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"You really can dance," I told the blonde one. "You oughta be a pro. I mean it. I

danced with a pro once, and you're twice as good as she was. Did you ever hear of Marco

and Miranda?"

"What?" she said. She wasn't even listening to me. She was looking all around the

place.

"I said did you ever hear of Marco and Miranda?"

"I don't know. No. I don't know."

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"Well, they're dancers, she's a dancer. She's not too hot, though. She does

everything she's supposed to, but she's not so hot anyway. You know when a girl's really

a terrific dancer?"

"Wudga say?" she said. She wasn't listening to me, even. Her mind was

wandering all over the place.

"I said do you know when a girl's really a terrific dancer?"

"Uh-uh."

"Well--where I have my hand on your back. If I think there isn't anything

underneath my hand--no can, no legs, no feet, no anything--then the girl's really a terrific

dancer."

She wasn't listening, though. So I ignored her for a while. We just danced. God,

could that dopey girl dance. Buddy Singer and his stinking band was playing "Just One of

Those Things" and even they couldn't ruin it entirely. It's a swell song. I didn't try any

trick stuff while we danced--I hate a guy that does a lot of show-off tricky stuff on the

dance floor--but I was moving her around plenty, and she stayed with me. The funny

thing is, I thought she was enjoying it, too, till all of a sudden she came out with this very

dumb remark. "I and my girl friends saw Peter Lorre last night," she said. "The movie

actor. In person. He was buyin' a newspaper. He's cute."

"You're lucky," I told her. "You're really lucky. You know that?" She was really a

moron. But what a dancer. I could hardly stop myself from sort of giving her a kiss on the

top of her dopey head--you know-- right where the part is, and all. She got sore when I

did it.

"Hey! What's the idea?"

"Nothing. No idea. You really can dance," I said. "I have a kid sister that's only in

the goddam fourth grade. You're about as good as she is, and she can dance better than

anybody living or dead."

"Watch your language, if you don't mind."

What a lady, boy. A queen, for Chrissake.

"Where you girls from?" I asked her.

She didn't answer me, though. She was busy looking around for old Peter Lorre to

show up, I guess.

"Where you girls from?" I asked her again.

"What?" she said.

"Where you girls from? Don't answer if you don't feel like it. I don't want you to

strain yourself."

"Seattle, Washington," she said. She was doing me a big favor to tell me.

"You're a very good conversationalist," I told her. "You know that?"

"What?"

I let it drop. It was over her head, anyway. "Do you feel like jitterbugging a little

bit, if they play a fast one? Not corny jitterbug, not jump or anything--just nice and easy.

Everybody'll all sit down when they play a fast one, except the old guys and the fat guys,

and we'll have plenty of room. Okay?"

"It's immaterial to me," she said. "Hey--how old are you, anyhow?"

That annoyed me, for some reason. "Oh, Christ. Don't spoil it," I said. "I'm

twelve, for Chrissake. I'm big for my age."

"Listen. I toleja about that. I don't like that type language," she said. "If you're

gonna use that type language, I can go sit down with my girl friends, you know."

I apologized like a madman, because the band was starting a fast one. She started

jitterbugging with me-- but just very nice and easy, not corny. She was really good. All

you had to do was touch her. And when she turned around, her pretty little butt twitched

so nice and all. She knocked me out. I mean it. I was half in love with her by the time we

sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if

they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with

them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can

drive you crazy. They really can.

They didn't invite me to sit down at their table-- mostly because they were too

ignorant--but I sat down anyway. The blonde I'd been dancing with's name was Bernice

something--Crabs or Krebs. The two ugly ones' names were Marty and Laverne. I told

them my name was Jim Steele, just for the hell of it. Then I tried to get them in a little

intelligent conversation, but it was practically impossible. You had to twist their arms.

You could hardly tell which was the stupidest of the three of them. And the whole three

of them kept looking all around the goddam room, like as if they expected a flock of

goddam movie stars to come in any minute. They probably thought movie stars always

hung out in the Lavender Room when they came to New York, instead of the Stork Club

or El Morocco and all. Anyway, it took me about a half hour to find out where they all

worked and all in Seattle. They all worked in the same insurance office. I asked them if

they liked it, but do you think you could get an intelligent answer out of those three

dopes? I thought the two ugly ones, Marty and Laverne, were sisters, but they got very

insulted when I asked them. You could tell neither one of them wanted to look like the

other one, and you couldn't blame them, but it was very amusing anyway.

I danced with them all--the whole three of them--one at a time. The one ugly one,

Laverne, wasn't too bad a dancer, but the other one, old Marty, was murder. Old Marty

was like dragging the Statue of Liberty around the floor. The only way I could even half

enjoy myself dragging her around was if I amused myself a little. So I told her I just saw

Gary Cooper, the movie star, on the other side of the floor.

"Where?" she asked me--excited as hell. "Where?"

"Aw, you just missed him. He just went out. Why didn't you look when I told

you?"

She practically stopped dancing, and started looking over everybody's heads to

see if she could see him. "Oh, shoot!" she said. I'd just about broken her heart-- I really

had. I was sorry as hell I'd kidded her. Some people you shouldn't kid, even if they

deserve it.

Here's what was very funny, though. When we got back to the table, old Marty

told the other two that Gary Cooper had just gone out. Boy, old Laverne and Bernice

nearly committed suicide when they heard that. They got all excited and asked Marty if

she'd seen him and all. Old Mart said she'd only caught a glimpse of him. That killed me.

The bar was closing up for the night, so I bought them all two drinks apiece quick

before it closed, and I ordered two more Cokes for myself. The goddam table was lousy

with glasses. The one ugly one, Laverne, kept kidding me because I was only drinking

Cokes. She had a sterling sense of humor. She and old Marty were drinking Tom

Collinses--in the middle of December, for God's sake. They didn't know any better. The

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blonde one, old Bernice, was drinking bourbon and water. She was really putting it away,

too. The whole three of them kept looking for movie stars the whole time. They hardly

talked--even to each other. Old Marty talked more than the other two. She kept saying

these very corny, boring things, like calling the can the "little girls' room," and she

thought Buddy Singer's poor old beat-up clarinet player was really terrific when he stood

up and took a couple of ice-cold hot licks. She called his clarinet a "licorice stick." Was

she corny. The other ugly one, Laverne, thought she was a very witty type. She kept

asking me to call up my father and ask him what he was doing tonight. She kept asking

me if my father had a date or not. Four times she asked me that--she was certainly witty.

