‘And yet you’re constantly deciding what Howard and Mother and I ought to do.’

‘Ow. You win, girl.’ For the first time since his confession of desertion, there were smiles at the table. ‘But look here; you’re crowding me. You’re getting me away from the subject in hand — the fact that I am going to retire in one year, and your mother and I are going to enjoy ourselves. Anybody got any real objections?’

‘Yes. I have,’ said his wife.

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Last updated Sunday, March 27, 2016 at 11:57

The Prodigal Parents, by Sinclair Lewis

Chapter 10

‘I don’t suppose for a minute,’ said Hazel, ‘that you mean any of this, but what would you do with yourself if you did retire?’

‘Prob’ly travel.’

‘You remember our one big trip together? Didn’t we see everything — Washington, Mount Vernon, Chicago, the Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon? But all I can recall is how sore our feet got.’

‘Well, thunder, we went too fast. Day and a half in Washington! Too quick. Why, Washington’s a darn interesting town. Worth maybe three days of anybody’s time. I’d like to go to Europe, say, and really sit around.’

‘Can’t we sit around here? Just think, dear, how uncomfortable you’d be in a strange bed. Or having waiters carve the roast beef. No, no! You stay on the job and have the fun of working with Howard and seeing the business expand. You’ll never retire! You don’t WANT to. You want to see the children get along, and help ’em.’

‘Of course. You’d be bored to death travelling,’ shouted Howard.

Annabel now burst:

‘Please excuse me — I’m a dreadful outsider — but why shouldn’t Mr. Cornplow go off bumming if he wants to, after all these years? I think it would be swell if he went and sat under a palm tree and threw rocks at the whales! Instead of teaching you which part of a car the engine’s in, Howard!’

All of them stared at her severely, all but Howard, who was bothered, and Fred, who did not see her at all.

For this moment, during a rather pointless talk at a rather pointless birthday party, was suddenly and appallingly the most important in his life.

Whether it was the addition of another year to his age, or the toothaching memory of the cousinly Tillerys’ sponging, or Howard’s picture of an expanded agency with Fred as leading lunatic, or Sara’s explanation that he was useless except as a feeder for communism, or whether it was some hidden impatience that for years he had struggled against recognizing, he knew, in this half-second, and knew terrifyingly, that what he had said as jest was devastating truth. He perceived that he did want to retire and, with Hazel, try to discover what manner of man he was and might become . . . that he INTENDED to retire . . . that he might even actually do it.