thing he worried about now was any real discomfort starting before the honeymoon was over. That would certainly put a damper on things.

He heard her sigh as she stirred beside him. He turned on his side and gathered her in his arms. He always slept surrounding her. She was the most precious blessing in his life. Now she was the vessel bearing his most precious gift to her. He would keep them both close to his heart.