Old Bernice, the blonde one, didn't say hardly anything at all. Every time I'd ask her

something, she said "What?" That can get on your nerves after a while.

All of a sudden, when they finished their drink, all three of them stood up on me

and said they had to get to bed. They said they were going to get up early to see the first

show at Radio City Music Hall. I tried to get them to stick around for a while, but they

wouldn't. So we said good-by and all. I told them I'd look them up in Seattle sometime, if

I ever got there, but I doubt if I ever will. Look them up, I mean.

With cigarettes and all, the check came to about thirteen bucks. I think they

should've at least offered to pay for the drinks they had before I joined them--I

wouldn't've let them, naturally, but they should've at least offered. I didn't care much,

though. They were so ignorant, and they had those sad, fancy hats on and all. And that

business about getting up early to see the first show at Radio City Music Hall depressed

me. If somebody, some girl in an awful-looking hat, for instance, comes all the way to

New York--from Seattle, Washington, for God's sake--and ends up getting up early in the

morning to see the goddam first show at Radio City Music Hall, it makes me so

depressed I can't stand it. I'd've bought the whole three of them a hundred drinks if only

they hadn't told me that.

I left the Lavender Room pretty soon after they did. They were closing it up

anyway, and the band had quit a long time ago. In the first place, it was one of those

places that are very terrible to be in unless you have somebody good to dance with, or

unless the waiter lets you buy real drinks instead of just Cokes. There isn't any night club

in the world you can sit in for a long time unless you can at least buy some liquor and get

drunk. Or unless you're with some girl that really knocks you out.

11

All of a sudden, on my way out to the lobby, I got old Jane Gallagher on the brain

again. I got her on, and I couldn't get her off. I sat down in this vomity-looking chair in

the lobby and thought about her and Stradlater sitting in that goddam Ed Banky's car, and

though I was pretty damn sure old Stradlater hadn't given her the time--I know old Jane

like a book--I still couldn't get her off my brain. I knew her like a book. I really did. I

mean, besides checkers, she was quite fond of all athletic sports, and after I got to know

her, the whole summer long we played tennis together almost every morning and golf

almost every afternoon. I really got to know her quite intimately. I don't mean it was

anything physical or anything--it wasn't--but we saw each other all the time. You don't

always have to get too sexy to get to know a girl.

The way I met her, this Doberman pinscher she had used to come over and relieve

himself on our lawn, and my mother got very irritated about it. She called up Jane's

mother and made a big stink about it. My mother can make a very big stink about that

kind of stuff. Then what happened, a couple of days later I saw Jane laying on her

stomach next to the swimming pool, at the club, and I said hello to her. I knew she lived

in the house next to ours, but I'd never conversed with her before or anything. She gave

me the big freeze when I said hello that day, though. I had a helluva time convincing her

that I didn't give a good goddam where her dog relieved himself. He could do it in the

living room, for all I cared. Anyway, after that, Jane and I got to be friends and all. I

played golf with her that same afternoon. She lost eight balls, I remember. Eight. I had a

terrible time getting her to at least open her eyes when she took a swing at the ball. I

improved her game immensely, though. I'm a very good golfer. If I told you what I go

around in, you probably wouldn't believe me. I almost was once in a movie short, but I

changed my mind at the last minute. I figured that anybody that hates the movies as much

as I do, I'd be a phony if I let them stick me in a movie short.

She was a funny girl, old Jane. I wouldn't exactly describe her as strictly beautiful.

She knocked me out, though. She was sort of muckle-mouthed. I mean when she was

talking and she got excited about something, her mouth sort of went in about fifty

directions, her lips and all. That killed me. And she never really closed it all the way, her

mouth. It was always just a little bit open, especially when she got in her golf stance, or

when she was reading a book. She was always reading, and she read very good books.

She read a lot of poetry and all. She was the only one, outside my family, that I ever

showed Allie's baseball mitt to, with all the poems written on it. She'd never met Allie or

anything, because that was her first summer in Maine--before that, she went to Cape Cod-

-but I told her quite a lot about him. She was interested in that kind of stuff.

My mother didn't like her too much. I mean my mother always thought Jane and

her mother were sort of snubbing her or something when they didn't say hello. My

mother saw them in the village a lot, because Jane used to drive to market with her

mother in this LaSalle convertible they had. My mother didn't think Jane was pretty,

even. I did, though. I just liked the way she looked, that's all.

I remember this one afternoon. It was the only time old Jane and I ever got close

to necking, even. It was a Saturday and it was raining like a bastard out, and I was over at

her house, on the porch--they had this big screened-in porch. We were playing checkers. I

used to kid her once in a while because she wouldn't take her kings out of the back row.

But I didn't kid her much, though. You never wanted to kid Jane too much. I think I really

like it best when you can kid the pants off a girl when the opportunity arises, but it's a

funny thing. The girls I like best are the ones I never feel much like kidding. Sometimes I

think they'd like it if you kidded them--in fact, I know they would--but it's hard to get

started, once you've known them a pretty long time and never kidded them. Anyway, I

was telling you about that afternoon Jane and I came close to necking. It was raining like

hell and we were out on her porch, and all of a sudden this booze hound her mother was

married to came out on the porch and asked Jane if there were any cigarettes in the house.

I didn't know him too well or anything, but he looked like the kind of guy that wouldn't

talk to you much unless he wanted something off you. He had a lousy personality.

Anyway, old Jane wouldn't answer him when he asked her if she knew where there was

any cigarettes. So the guy asked her again, but she still wouldn't answer him. She didn't

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even look up from the game. Finally the guy went inside the house. When he did, I asked

Jane what the hell was going on. She wouldn't even answer me, then. She made out like

she was concentrating on her next move in the game and all. Then all of a sudden, this

tear plopped down on the checkerboard. On one of the red squares--boy, I can still see it.

