"If she wanted to pick apples," Candy said, "she can't be doing too much with herself."
"I don't think she needed the job," Homer said.
"She just wanted to look you over, Pop," Angel said, and Wally laughed. Angel had told Wally that Melony had been Homer's girlfriend, which Wally had thought was very funny.
"I'll bet your dad never told you about Debra Pettigrew, kiddo," Wally said to Angel.
"Oh, come on, Wally," Candy said. "That wasn't serious."
"You left something out," Angel said to his father; Angel pointed his finger at Homer.
"Yes," Homer admitted. "But Debra Pettigrew wasn't anyone special."
"We used to double-date," Wally told Angel. "Your old man usually got the back seat."
"Come on, Wally!" Candy said. She'd given Homer and Angel too many asparagus; she had to take some back, or there wouldn't be any for Wally or herself.
"You should have seen your old man at his first drive-in," Wally said to Angel. "He didn't know what drive-ins were for!"
"Maybe Angel doesn't know what they're for!" Candy said sharply to her husband.
"Of course I know!" Angel said, laughing.
"Of course he knows!" Wally said, also laughing.
"Only Bedouins don't know," said Homer Wells, trying to go along with the fun.
After supper, he helped Candy with the dishes while Angel drove around the orchards with Pete Hyde; after supper, almost every night, the boys had a game--they tried to drive through all the orchards before it was dark. Homer wouldn't let them drive in the orchards after dark--not after the apple crates had been put out for the pickers.
Wally liked the twilight by the swimming pool. From the kitchen window, Homer and Candy could see him sitting in the wheelchair; he had tipped his head back, as if he were staring at the sky, but he was watching the spiral drifting of a hawk over the orchard called Cock Hill--some smaller birds were pestering the hawk, flying dangerously close to it, trying to drive it away.
"It's time to tell," Homer said to Candy.
"No, please," Candy said; she reached around him, where he was working at the sink, and dropped the broiler rack that the swordfish had been cooked on into the soapy water. The rack was greasy and stuck all over with charred bits of fish, but Homer Wells immediately pulled it out of the water--without letting it soak--and started scrubbing it.
"It's time to tell everyone everything," said Homer Wells. "No more waiting and seeing."
She stood behind him and put her arms around his hips; she pressed her face between his shoulder blades, but he did not return her embrace--or even turn to face her. He just kept scrubbing the broiler rack.
"I'll work it out with you, any way you want to do it," Homer said. "Whether you want to be with me, when I tell Angel--whether you want me with you, when you tell Wally. Any way you want it, it'll be okay," he said.
She hugged him as hard as she could but he just kept scrubbing. She buried her face between his shoulder blades and bit him in the back. He had to turn toward her then; he had to push her away.
"You're going to make Angel hate me!" Candy cried.
"Angel will never hate you," Homer said to her. "To Angel, you've always been just what you are--a good mother."
She held the serving tongs for the asparagus, and Homer thought that she might attack him, but she just kept wrenching the tongs, open and closed, in her hands.
"Wally will hate me!" she cried miserably.
"You're always telling me that Wally knows," said Homer Wells. "Wally loves you."
"And you don't love me, anymore, do you?" Candy said; she started to blubber; then she threw
the serving tongs at Homer, then she clenched her fists against her thighs. She bit down so hard on her lower lip that it bled; when Homer tried to dab at her lip with a clean dish towel, she pushed him away.
"I love you, but we're becoming bad people," he said.