The Cider House Rules / Правила виноделов

Dr Larch bent over him and kissed him, very lightly, on his lips. Homer heard Larch whisper, “Good work, Homer.” He felt a second, even lighter kiss. “Good work, my boy,” the doctor said, and then left him.

Homer Wells felt his tears coming silently; he cried more than the last time when Fuzzy Stone had died and Homer had lied about Fuzzy to Snowy and the others. He cried and cried, but he didn't make a sound. He cried because he had received his first fatherly kisses.

Of course Melony had kissed him; Nurse Edna and Nurse Angela had kissed him, but they kissed everyone. Dr Larch had never kissed him before, and now he had kissed him twice.

Homer Wells cried because he'd never known how nice a father's kisses could be.

Dr Larch went to look at the eclampsia patient and at her tiny child. Then Larch went to the familiar typewriter in Nurse Angela's office, but he couldn't write anything. “Oh God,” thought Wilbur Larch, “what will happen to me when Homer has to go?”

The next day Homer Wells gave names to body number three and his first orphan. He named the new body Clara, and the baby boy David Copperfield. It was an easy decision.

* * *

Young Wally Worthington thought that he'd been in love twice before he was twenty years old, and once when he was twenty-one; now, in 194— (he was just three years older than Homer Wells), Wally fell deeply in love for the fourth time. He didn't know that this time would be for life.

The girl, whom Wally loved, was a lobsterman's daughter. Her father, Raymond Kendall, wasn't an ordinary lobsterman, he was the best lobsterman. Other lobstermen watched him through binoculars. When he changed his mooring lines, they changed theirs; when he didn't go to sea but stayed at home, other lobstermen stayed home, too. But they couldn't match him.

He was not just an artist with lobster; he also was an expert at fixing things – at keeping everything that anyone else would throw away. Raymond Kendall didn't like to introduce himself as a lobsterman; he was prouder of his qualities as a mechanic.

There was a rumor that Kendall had more money than Senior Worthington; there was almost no evidence of his spending any – except on his daughter. Like the children of the Haven Club members, she went to a private boarding school; and Raymond Kendall paid a lot for a Haven Club membership – not for himself (he went to the club only on request: to fix things) but for his daughter, who'd learned to swim in the heated pool there, and who'd taken her tennis lessons on the same courts visited by young Wally Worthington. Kendall's daughter had her own car, too – it looked out of place in the Haven Club parking lot. It was a mishmash of the parts from other cars; it had a Ford symbol on its hood and a Chrysler emblem on the trunk, and the passenger-side door was sealed completely shut. However, its battery never went dead in the Haven Club lot.

Some of Raymond Kendall's fabulous money was paid him as salary by Olive Worthington; in addition to his lobstering, Ray Kendall looked after the vehicles and machinery of the Ocean View Orchards. Olive Worthington paid him a full foreman's salary because he knew almost as much about apples as he knew about lobsters (and he was the best farm's mechanic), but Ray refused to work more than two hours a day. Despite the fact that Ray Kendall worked two hours every day at Ocean View, he was never seen to eat an apple.

His beautiful daughter – Candice, or Candy – was named after her mother, who had died in childbirth. She was a great and natural beauty; she was at once friendly and practical; she was well-mannered and energetic. Everyone liked her.

Even Olive Worthington liked her, and Olive was suspicious of the girls who went out with Wally; she questioned what they wanted from him. She was afraid of girls who were more interested in the Ocean View life than they were interested in Wally. Olive knew that Candy wasn't looking for money. In truth, Olive Worthington thought that Candy Kendall might be too good for her son.

In her own bedroom, Candy kept the picture of her mother when her mother had been Candy's age. She looked just like Candy. The picture was taken the summer she met Ray (an older boy, strong and determined to fix everything).

Candy had her mother's blondness; it was darker than Wally's blondness. She had her father's dark skin and dark brown eyes, and her father's height. Ray Kendall was a tall man.

Candy Kendall and Wally Worthington fell in love with each other in the summer of 194—. Everyone in Heart's Haven and in Heart's Rock thought that they were perfect for each other. Even grumpy Raymond Kendall approved. Ray thought that Wally wasn't lazy, and he could see that the boy was good-hearted. Ray also approved of Wally's mother.

And Candy thought that Olive Worthington would be a perfect mother-in-law.