She just rubbed it into the board with her finger. I don't know why, but it bothered hell

out of me. So what I did was, I went over and made her move over on the glider so that I

could sit down next to her--I practically sat down in her lap, as a matter of fact. Then she

really started to cry, and the next thing I knew, I was kissing her all over--anywhere--her

eyes, her nose, her forehead, her eyebrows and all, her ears--her whole face except her

mouth and all. She sort of wouldn't let me get to her mouth. Anyway, it was the closest

we ever got to necking. After a while, she got up and went in and put on this red and

white sweater she had, that knocked me out, and we went to a goddam movie. I asked

her, on the way, if Mr. Cudahy--that was the booze hound's name--had ever tried to get

wise with her. She was pretty young, but she had this terrific figure, and I wouldn't've put

it past that Cudahy bastard. She said no, though. I never did find out what the hell was the

matter. Some girls you practically never find out what's the matter.

I don't want you to get the idea she was a goddam icicle or something, just

because we never necked or horsed around much. She wasn't. I held hands with her all

the time, for instance. That doesn't sound like much, I realize, but she was terrific to hold

hands with. Most girls if you hold hands with them, their goddam hand dies on you, or

else they think they have to keep moving their hand all the time, as if they were afraid

they'd bore you or something. Jane was different. We'd get into a goddam movie or

something, and right away we'd start holding hands, and we wouldn't quit till the movie

was over. And without changing the position or making a big deal out of it. You never

even worried, with Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you

were happy. You really were.

One other thing I just thought of. One time, in this movie, Jane did something that

just about knocked me out. The newsreel was on or something, and all of a sudden I felt

this hand on the back of my neck, and it was Jane's. It was a funny thing to do. I mean

she was quite young and all, and most girls if you see them putting their hand on the back

of somebody's neck, they're around twenty-five or thirty and usually they're doing it to

their husband or their little kid--I do it to my kid sister Phoebe once in a while, for

instance. But if a girl's quite young and all and she does it, it's so pretty it just about kills

you.

Anyway, that's what I was thinking about while I sat in that vomity-looking chair

in the lobby. Old Jane. Every time I got to the part about her out with Stradlater in that

damn Ed Banky's car, it almost drove me crazy. I knew she wouldn't let him get to first

base with her, but it drove me crazy anyway. I don't even like to talk about it, if you want

to know the truth.

There was hardly anybody in the lobby any more. Even all the whory-looking

blondes weren't around any more, and all of a sudden I felt like getting the hell out of the

place. It was too depressing. And I wasn't tired or anything. So I went up to my room and

put on my coat. I also took a look out the window to see if all the perverts were still in

action, but the lights and all were out now. I went down in the elevator again and got a

cab and told the driver to take me down to Ernie's. Ernie's is this night club in Greenwich

Village that my brother D.B. used to go to quite frequently before he went out to

Hollywood and prostituted himself. He used to take me with him once in a while. Ernie's

a big fat colored guy that plays the piano. He's a terrific snob and he won't hardly even

talk to you unless you're a big shot or a celebrity or something, but he can really play the

piano. He's so good he's almost corny, in fact. I don't exactly know what I mean by that,

but I mean it. I certainly like to hear him play, but sometimes you feel like turning his

goddam piano over. I think it's because sometimes when he plays, he sounds like the kind

of guy that won't talk to you unless you're a big shot.

12

The cab I had was a real old one that smelled like someone'd just tossed his

cookies in it. I always get those vomity kind of cabs if I go anywhere late at night. What

made it worse, it was so quiet and lonesome out, even though it was Saturday night. I

didn't see hardly anybody on the street. Now and then you just saw a man and a girl

crossing a street, with their arms around each other's waists and all, or a bunch of

hoodlumy-looking guys and their dates, all of them laughing like hyenas at something

you could bet wasn't funny. New York's terrible when somebody laughs on the street very

late at night. You can hear it for miles. It makes you feel so lonesome and depressed. I

kept wishing I could go home and shoot the bull for a while with old Phoebe. But finally,

after I was riding a while, the cab driver and I sort of struck up a conversation. His name

was Horwitz. He was a much better guy than the other driver I'd had. Anyway, I thought

maybe he might know about the ducks.

"Hey, Horwitz," I said. "You ever pass by the lagoon in Central Park? Down by

Central Park South?"

"The what?"

"The lagoon. That little lake, like, there. Where the ducks are. You know."

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, you know the ducks that swim around in it? In the springtime and all? Do

you happen to know where they go in the wintertime, by any chance?"

"Where who goes?"

"The ducks. Do you know, by any chance? I mean does somebody come around

in a truck or something and take them away, or do they fly away by themselves--go south

or something?"

Old Horwitz turned all the way around and looked at me. He was a very

impatient-type guy. He wasn't a bad guy, though. "How the hell should I know?" he said.

"How the hell should I know a stupid thing like that?"

"Well, don't get sore about it," I said. He was sore about it or something.

"Who's sore? Nobody's sore."

I stopped having a conversation with him, if he was going to get so damn touchy

about it. But he started it up again himself. He turned all the way around again, and said,

"The fish don't go no place. They stay right where they are, the fish. Right in the goddam

lake."

"The fish--that's different. The fish is different. I'm talking about the ducks," I

said.

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"What's different about it? Nothin's different about it," Horwitz said. Everything

he said, he sounded sore about something. "It's tougher for the fish, the winter and all,

than it is for the ducks, for Chrissake. Use your head, for Chrissake."

I didn't say anything for about a minute. Then I said, "All right. What do they do,

the fish and all, when that whole little lake's a solid block of ice, people skating on it and

all?"

Old Horwitz turned around again. "What the hellaya mean what do they do?" he

yelled at me. "They stay right where they are, for Chrissake."

"They can't just ignore the ice. They can't just ignore it."

"Who's ignoring it? Nobody's ignoring it!" Horwitz said. He got so damn excited

and all, I was afraid he was going to drive the cab right into a lamppost or something.

"They live right in the goddam ice. It's their nature, for Chrissake. They get frozen right

in one position for the whole winter."

"Yeah? What do they eat, then? I mean if they're frozen solid, they can't swim

around looking for food and all."

"Their bodies, for Chrissake--what'sa matter with ya? Their bodies take in

nutrition and all, right through the goddam seaweed and crap that's in the ice. They got

their pores open the whole time. That's their nature, for Chrissake. See what I mean?" He

turned way the hell around again to look at me.

"Oh," I said. I let it drop. I was afraid he was going to crack the damn taxi up or

something. Besides, he was such a touchy guy, it wasn't any pleasure discussing anything

with him. "Would you care to stop off and have a drink with me somewhere?" I said.

