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"I think you ought to try having a girlfriend," Angel said cautiously. Homer laughed.
"Maybe when you try having one, I'll try one, too," Homer said.
"Sure, we can double-date!" Angel said.
"I get the back seat," Homer said.
"Sure, I'd rather get to drive, anyway," Angel said.
"Not for long, you won't rather drive," his father told him.
"Sure!" Angel said, laughing. Then he asked his father: "Was Debra Pettigrew big like Melony?"
"No!" Homer said. "Well, she was on her way to being big, but she wasn't that big--not when I knew her."
"There's no way Big Dot Taft's sister could have been small," Angel said.
"Well, I never said she was small," Homer said, and they both laughed. It was a lighthearted enough moment for Homer to lean over Angel and kiss the boy--smack between the eyes, where Wally had just kissed Homer. It was a good place to kiss Angel, in Homer's opinion, because he liked to smell his son's hair.
"Good night, I love you," Homer said.
"I love you. Good night, Pop," Angel said, but when Homer was almost out the door, Angel asked him, "What's the thing you love best?"
"You," Homer told his son. "I love you best."
"Next to me," said Angel Wells.
"Candy and Wally," Homer said, making them as close to one word as his tongue could manage.
"Next to them," Angel said.
"Well, Doctor Larch--and all of them, in Saint Cloud's, I guess," said Homer Wells.
"And what's the best thing you ever did?" Angel asked his father.
"I got you," Homer said softly.
"Next best," Angel said.
"Well, I guess it was meeting Candy and Wally," Homer said.
"You mean, when you met them?" Angel asked.
"I guess so," said Homer Wells.
"Next best," Angel insisted.
"I saved a woman's life, once," Homer said. "Doctor Larch was away. The woman had convulsions."
"You told me," Angel said. Angel had never been especially interested that his father had become a highly qualified assistant to Dr. Larch; Homer had never told him about the abortions. "What else?" Angel asked his father.
Tell him now, thought Homer Wells, tell him all of it. But what he said to his son was, "Nothing else, really. I'm no hero. I haven't done any best things, or even any one best thing."
"That's okay, Pop," Angel said cheerfully. "Good night."
"Good night," said Homer Wells.
Downstairs, he couldn't tell if Wally and Candy had gone to bed, or if Wally was in bed alone; the bedroom door was closed, and there was no light coming from the crack under the door. But someone had left a light on in the kitchen, and the outdoor light on the post at the head of the driveway was still on. He went to the apple-mart office to read the mail; with the light on in the office, Candy would know where he was. And if she'd already gone to the cider house, he could walk there from the office; it would be smart, in that case, to leave the office light on and not turn it out until he came back from the cider house. That way, if Wally woke up and saw the light, he'd figure that Homer or Candy was still working in the office.