It was understood that Wally would finish college first, and that Candy would finish college before they got married. However, there were possible causes for a change of plans. After all, it was 194—; there was a war in Europe; there were many people who thought that America would be involved soon. But Olive had a mother's wish to keep war out of her mind.

Wilbur Larch had the war in Europe very much in his mind. He had been in the last war, and he foresaw that if there was another war, Homer Well could go to the army. But the good doctor had already taken some steps to save Homer Wells from going to a war.

Larch was, after all, the historian of St. Cloud's; he wrote the only records that were kept there; he wrote fiction, too. In the case of Fuzzy Stone and in the other, very few cases of orphans who had died Wilbur Larch hadn't liked the actual endings of those small lives. Wasn't it fair if Larch invented happy endings? In the case of the few who had died, Wilbur Larch made up a longer life for them. For example, the history of F. Stone was like the history that Wilbur Larch wished for Homer Wells. After Fuzzy's most successful adoption (every member of the adoptive family was scrupulously described) and successful treatment and cure of Fuzzy's respiratory disease, the young man got an education at Bowdoin College (Wilbur Larch's own alma mater) and then studied medicine at Harvard Medical School, following Larch's footsteps to internships at the Boston Lying-in. Larch intended to make a devoted and skilled obstetrician out of Fuzzy Stone; the orphan's fictional history was as carefully done as everything Wilbur Larch did.

He had also made a slight modification in the history of Homer Wells. He was very pleased with himself for this slight fiction that he had so skillfully blended with the actual history of Homer Wells. Wilbur Larch had written about Homer Wells that the boy had a heart defect, a heart that was damaged and weakened from birth. Larch was thinking of war, the so called war in Europe; Larch, and many others, feared that the war wouldn't stay there. (“I'm sorry, Homer,” Larch imagined telling the boy. “I don't want to worry you, but you have a bad heart; it just wouldn't stand up to a war.”) In fact, the doctor's own heart would never stand up to Homer Wells's going to war.

In an earlier entry in the file on Homer Wells – an entry that Dr Larch removed – he had written: “I love nothing or no one as much as I love Homer Wells.”)

Thus Wilbur Larch was more prepared for how a war could change important plans than Olive Worthington was prepared for it. The other and more probable cause for a change in the wedding plans of her son and Candy Kendall – had been foreseen by Olive. It was an unwanted pregnancy. But it was not foreseen by either Candy or Wally.

Thus, when Candy got pregnant, she and Wally were much upset, but they were also surprised. They simply couldn't believe it. They were not ashamed or unable to tell their parents; they were simply shocked by the prospect of destroying their perfect plans.

“We're not ready, are we?” Candy said to Wally. “Do you feel ready?”

“I love you,” Wally said. He was a brave boy, and true, and Candy loved him, too.

“But it's just not the right time for us, is it, Wally?” Candy asked him.

“I want to marry you, anytime,” he said truthfully, but he added something that she hadn't thought of. He had thought of the war in Europe. He said, “What if there's a war?”

“What if what?” said Candy, truly shocked.

“I mean, if we were at war, I'd go,” Wally said. “Only, if there was a child, I couldn't go to a war.”

“When would it be right to go to a war, Wally?” Candy asked him.

“Well, I mean, I'd just have to go, that's all – if we had a war,” he said. “I mean, it's our country and besides, for the experience – I couldn't miss it.”

She slapped his face and started to cry – in a rage. “For the experience! You'd want to go to war for the experience!”

“Well, not if we had a child,” Wally said.

“What about me?” Candy asked, “With or without a child, what would it be like for me if you went to a war?”

“Well, it's all What if, isn't it?” Wally asked. “It's just something to think about,” he added.

“I think we should try not to have the baby,” Candy told him.

“But we need a real doctor,” Wally said.

“Of course,” she agreed. “But are there any real doctors who do it?”

“I haven't heard of them,” Wally admitted.

But Wally Worthington hoped to get advice about an abortionist. He knew that the orchardmen at Ocean View liked him and that they could be trusted to keep Wally's secret.

He went first to the only bachelor on the orchard crew, supposing that bachelors might have more use for abortionists than married men. Wally approached a member of the apple crew named Herb Fowler, a man only a few years older than Wally.