He didn't answer me, though. I guess he was still thinking. I asked him again,

though. He was a pretty good guy. Quite amusing and all.

"I ain't got no time for no liquor, bud," he said. "How the hell old are you,

anyways? Why ain'tcha home in bed?"

"I'm not tired."

When I got out in front of Ernie's and paid the fare, old Horwitz brought up the

fish again. He certainly had it on his mind. "Listen," he said. "If you was a fish, Mother

Nature'd take care of you, wouldn't she? Right? You don't think them fish just die when it

gets to be winter, do ya?"

"No, but--"

"You're goddam right they don't," Horwitz said, and drove off like a bat out of

hell. He was about the touchiest guy I ever met. Everything you said made him sore.

Even though it was so late, old Ernie's was jampacked. Mostly with prep school

jerks and college jerks. Almost every damn school in the world gets out earlier for

Christmas vacation than the schools I go to. You could hardly check your coat, it was so

crowded. It was pretty quiet, though, because Ernie was playing the piano. It was

supposed to be something holy, for God's sake, when he sat down at the piano. Nobody's

that good. About three couples, besides me, were waiting for tables, and they were all

shoving and standing on tiptoes to get a look at old Ernie while he played. He had a big

damn mirror in front of the piano, with this big spotlight on him, so that everybody could

watch his face while he played. You couldn't see his fingers while he played--just his big

old face. Big deal. I'm not too sure what the name of the song was that he was playing

when I came in, but whatever it was, he was really stinking it up. He was putting all these

dumb, show-offy ripples in the high notes, and a lot of other very tricky stuff that gives

me a pain in the ass. You should've heard the crowd, though, when he was finished. You

would've puked. They went mad. They were exactly the same morons that laugh like

hyenas in the movies at stuff that isn't funny. I swear to God, if I were a piano player or

an actor or something and all those dopes thought I was terrific, I'd hate it. I wouldn't

even want them to clap for me. People always clap for the wrong things. If I were a piano

player, I'd play it in the goddam closet. Anyway, when he was finished, and everybody

was clapping their heads off, old Ernie turned around on his stool and gave this very

phony, humble bow. Like as if he was a helluva humble guy, besides being a terrific

piano player. It was very phony--I mean him being such a big snob and all. In a funny

way, though, I felt sort of sorry for him when he was finished. I don't even think he

knows any more when he's playing right or not. It isn't all his fault. I partly blame all

those dopes that clap their heads off--they'd foul up anybody, if you gave them a chance.

Anyway, it made me feel depressed and lousy again, and I damn near got my coat back

and went back to the hotel, but it was too early and I didn't feel much like being all alone.

They finally got me this stinking table, right up against a wall and behind a

goddam post, where you couldn't see anything. It was one of those tiny little tables that if

the people at the next table don't get up to let you by--and they never do, the bastards--

you practically have to climb into your chair. I ordered a Scotch and soda, which is my

favorite drink, next to frozen Daiquiris. If you were only around six years old, you could

get liquor at Ernie's, the place was so dark and all, and besides, nobody cared how old

you were. You could even be a dope fiend and nobody'd care.

I was surrounded by jerks. I'm not kidding. At this other tiny table, right to my

left, practically on top of me, there was this funny-looking guy and this funny-looking

girl. They were around my age, or maybe just a little older. It was funny. You could see

they were being careful as hell not to drink up the minimum too fast. I listened to their

conversation for a while, because I didn't have anything else to do. He was telling her

about some pro football game he'd seen that afternoon. He gave her every single goddam

play in the whole game--I'm not kidding. He was the most boring guy I ever listened to.

And you could tell his date wasn't even interested in the goddam game, but she was even

funnier-looking than he was, so I guess she had to listen. Real ugly girls have it tough. I

feel so sorry for them sometimes. Sometimes I can't even look at them, especially if

they're with some dopey guy that's telling them all about a goddam football game. On my

right, the conversation was even worse, though. On my right there was this very Joe

Yale-looking guy, in a gray flannel suit and one of those flitty-looking Tattersall vests.

All those Ivy League bastards look alike. My father wants me to go to Yale, or maybe

Princeton, but I swear, I wouldn't go to one of those Ivy League colleges, if I was dying,

for God's sake. Anyway, this Joe Yale-looking guy had a terrific-looking girl with him.

Boy, she was good-looking. But you should've heard the conversation they were having.

In the first place, they were both slightly crocked. What he was doing, he was giving her

a feel under the table, and at the same time telling her all about some guy in his dorm that

had eaten a whole bottle of aspirin and nearly committed suicide. His date kept saying to

him, "How horrible . . . Don't, darling. Please, don't. Not here." Imagine giving somebody

a feel and telling them about a guy committing suicide at the same time! They killed me.

I certainly began to feel like a prize horse's ass, though, sitting there all by myself.

There wasn't anything to do except smoke and drink. What I did do, though, I told the

waiter to ask old Ernie if he'd care to join me for a drink. I told him to tell him I was

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D.B.'s brother. I don't think he ever even gave him my message, though. Those bastards

never give your message to anybody.

All of a sudden, this girl came up to me and said, "Holden Caulfield!" Her name

was Lillian Simmons. My brother D.B. used to go around with her for a while. She had

very big knockers.

"Hi," I said. I tried to get up, naturally, but it was some job getting up, in a place

like that. She had some Navy officer with her that looked like he had a poker up his ass.

"How marvelous to see you!" old Lillian Simmons said. Strictly a phony. "How's

your big brother?" That's all she really wanted to know.

"He's fine. He's in Hollywood."

"In Hollywood! How marvelous! What's he doing?"

"I don't know. Writing," I said. I didn't feel like discussing it. You could tell she

thought it was a big deal, his being in Hollywood. Almost everybody does. Mostly people

who've never read any of his stories. It drives me crazy, though.

