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"It's not my system," Herb Fowler said. "Some got holes, some don't. Manufacturer's defect."
"Right," said Homer Wells, but rubbers were rarely flung his way now.
Meany Hyde's wife, Florence, was pregnant again, and all winter Big Dot Taft and Irene Titcomb made jokes about Meany's potency.
"You keep away from me, Meany," Big Dot would say. "I'm not even lettin' you sip my coffee. I think all you gotta do is breathe on somebody and they're pregnant."
"Well, that's all he did to me!" Florence would say, and Big Dot Taft would roar.
"Dontcha go givin' the men any breathin' lessons, Meany," Irene Titcomb said.
"Meany can knock you up just by kissin' your ears," Florence Hyde said proudly, glorying in her pregnancy.
"Gimme some earmuffs," said Squeeze Louise Tobey. "Gimme one of them ski hats."
"Gimme a dozen of Herb's rubbers!" said Irene Titcomb.
No, don't take any, thought Homer Wells. That's probably how she got that way. Homer was staring at Florence Hyde. It was riveting to him to see someone enjoying her pregnancy.
"Honestly, Homer," said Big Dot Taft, "ain't you ever seen anyone about to have a baby before?"
"Yes," said Homer Wells, who looked away. Grace Lynch was staring at him, and he looked away from her, too.
"If I was your age," Vernon Lynch told Homer, when they were pruning in an orchard called Cock Hill, "I'd enlist. I'd do what Wally's doing."
"I can't," said Homer Wells.
"They don't take orphans?" Vernon asked.
"No," Homer said. "I have a heart defect. Something I was born with."
Vernon Lynch was not a gossip, but that was all that Homer needed to say--the workers at Ocean View not only forgave Homer for not enlisting, they even began to take care of him. They treated him the way Dr. Larch would have liked to see him treated.
"You know, I didn't mean anything," Herb Fowler told Homer. "About the manufacturer's defect. I wouldn't have said that if I'd known about your heart."
"That's okay," Homer said.
And in the early spring, when it was time to mend the boxes for the beehives, Ira Titcomb rushed to assist Homer, who was struggling with a particularly heavy pallet.
"Don't strain yourself, Jesus!" Ira said.
"I can manage, Ira. I'm stronger than you are," Homer said, not understanding--at first--Ira's concern.
"I heard your heart's not as strong as the rest of you," Ira said.
On Mother's Day, Vernon Lynch taught him how to operate the sprayers by himself. He insisted on giving Homer another lecture on the use of the respirator. "You of all people," Vernon told him, "better keep this thing on, and keep it clean."
"Me of all people," said Homer Wells.
Even Debra Pettigrew forgave him for his seemingly undefined friendship with Candy. As the weather warmed up, they went parking again, and one night they managed some lingering kisses in the Pettigrews' unoccupied summer house on Drinkwater Lake; the shut-up, cold smell of the house reminded Homer of his first days in the cider house. When his kisses seemed too calm, Debra grew restless; when his kisses seemed too passionate, Debra said, "Careful! Don't get too excited." He was a young man with unusual kindness, or else he might have suggested to Debra that nothing she allowed him to do would ever endanger his heart.
It was spring. Wally was sent to Kelly Field--San Antonio, Texas--for Air Corps cadet training (Squadron 2, Flight C), and Melony thought that the time was right for her to hit the road again.
"You're crazy," Lorna told her. "The more of a war there is, the more good jobs there are for us. The country needs to build stuff--it don't need to eat more apples."
"Fuck what the country needs," Melony said. "I'm lookin' for Homer Wells, and I'm gonna find him."
"So will I see you next winter?" Lorna asked her friend.