Herb Fowler's present girlfriend was younger than Herb, just a local girl, about Candy's age – her name was Louise Tobey, and the men called her Squeeze Louise, which was okay with Herb. It was said that he had other girlfriends, and he always carried lots of condoms – at all times of the day and night – and when anyone said anything about sex, Herb Fowler reached into his pocket for a rubber and threw it at the speaker. He usually said, “Do you see these? They keep a man free.”

Wally had already had several rubbers thrown at him, and he was tired of the joke, but he thought that Herb Fowler was the right sort of man to ask.

“Hey, Herb,” Wally said to him.

“Yes, that's my name,” Herb said.

“Herb,” Wally said. “If a girl is pregnant, what should one do about it?”

Herb Fowler disappointed Wally. All he knew was something suspicious about a butcher, and five hundred dollars.

“Maybe Meany Hyde knows about it,” Herb added. “Why don't you ask Meany?” Herb Fowler smiled at Wally.

Meany Hyde was a nice man. He'd grown up with a lot of older brothers who beat him. His brothers called him Meany – probably just to confuse him. Meany was friendly; he had a friendly wife, Florence; there had been so many children that Wally couldn't remember all their names, or tell one from the other, and so he didn't think that Meany Hyde even knew what an abortion was.

“Meany listens to everything,” Herb Fowler told Wally.

So Wally went to find Meany Hyde. Meany was waxing the press boards for the cider press. Wally watched Meany Hyde waxing.

“Say, Meany,” Wally said, after a while.

“I thought that you forgot my name,” Meany said cheerfully. “Meany, what do you know about abortion?” Wally asked. “I know it's a sin,” Meany Hyde said, “and I know that Grace Lynch has had an abortion – and in her case, I sympathize with her – if you know what I mean.” Grace Lynch was Vernon Lynch's wife; Wally – and everyone else – knew that Vernon beat her. They had no children.

“Who needs an abortion, Wally?” Meany Hyde asked.

“A friend of a friend,” Wally said.

“That's a shame, Wally,” Meany said. “I think you should speak to Grace about it – just don't speak to her when Vernon's around. And don't tell Grace I told you to ask her.”

So Wally went looking for Grace Lynch.

Grace was cleaning one of the shelves of the pie oven when Wally found her; he startled her, and Grace made a little cry and banged one of her elbows against the oven.

“I am sorry that I scared you, Grace,” Wally said. “I've got a problem.”

She stared at him as if this news frightened her more than anything anyone had ever told her. She looked quickly away and said, “I'm cleaning the oven.” Wally suddenly realized that all his secrets were entirely safe with Grace Lynch.

“Candy is pregnant,” Wally said. She looked at Wally again with her eyes as round as a rabbit's.

“I need advice. Please just tell me what you know, Grace,” Wally said.

“Saint Cloud's,” she whispered. Wally thought that it was someone's name – the name of a saint? Or was it a nickname for an evil abortionist – St. Cloud's?

“I don't know the doctor's name,” Grace said, not looking at Wally. “The place is called Saint Cloud's, and the doctor's good,” she whispered. “But don't let her go alone – okay, Wally?” Grace said.

“No, I won't let her go alone, of course,” Wally promised her.

“You will ask for the orphanage when you get off the train,” Grace said. She climbed back in the oven before he could thank her.

Grace Lynch had gone to St. Cloud's alone. Vernon hadn't even known she was going. Grace had arrived in the early evening, just after dark; she'd been so nervous that Dr Larch's sedation had not affected her very much and she'd been awake during the night. There had been no complications. (There had never been any serious complications following any abortion Dr Larch had ever performed.) But still Grace Lynch hated to think of St. Cloud's. It was because of the atmosphere of the place in the long night she'd stayed awake. The disturbed river smelled like death; the cries of the babies were frightening; there was a sound of a machine (the typewriter).

That night Wally sat on Ray Kendall's dock with Candy and told her what he knew about St. Clouds.

“I knew it was an orphanage,” Candy said. “That's all I knew.”

It was clear to them both that they couldn't explain their absence during the night, so Wally arranged to borrow Senior's Cadillac, so that they could leave very early in the morning and return in the evening of the same day. Wally told Senior it was the best time of year to explore the coast.

“I know it's a workday,” Wally told Olive. “But it's only one day off, Mom. It's just to have a little journey with Candy.”

Ray Kendall knew that Candy would be happy to take a drive with Wally. Wally was a good driver, and the Cadillac was a safe car.

The night before their trip, Candy and Wally went to bed early, but each of them was awake through the night. Wally worried that an abortion would make Candy unhappy, or even uncomfortable with sex. Candy wondered if Wally would love her after all this was over.