"How exciting," old Lillian said. Then she introduced me to the Navy guy. His

name was Commander Blop or something. He was one of those guys that think they're

being a pansy if they don't break around forty of your fingers when they shake hands with

you. God, I hate that stuff. "Are you all alone, baby?" old Lillian asked me. She was

blocking up the whole goddam traffic in the aisle. You could tell she liked to block up a

lot of traffic. This waiter was waiting for her to move out of the way, but she didn't even

notice him. It was funny. You could tell the waiter didn't like her much, you could tell

even the Navy guy didn't like her much, even though he was dating her. And I didn't like

her much. Nobody did. You had to feel sort of sorry for her, in a way. "Don't you have a

date, baby?" she asked me. I was standing up now, and she didn't even tell me to sit

down. She was the type that keeps you standing up for hours. "Isn't he handsome?" she

said to the Navy guy. "Holden, you're getting handsomer by the minute." The Navy guy

told her to come on. He told her they were blocking up the whole aisle. "Holden, come

join us," old Lillian said. "Bring your drink."

"I was just leaving," I told her. "I have to meet somebody." You could tell she was

just trying to get in good with me. So that I'd tell old D.B. about it.

"Well, you little so-and-so. All right for you. Tell your big brother I hate him,

when you see him."

Then she left. The Navy guy and I told each other we were glad to've met each

other. Which always kills me. I'm always saying "Glad to've met you" to somebody I'm

not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though.

After I'd told her I had to meet somebody, I didn't have any goddam choice except

to leave. I couldn't even stick around to hear old Ernie play something halfway decent.

But I certainly wasn't going to sit down at a table with old Lillian Simmons and that Navy

guy and be bored to death. So I left. It made me mad, though, when I was getting my

coat. People are always ruining things for you.

13

I walked all the way back to the hotel. Forty-one gorgeous blocks. I didn't do it

because I felt like walking or anything. It was more because I didn't feel like getting in

and out of another taxicab. Sometimes you get tired of riding in taxicabs the same way

you get tired riding in elevators. All of a sudden, you have to walk, no matter how far or

how high up. When I was a kid, I used to walk all the way up to our apartment very

frequently. Twelve stories.

You wouldn't even have known it had snowed at all. There was hardly any snow

on the sidewalks. But it was freezing cold, and I took my red hunting hat out of my

pocket and put it on--I didn't give a damn how I looked. I even put the earlaps down. I

wished I knew who'd swiped my gloves at Pencey, because my hands were freezing. Not

that I'd have done much about it even if I had known. I'm one of these very yellow guys. I

try not to show it, but I am. For instance, if I'd found out at Pencey who'd stolen my

gloves, I probably would've gone down to the crook's room and said, "Okay. How 'bout

handing over those gloves?" Then the crook that had stolen them probably would've said,

his voice very innocent and all, "What gloves?" Then what I probably would've done, I'd

have gone in his closet and found the gloves somewhere. Hidden in his goddam galoshes

or something, for instance. I'd have taken them out and showed them to the guy and said,

"I suppose these are your goddam gloves?" Then the crook probably would've given me

this very phony, innocent look, and said, "I never saw those gloves before in my life. If

they're yours, take 'em. I don't want the goddam things." Then I probably would've just

stood there for about five minutes. I'd have the damn gloves right in my hand and all, but

I'd feel I ought to sock the guy in the jaw or something--break his goddam jaw. Only, I

wouldn't have the guts to do it. I'd just stand there, trying to look tough. What I might do,

I might say something very cutting and snotty, to rile him up--instead of socking him in

the jaw. Anyway if I did say something very cutting and snotty, he'd probably get up and

come over to me and say, "Listen, Caulfield. Are you calling me a crook?" Then, instead

of saying, "You're goddam right I am, you dirty crooked bastard!" all I probably would've

said would be, "All I know is my goddam gloves were in your goddam galoshes." Right

away then, the guy would know for sure that I wasn't going to take a sock at him, and he

probably would've said, "Listen. Let's get this straight. Are you calling me a thief?" Then

I probably would've said, "Nobody's calling anybody a thief. All I know is my gloves

were in your goddam galoshes." It could go on like that for hours. Finally, though, I'd

leave his room without even taking a sock at him. I'd probably go down to the can and

sneak a cigarette and watch myself getting tough in the mirror. Anyway, that's what I

thought about the whole way back to the hotel. It's no fun to he yellow. Maybe I'm not all

yellow. I don't know. I think maybe I'm just partly yellow and partly the type that doesn't

give much of a damn if they lose their gloves. One of my troubles is, I never care too

much when I lose something--it used to drive my mother crazy when I was a kid. Some

guys spend days looking for something they lost. I never seem to have anything that if I

lost it I'd care too much. Maybe that's why I'm partly yellow. It's no excuse, though. It

really isn't. What you should be is not yellow at all. If you're supposed to sock somebody

in the jaw, and you sort of feel like doing it, you should do it. I'm just no good at it,

though. I'd rather push a guy out the window or chop his head off with an ax than sock

him in the jaw. I hate fist fights. I don't mind getting hit so much--although I'm not crazy

about it, naturally--but what scares me most in a fist fight is the guy's face. I can't stand

looking at the other guy's face, is my trouble. It wouldn't be so bad if you could both be

blindfolded or something. It's a funny kind of yellowness, when you come to think of it,

but it's yellowness, all right. I'm not kidding myself.

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The more I thought about my gloves and my yellowness, the more depressed I

got, and I decided, while I was walking and all, to stop off and have a drink somewhere.

I'd only had three drinks at Ernie's, and I didn't even finish the last one. One thing I have,

it's a terrific capacity. I can drink all night and not even show it, if I'm in the mood. Once,

at the Whooton School, this other boy, Raymond Goldfarb, and I bought a pint of Scotch

and drank it in the chapel one Saturday night, where nobody'd see us. He got stinking, but

I hardly didn't even show it. I just got very cool and nonchalant. I puked before I went to

bed, but I didn't really have to--I forced myself.

Anyway, before I got to the hotel, I started to go in this dumpy-looking bar, but

two guys came out, drunk as hell, and wanted to know where the subway was. One of

them was this very Cuban-looking guy, and he kept breathing his stinking breath in my

face while I gave him directions. I ended up not even going in the damn bar. I just went

back to the hotel.

The whole lobby was empty. It smelled like fifty million dead cigars. It really did.

I wasn't sleepy or anything, but I was feeling sort of lousy. Depressed and all. I almost

wished I was dead.

Then, all of a sudden, I got in this big mess.

The first thing when I got in the elevator, the elevator guy said to me, "Innarested

in having a good time, fella? Or is it too late for you?"

