John Irving - The Cider House Rules

'Please do it, then,' Dr. Larch said. 'If I could just have a moment alone with Miss Kendall,' he repeated, but he saw that Homer seemed riveted; Homer was unaware that he was staring at Candy. The boy has gone gaga on me, thought Wilbur Larch, and he saw no indication that Apple Brains intended to leave the dispensary. 'If I could just explain a little of the process to Miss Kendall,' Wilbur Larch said to Wally (it appeared hopeless to address Homer). Td like her to know about the bleeding, later-for example,' Larch added, intending that the word 'bleedinG' would have some effect on Wally's apple-bright complexion. It did-perhaps in combination with the overpowering atmosphere of ether in the dispensary.

'Is someone going to cut her?' he asked Homer pathetically; Homer caught Wally's arm and pulled him abruptly away. He pulled him so quickly along the hall and got him outdoors so fast that Wally almost escaped being sick at all. As it was, completely owing to Homer's good reflexes, Wally didn't throw up until the two of {251} them were behind the boys' division-on the pa.rticular hillside Wally had suggested planting with apple trees, the very hillside where Homer Wells's shadow had only recently outdistanced Dr. Larch's.

The two young men walked up and down and across the hill, in straight lines-respecting the rows of trees Wally was planting in his imagination.

Homer, politely, explained the procedure that Candy would undergo, but Wally wanted to talk about apple trees.

'This hill is perfect for your standard forty-by-forty plot,' Wally said, walking forty feet in one direction, then making a perfect right-angle turn.

'If she's in the first three months,' Homer noted, 'there really shouldn't be any work with the forceps, just the standard dilatation-that means dilating the opening to the uterus-and then curetting-that's scraping.'

I'd recommend four rows of Mclntosh, then cine row of Red Delicious,' Wally said. 'Half of the trees should be Macs. I'd mix up the rest-maybe ten percent Red Delicious, another ten or fifteen percent Cortlands and Baldwins. You'll want a few Northern Spies, and I'll throw in some Gravensteins-they're a great apple for pies, and you get to pick them early.'

'There's no actual cutting, Homer told Wally, 'although there will be some bleeding-we call it spotting, actually, because it's usually not very heavy bleeding. Doctor Larch has a great touch with ether, so don't worry-she won't feel a thing. Of course, she'll feel something afterward,' admitted Homer. 'It's a special sort of cramp. Doctor Larch says that the other discomfort is psychological.'

'You could come back to the coast with us,' Wally told Homer. 'We could load a truck full of baby trees, and in a day or two we could come back here and plant the orchard together. It wouldn't take too long.'

'It's a deal,' said Homer Wells. The coast, he thought. I {252} get to see the coast. And the girl. I get to ride in that car with that girl.

'A midwife, gosh,' Wally said. 'I guess you're probably going to be a doctor?'

'I don't think so,' said Homer Wells. 'I don't know yet.'

'Well, apples are in my family,' Wally said. 'I'm going to college, but I really don't know why I bother.'

College, thought Homer Wells.

'Candy's father is a lobsterman,' Wally explained, 'but she's going to go to college, too.'

Lobster! thought Homer Wells. The bottom of the sea!

From the bottom of the hill, Nurse Angela was waving to them.

'Damariscotta is ready!' she called to Homer Wells.

'I have to go deliver someone's baby,' Homer told Wally.

'Gosh,' Wally said. He seemed reluctant to leave the hill. 'I think I'll stay up here. I don't think I want to hear anything,' he added; he gave Homer a likable and confessional smile.

'Oh, there's not much noise,' Homer said; he wasn't thinking of the Damariscotta woman; he was thinking of Candy. He thought of the gritty sound the curette made, but he'd spare his new friend that detail.

He left Wally on the hill and jogged toward Nurse Angela; he looked back at Wally once and waved. A boy his own age! A boy his own size! They were the same height, although Wally was more muscular-from sports, Dr. Larch had guessed. He has the body of a hero, Dr. Larch thought, remembering the heroes he had tried to help in France, in World War I. Lean but well muscled: that was a hero's body-and shot full of holes, thought Wilbur Larch. He didn't know why Wally's body reminded him of this.

And Wally's face? Wilbur Larch was thinking. It was handsome in a finer way than Homer's face, which was also handsome. Although Wally's body was stronger, his bones were somewhat sharper-and more delicate. {253} There wasn't a trace of anger in Wally's eyes; they were the eyes of good intentions. The body of a hero, and the face…the face of a benefactor! concluded Wilbur Larch, brushing aside a blond curl of pubic hair that had not gone directly into the refuse bag but had clung to Candy's inner thigh, near her raised, bent knee. He exchanged the medium-sized curette for the smaller one, noting that the girl's eyelids were fluttering, noting Nurse Edna's gentle thumbs-massaging the girl's temples -and the girl's slightly parted lips; she had been remarkably relaxed for such a young girl, and under ether she was even more composed. The beauty in her face, Larch thought, was that she was still free of guilt. It surprised Larch: how Candy looked as if she would always be free of it.

He was aware of Nurse Edna observing the scrutiny he was giving to the girl, and so he bent once more to the view the speculum afforded him and finished his task with the small curette.

A benefactor, thought Wilbur Larch. Homer has met his benefactor!

Homer Wells was thinking on parallel lines. I have met a Prince of Maine, he was thinking; I have seen a King of New England-and I am invited to his castle. In all his journeys through David Cnpperfield, at last he understood young David's first vision of Steerforth. 'He was a person of great power in my eyes,' young Copperfield observed. 'No veiled future glanced upon him in the moonbeams. There was no shadowy picture of his footsteps, in the garden that I dreamed of walking in all night.'

'No veiled future,' thought Homer Wells. I am going to thecoast!

'Push,' he said to the woman from Damariscotta. 'Is Damariscotta on the coast?' he asked the woman, whose neck was taut with straining-who held Nurse Angela's hand in a white-knuckled grip.

'Near it!' the woman cried, and shoved her child forth {254} into St. Cloud's-its slick head captured perfectly in the palm of Homer's confident right hand. He slipped the heel of his hand under the baby's fragile neck; his left hand lifted the baby's bottom as he guided the baby 'outdoors' -as Dr. Larch would say.

It was a boy. Steerforth, Homer Wells would name this one-his second solo delivery. Homer cut the cord and smiled to hear young Steerforth's healthy bawling.

Candy, coming out of ether, heard the baby's cries and shuddered; if Dr. Larch had seen her face at that moment, he might have detected some guilt upon it. 'Boy or girl?' she asked, her speech slurred. Only Nurse Edna heard her. 'Why is it crying?' Candy asked.

'It was nothing, dear,' Nurse Edna said. 'It's all over.'

'I would like to have a baby, one day,' Candy said. 'I really would.'

'Why, of course, dear,' Nurse Edna told her. 'You can have as many as you want. I'm sure you'd have very beautiful children.'

'You'd have Princes of Maine!' Dr. Larch told Candy suddenly. 'You'd have Kings of New England!'

Why, the old goat, Nurse Edna thought-he's flirting! Her love for Larch felt momentarily ruffled.

What a strange idea, Candy thought-I can't see what they would look like. Her mind drifted for a while. Why is the baby crying? she wondered. Wilbur Larch, cleaning up, noticed another curly clump of her pubic hair; it was the same tawny tone of Candy's skin, which was doubtlessly why Nurse Edna had missed it. He listened to the cries of the Damariscotta woman's baby and thought that he mustn't be selfish; he must encourage Homer to make friends with this young couple. He stole a look at the dozing girl; opportunity shone from her like light.