That same night Wilbur Larch and Homer Wells weren't sleeping either. Larch sat at the typewriter in Nurse Angela's office; through the window, he saw Homer Wells walking around outside, with an oil lamp in the darkness. What is the matter now? Larch wondered, and went to see what Homer was doing.

“I couldn't sleep,” Homer told Larch.

“What is it this time?” Dr Larch asked Homer.

“Maybe it's just an owl,” said Homer Wells. The wind was strong, which was unusual for St. Cloud's. When the wind blew out the lamp, the doctor and his assistant saw the light shining from the window of Nurse Angela's office. It was the only light for miles around, and it made their shadows gigantic. Larch's shadow reached the black woods. Homer Wells's shadow touched the dark sky. Only then both men noticed: Homer had grown taller than Dr Larch.

Larch spread his arms so that his shadow looked like a magician. Larch flapped his arms like a big bat. “Look!” he said to Homer. I'm a wizard!”

Homer Wells, the wizard's apprentice, flapped his arms, too.

The wind was very strong and fresh. The stars shone bright and cold.

“Feel that wind,” said Homer Wells; maybe the wind didn't let them sleep.

“It's a wind coming from the coast,” Wilbur Larch said. It was a rare sea breeze, Larch was sure.

“Wherever it's from, it's nice,” Homer Wells decided.

Both men stood sniffing the wind. Each man thought: “What is going to happen to me?”

5. Homer Breaks a Promise

Before this morning, Homer Wells had not had an occasion to think about the soul. A study of the soul had not been a part of his training.

Dr Larch had asked Homer to prepare a fetus for an autopsy.

A woman had been stabbed, or she had stabbed herself; the pregnancy of the woman was nearly full-term. Dr Larch had attempted to rescue the child but the child – or, rather, the embryo, nearly nine months – had also been stabbed. Like its mother, the baby (the boy) had died. Dr Larch had asked Homer to help him determine the cause of death.

Homer cut the little body. He had never looked inside a fetus before. What was the life of the embryo but a history of development? Homer turned to the section in Gray's devoted to the embryo. It was a shock for him to remember that the book did not begin with the embryo; it ended with it. The embryo was the last thing which was considered.

In Gray's Homer saw the profile view of the head of a human embryo at twenty-seven days old. It didn't look like human: it had a face of a fish. But in eight weeks the fetus has a nose and a mouth. “It has an expression,” thought Homer Wells. And with this discovery – that a fetus has an expression — Homer Wells felt the presence of a soul.

He put the little dead body in a white enamel examining tray. The tiny fingers of its hands were slightly open.

The color of the dead baby was gray. Homer turned to the sink and vomited in it. When he turned on water to clean the sink, the old pipes vibrated and howled; he thought that the room was trembling because of the pipes. He wasn't thinking about the wind from the coast – how strong it was!

Homer wasn't blaming Dr Larch. If Wilbur Larch was a saint to Nurse Angela and to Nurse Edna, he was both a saint and a father to Homer Wells. Larch knew what he was doing – and for whom. However Homer had his own opinion. “You can call it a fetus, or an embryo,” thought Homer Wells, “but it's alive. And if you perform an abortion, you kill it.” He looked at the little dead body. “If it's a fetus to Dr Larch, that's fine. But it's a baby to me,” thought Homer Wells. “If Larch has a choice, I have a choice, too.”

He picked up the tray and carried it into the hall, like a proud waiter carrying a special dish to a favorite guest.

Soon Homer was at the door of Nurse Angela's office, which was open. He could see Dr Larch at the typewriter; the doctor wasn't writing; there wasn't even any paper in the machine. Dr Larch was just looking out the window. The state of a dream was so clear on Wilbur Larch's face that Homer Wells paused in the doorway; he almost turned around and took the baby away with him. Homer hesitated; then he stepped forward and put the metal tray on top of the typewriter.

“Doctor Larch?” Homer Wells said. Larch looked away from his dream; he stared over the baby at Homer. “The source of the bleeding was the pulmonary artery, which was slashed, as you see,” Homer said, as Larch looked down at the baby.

“Goddamn!” said Wilbur Larch, staring at the artery.

“I have to tell you that I won't perform an abortion, not ever,” Homer Wells said. This followed, logically, from the severed artery; in Homer's mind, it followed, but Dr Larch looked confused.