"How do you mean?" I said. I didn't know what he was driving at or anything.

"Innarested in a little tail t'night?"

"Me?" I said. Which was a very dumb answer, but it's quite embarrassing when

somebody comes right up and asks you a question like that.

"How old are you, chief?" the elevator guy said.

"Why?" I said. "Twenty-two."

"Uh huh. Well, how 'bout it? Y'innarested? Five bucks a throw. Fifteen bucks the

whole night." He looked at his wrist watch. "Till noon. Five bucks a throw, fifteen bucks

till noon."

"Okay," I said. It was against my principles and all, but I was feeling so depressed

I didn't even think. That's the whole trouble. When you're feeling very depressed, you

can't even think.

"Okay what? A throw, or till noon? I gotta know."

"Just a throw."

"Okay, what room ya in?"

I looked at the red thing with my number on it, on my key. "Twelve twenty-two,"

I said. I was already sort of sorry I'd let the thing start rolling, but it was too late now.

"Okay. I'll send a girl up in about fifteen minutes." He opened the doors and I got

out.

"Hey, is she good-looking?" I asked him. "I don't want any old bag."

"No old bag. Don't worry about it, chief."

"Who do I pay?"

"Her," he said. "Let's go, chief." He shut the doors, practically right in my face.

I went to my room and put some water on my hair, but you can't really comb a

crew cut or anything. Then I tested to see if my breath stank from so many cigarettes and

the Scotch and sodas I drank at Ernie's. All you do is hold your hand under your mouth

and blow your breath up toward the old nostrils. It didn't seem to stink much, but I

brushed my teeth anyway. Then I put on another clean shirt. I knew I didn't have to get

all dolled up for a prostitute or anything, but it sort of gave me something to do. I was a

little nervous. I was starting to feel pretty sexy and all, but I was a little nervous anyway.

If you want to know the truth, I'm a virgin. I really am. I've had quite a few opportunities

to lose my virginity and all, but I've never got around to it yet. Something always

happens. For instance, if you're at a girl's house, her parents always come home at the

wrong time--or you're afraid they will. Or if you're in the back seat of somebody's car,

there's always somebody's date in the front seat--some girl, I mean--that always wants to

know what's going on all over the whole goddam car. I mean some girl in front keeps

turning around to see what the hell's going on. Anyway, something always happens. I

came quite close to doing it a couple of times, though. One time in particular, I

remember. Something went wrong, though --I don't even remember what any more. The

thing is, most of the time when you're coming pretty close to doing it with a girl--a girl

that isn't a prostitute or anything, I mean--she keeps telling you to stop. The trouble with

me is, I stop. Most guys don't. I can't help it. You never know whether they really want

you to stop, or whether they're just scared as hell, or whether they're just telling you to

stop so that if you do go through with it, the blame'll be on you, not them. Anyway, I

keep stopping. The trouble is, I get to feeling sorry for them. I mean most girls are so

dumb and all. After you neck them for a while, you can really watch them losing their

brains. You take a girl when she really gets passionate, she just hasn't any brains. I don't

know. They tell me to stop, so I stop. I always wish I hadn't, after I take them home, but I

keep doing it anyway.

Anyway, while I was putting on another clean shirt, I sort of figured this was my

big chance, in a way. I figured if she was a prostitute and all, I could get in some practice

on her, in case I ever get married or anything. I worry about that stuff sometimes. I read

this book once, at the Whooton School, that had this very sophisticated, suave, sexy guy

in it. Monsieur Blanchard was his name, I can still remember. It was a lousy book, but

this Blanchard guy was pretty good. He had this big ch鈚eau and all on the Riviera, in

Europe, and all he did in his spare time was beat women off with a club. He was a real

rake and all, but he knocked women out. He said, in this one part, that a woman's body is

like a violin and all, and that it takes a terrific musician to play it right. It was a very

corny book--I realize that--but I couldn't get that violin stuff out of my mind anyway. In a

way, that's why I sort of wanted to get some practice in, in case I ever get married.

Caulfield and his Magic Violin, boy. It's corny, I realize, but it isn't too corny. I wouldn't

mind being pretty good at that stuff. Half the time, if you really want to know the truth,

when I'm horsing around with a girl, I have a helluva lot of trouble just finding what I'm

looking for, for God's sake, if you know what I mean. Take this girl that I just missed

having sexual intercourse with, that I told you about. It took me about an hour to just get

her goddam brassiere off. By the time I did get it off, she was about ready to spit in my

eye.

Anyway, I kept walking around the room, waiting for this prostitute to show up. I

kept hoping she'd be good-looking. I didn't care too much, though. I sort of just wanted to

get it over with. Finally, somebody knocked on the door, and when I went to open it, I

had my suitcase right in the way and I fell over it and damn near broke my knee. I always

pick a gorgeous time to fall over a suitcase or something.

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When I opened the door, this prostitute was standing there. She had a polo coat

on, and no hat. She was sort of a blonde, but you could tell she dyed her hair. She wasn't

any old bag, though. "How do you do," I said. Suave as hell, boy.

"You the guy Maurice said?" she asked me. She didn't seem too goddam friendly.

"Is he the elevator boy?"

"Yeah," she said.

"Yes, I am. Come in, won't you?" I said. I was getting more and more nonchalant

as it went along. I really was.

She came in and took her coat off right away and sort of chucked it on the bed.

She had on a green dress underneath. Then she sort of sat down sideways on the chair

that went with the desk in the room and started jiggling her foot up and down. She

crossed her legs and started jiggling this one foot up and down. She was very nervous, for

a prostitute. She really was. I think it was because she was young as hell. She was around

my age. I sat down in the big chair, next to her, and offered her a cigarette. "I don't

smoke," she said. She had a tiny little wheeny-whiny voice. You could hardly hear her.

She never said thank you, either, when you offered her something. She just didn't know

any better.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jim Steele," I said.

"Ya got a watch on ya?" she said. She didn't care what the hell my name was,

naturally. "Hey, how old are you, anyways?"

"Me? Twenty-two."

"Like fun you are."

It was a funny thing to say. It sounded like a real kid. You'd think a prostitute and

all would say "Like hell you are" or "Cut the crap" instead of "Like fun you are."

"How old are you?" I asked her.

"Old enough to know better," she said. She was really witty. "Ya got a watch on

ya?" she asked me again, and then she stood up and pulled her dress over her head.

