In the photograph that Griff had shown her at the restaurant and bar in the Marina, where they met for the second time, he was standing between his parents, looking awkward in a graduation hat. His father wore glasses, a poorly fitted suit jacket, and chino pants, but he was unexpectedly large for what she considered a mathematician would look like. In a blue dress, Griff's mother was lithe, composed, serene, and gorgeous-- as if she came from another world.

"Your Mother is beautiful," Caydance had said to Griff. "My mother used to drive me to the skating rink or to the small ponds in Princeton when the winter was cold, and the ponds were frozen. But when I went across country to Cal, I left my skates at home, where they still hang in the hall. At age 18, It was my choice to leave home and go to California. It was not what either my mother or my father wanted, but they let me go. Now, there are times when I regret that I did this -- and left my home."