“You won't?” Larch said. “You what?”

Homer Wells and Dr Larch just stared at each other; the baby was between them.

“Not ever,” Homer Wells said.

“Do you disapprove?” Dr Larch asked Homer.

“I don't disapprove of you,” Homer Wells said. “I disapprove of it — it's not for me.”

“Well, I've never forced you,” Dr Larch said. “And I never will. It's all your choice.”

“Right,” said Homer Wells.

“And if it's all the same to you,” Homer Wells said to him, “I'd like permission to not be there, when you do what you have to do. I want to be of use in any other way, and I'm not disapproving of you,” Homer said. “If it's okay, I just don't want to watch it.”

“I'll have to think about that, Homer,” Dr Larch said.

* * *

For the last three hours Candy Kendall and Wally Worthington had maintained an awkward silence. It had still been dark when they'd left the coast at Heart's Haven and went inland – away from the wind, although the wind was still surprisingly strong. Candy's honey-blond hair was all around her face.

Wally glanced at the unread book in Candy's lap. The book was Little Dorrit[9] by Charles Dickens. It was required summer reading for all the girls in Candy's class; Candy had begun it four or five times, but she had no idea what the book was about.

Wally, who was no reader, didn't notice the name of the book; he just watched the same page and thought about Candy. He was also thinking about St. Cloud's. He was already (in his mind) through the abortion; Candy was recovering nicely; the doctor was telling jokes; all the nurses were laughing. There were enough nurses to win a war, in Wally's imagination. All of them were young and pretty. And the orphans were amusing children.

In the trunk of Senior Worthington's Cadillac, Wally had three apple boxes full of sweets for the orphans. In the spring there weren't any fresh apples, and there wasn't any cider, but Wally had loaded the Cadillac with jars of jelly and honey.

Candy closed her book and returned it to her lap again, and Wally felt he had to say something.

“How's the book?” he said.

“I don't know,” Candy said, and laughed.

Soon they were in St. Cloud's. Little Dorrit dropped from Candy's lap.

“Please,” Wally whispered to her, “you don't have to do this. You can have the baby. I want the baby – I want your baby. It would be fine. We can just turn around,” he begged her.

But she said, “No, Wally. It's not the time for us to have a baby.” She put her face down.

The car stood still. “Are you sure?” Wally whispered to her. “You don't have to.” But Candy Kendall was more practical than Wally Worthington, and she had her father's stubbornness.

Mrs Grogan, across the road in the girls' division entrance, observed the Cadillac. There was a small crowd around the Cadillac. The trunk was open and the handsome young man was giving presents to the orphans.

“Sorry it's not the season for apples, kids,” Wally was saying. “Or cider. You could all use a little cider!” he said cheerfully, handing out the jars of honey and jelly. A boy named Smoky Fields had opened his jar of apple-cider jelly and was eating it out of the jar with his hand. “It's really good on toast, in the morning,” Wally said cautiously, but Smoky Fields stared at Wally in surprise. Smoky Fields intended to finish the jar of jelly on the spot. A girl called Mary Agnes dropped a jar of the apple jelly at Candy's feet.

“Oops,” Candy said, bending to pick up the jelly for her. When she stood up and handed the girl her jar of jelly, Candy felt a little dizzy. Some adults were coming out of the hospital entrance, and their presence helped Candy compose herself. “I've not come here to play with children,” she thought.

“I'm Doctor Larch,” the old man was saying to Wally, who looked shocked by the determination with which Smoky Fields was eating the jelly.

“Wally Worthington,” Wally said, shaking Dr Larch's hand, handing him a jar of honey. “It's fresh from Ocean View Orchards. That's in Heart's Rock, but we're very near the coast – we're in Heart's Haven, almost.”

“Hello,” Candy said to Homer because he was the tallest person; he was as tall as Wally. I'm Candy Kendall,” she said to him. “And do you work here? Or are you one of…” Was it polite to say them, she wondered.

“Not exactly,” Homer mumbled, thinking: “I work here, inexactly, and I am inexactly one of them.”

“His name's Homer Wells,” a boy told Candy. “He's too old to adopt.”

“I can see that!” Candy said, feeling shy. “I should talk to the doctor,” she thought.

“I'm in the apple business,” Wally was saying to Dr Larch. “It's my father's business. Actually,” he added, “my mother's business.”