I certainly felt peculiar when she did that. I mean she did it so sudden and all. I

know you're supposed to feel pretty sexy when somebody gets up and pulls their dress

over their head, but I didn't. Sexy was about the last thing I was feeling. I felt much more

depressed than sexy.

"Ya got a watch on ya, hey?"

"No. No, I don't," I said. Boy, was I feeling peculiar. "What's your name?" I asked

her. All she had on was this pink slip. It was really quite embarrassing. It really was.

"Sunny," she said. "Let's go, hey."

"Don't you feel like talking for a while?" I asked her. It was a childish thing to

say, but I was feeling so damn peculiar. "Are you in a very big hurry?"

She looked at me like I was a madman. "What the heck ya wanna talk about?" she

said.

"I don't know. Nothing special. I just thought perhaps you might care to chat for a

while."

She sat down in the chair next to the desk again. She didn't like it, though, you

could tell. She started jiggling her foot again--boy, she was a nervous girl.

"Would you care for a cigarette now?" I said. I forgot she didn't smoke.

"I don't smoke. Listen, if you're gonna talk, do it. I got things to do."

I couldn't think of anything to talk about, though. I thought of asking her how she

got to be a prostitute and all, but I was scared to ask her. She probably wouldn't've told

me anyway.

"You don't come from New York, do you?" I said finally. That's all I could think

of.

"Hollywood," she said. Then she got up and went over to where she'd put her

dress down, on the bed. "Ya got a hanger? I don't want to get my dress all wrinkly. It's

brand-clean."

"Sure," I said right away. I was only too glad to get up and do something. I took

her dress over to the closet and hung it up for her. It was funny. It made me feel sort of

sad when I hung it up. I thought of her going in a store and buying it, and nobody in the

store knowing she was a prostitute and all. The salesman probably just thought she was a

regular girl when she bought it. It made me feel sad as hell--I don't know why exactly.

I sat down again and tried to keep the old conversation going. She was a lousy

conversationalist. "Do you work every night?" I asked her--it sounded sort of awful, after

I'd said it.

"Yeah." She was walking all around the room. She picked up the menu off the

desk and read it.

"What do you do during the day?"

She sort of shrugged her shoulders. She was pretty skinny. "Sleep. Go to the

show." She put down the menu and looked at me. "Let's go, hey. I haven't got all--"

"Look," I said. "I don't feel very much like myself tonight. I've had a rough night.

Honest to God. I'll pay you and all, but do you mind very much if we don't do it? Do you

mind very much?" The trouble was, I just didn't want to do it. I felt more depressed than

sexy, if you want to know the truth. She was depressing. Her green dress hanging in the

closet and all. And besides, I don't think I could ever do it with somebody that sits in a

stupid movie all day long. I really don't think I could.

She came over to me, with this funny look on her face, like as if she didn't believe

me. "What'sa matter?" she said.

"Nothing's the matter." Boy, was I getting nervous. "The thing is, I had an

operation very recently."

"Yeah? Where?"

"On my wuddayacallit--my clavichord."

"Yeah? Where the hell's that?"

"The clavichord?" I said. "Well, actually, it's in the spinal canal. I mean it's quite a

ways down in the spinal canal."

"Yeah?" she said. "That's tough." Then she sat down on my goddam lap. "You're

cute."

She made me so nervous, I just kept on lying my head off. "I'm still recuperating,"

I told her.

"You look like a guy in the movies. You know. Whosis. You know who I mean.

What the heck's his name?"

"I don't know," I said. She wouldn't get off my goddam lap.

"Sure you know. He was in that pitcher with Mel-vine Douglas? The one that was

Mel-vine Douglas's kid brother? That falls off this boat? You know who I mean."

"No, I don't. I go to the movies as seldom as I can."

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Then she started getting funny. Crude and all.

"Do you mind cutting it out?" I said. "I'm not in the mood, I just told you. I just

had an operation."

She didn't get up from my lap or anything, but she gave me this terrifically dirty

look. "Listen," she said. "I was sleepin' when that crazy Maurice woke me up. If you

think I'm--"

"I said I'd pay you for coming and all. I really will. I have plenty of dough. It's

just that I'm practically just recovering from a very serious--"

"What the heck did you tell that crazy Maurice you wanted a girl for, then? If you

just had a goddam operation on your goddam wuddayacallit. Huh?"

"I thought I'd be feeling a lot better than I do. I was a little premature in my

calculations. No kidding. I'm sorry. If you'll just get up a second, I'll get my wallet. I

mean it."

She was sore as hell, but she got up off my goddam lap so that I could go over and

get my wallet off the chiffonier. I took out a five-dollar bill and handed it to her. "Thanks

a lot," I told her. "Thanks a million."

"This is a five. It costs ten."

She was getting funny, you could tell. I was afraid something like that would

happen--I really was.

"Maurice said five," I told her. "He said fifteen till noon and only five for a

throw."

"Ten for a throw."

"He said five. I'm sorry--I really am--but that's all I'm gonna shell out."

She sort of shrugged her shoulders, the way she did before, and then she said,

very cold, "Do you mind getting me my frock? Or would it be too much trouble?" She

was a pretty spooky kid. Even with that little bitty voice she had, she could sort of scare

you a little bit. If she'd been a big old prostitute, with a lot of makeup on her face and all,

she wouldn't have been half as spooky.

I went and got her dress for her. She put it on and all, and then she picked up her

polo coat off the bed. "So long, crumb-bum," she said.

"So long," I said. I didn't thank her or anything. I'm glad I didn't.

14

After Old Sunny was gone, I sat in the chair for a while and smoked a couple of

cigarettes. It was getting daylight outside. Boy, I felt miserable. I felt so depressed, you

can't imagine. What I did, I started talking, sort of out loud, to Allie. I do that sometimes

when I get very depressed. I keep telling him to go home and get his bike and meet me in

front of Bobby Fallon's house. Bobby Fallon used to live quite near us in Maine--this is,

years ago. Anyway, what happened was, one day Bobby and I were going over to Lake

Sedebego on our bikes. We were going to take our lunches and all, and our BB guns--we

were kids and all, and we thought we could shoot something with our BB guns. Anyway,

Allie heard us talking about it, and he wanted to go, and I wouldn't let him. I told him he

was a child. So once in a while, now, when I get very depressed, I keep saying to him,

"Okay. Go home and get your bike and meet me in front of Bobby's house. Hurry up." It

wasn't that I didn't use to take him with me when I went somewhere. I did. But that one

day, I didn't. He didn't get sore about it--he never got sore about anything-- but I keep

thinking about it anyway, when I get very depressed.

Finally, though, I got undressed and got in bed. I felt like praying or something,

when I was in bed, but I couldn't do it. I can't always pray when I feel like it. In the first

place, I'm sort of an atheist. I like Jesus and all, but I don't care too much for most of the

other stuff in the Bible. Take the Disciples, for instance. They annoy the hell out of me, if

you want to know the truth. They were all right after Jesus was dead and all, but while He

was alive, they were about as much use to Him as a hole in the head. All they did was

keep letting Him down. I like almost anybody in the Bible better than the Disciples. If

you want to know the truth, the guy I like best in the Bible, next to Jesus, was that lunatic

and all, that lived in the tombs and kept cutting himself with stones. I like him ten times

as much as the Disciples, that poor bastard. I used to get in quite a few arguments about

it, when I was at Whooton School, with this boy that lived down the corridor, Arthur

Childs. Old Childs was a Quaker and all, and he read the Bible all the time. He was a

very nice kid, and I liked him, but I could never see eye to eye with him on a lot of stuff

in the Bible, especially the Disciples. He kept telling me if I didn't like the Disciples, then

I didn't like Jesus and all. He said that because Jesus picked the Disciples, you were

supposed to like them. I said I knew He picked them, but that He picked them at random.

I said He didn't have time to go around analyzing everybody. I said I wasn't blaming

Jesus or anything. It wasn't His fault that He didn't have any time. I remember I asked old

Childs if he thought Judas, the one that betrayed Jesus and all, went to Hell after he

committed suicide. Childs said certainly. That's exactly where I disagreed with him. I

said I'd bet a thousand bucks that Jesus never sent old Judas to Hell. I still would, too, if I

had a thousand bucks. I think any one of the Disciples would've sent him to Hell and all--

and fast, too--but I'll bet anything Jesus didn't do it. Old Childs said the trouble with me

was that I didn't go to church or anything. He was right about that, in a way. I don't. In

the first place, my parents are different religions, and all the children in our family are

atheists. If you want to know the truth, I can't even stand ministers. The ones they've had

at every school I've gone to, they all have these Holy Joe voices when they start giving

their sermons. God, I hate that. I don't see why the hell they can't talk in their natural

voice. They sound so phony when they talk.

Anyway, when I was in bed, I couldn't pray worth a damn. Every time I got

started, I kept picturing old Sunny calling me a crumb-bum. Finally, I sat up in bed and

smoked another cigarette. It tasted lousy. I must've smoked around two packs since I left

Pencey.

All of a sudden, while I was laying there smoking, somebody knocked on the

door. I kept hoping it wasn't my door they were knocking on, but I knew damn well it

was. I don't know how I knew, but I knew. I knew who it was, too. I'm psychic.

"Who's there?" I said. I was pretty scared. I'm very yellow about those things.

They just knocked again, though. Louder.

Finally I got out of bed, with just my pajamas on, and opened the door. I didn't

even have to turn the light on in the room, because it was already daylight. Old Sunny

and Maurice, the pimpy elevator guy, were standing there.

"What's the matter? Wuddaya want?" I said. Boy, my voice was shaking like hell.

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"Nothin' much," old Maurice said. "Just five bucks." He did all the talking for the

two of them. Old Sunny just stood there next to him, with her mouth open and all.

"I paid her already. I gave her five bucks. Ask her," I said. Boy, was my voice

shaking.

"It's ten bucks, chief. I tole ya that. Ten bucks for a throw, fifteen bucks till noon.

I tole ya that."

"You did not tell me that. You said five bucks a throw. You said fifteen bucks till

noon, all right, but I distinctly heard you--"

"Open up, chief."

"What for?" I said. God, my old heart was damn near beating me out of the room.

I wished I was dressed at least. It's terrible to be just in your pajamas when something

like that happens.

"Let's go, chief," old Maurice said. Then he gave me a big shove with his crumby

hand. I damn near fell over on my can--he was a huge sonuvabitch. The next thing I

knew, he and old Sunny were both in the room. They acted like they owned the damn

place. Old Sunny sat down on the window sill. Old Maurice sat down in the big chair and

loosened his collar and all--he was wearing this elevator operator's uniform. Boy, was I

nervous.

"All right, chief, let's have it. I gotta get back to work."

"I told you about ten times, I don't owe you a cent. I already gave her the five--"

"Cut the crap, now. Let's have it."

"Why should I give her another five bucks?" I said. My voice was cracking all

over the place. "You're trying to chisel me."

Old Maurice unbuttoned his whole uniform coat. All he had on underneath was a

phony shirt collar, but no shirt or anything. He had a big fat hairy stomach. "Nobody's

tryna chisel nobody," he said. "Let's have it, chief."

"No."

When I said that, he got up from his chair and started walking towards me and all.

He looked like he was very, very tired or very, very bored. God, was I scared. I sort of

had my arms folded, I remember. It wouldn't have been so bad, I don't think, if I hadn't

had just my goddam pajamas on.

"Let's have it, chief." He came right up to where I was standing. That's all he

could say. "Let's have it, chief." He was a real moron.

"No."

"Chief, you're gonna force me inna roughin' ya up a little bit. I don't wanna do it,

but that's the way it looks," he said. "You owe us five bucks."

"I don't owe you five bucks," I said. "If you rough me up, I'll yell like hell. I'll

wake up everybody in the hotel. The police and all." My voice was shaking like a bastard.

"Go ahead. Yell your goddam head off. Fine," old Maurice said. "Want your

parents to know you spent the night with a whore? High-class kid like you?" He was

pretty sharp, in his crumby way. He really was.

"Leave me alone. If you'd said ten, it'd be different. But you distinctly--"

"Are ya gonna let us have it?" He had me right up against the damn door. He was

almost standing on top of me, his crumby old hairy stomach and all.

"Leave me alone. Get the hell out of my room," I said. I still had my arms folded

and all. God, what a jerk I was.

Then Sunny said something for the first time. "Hey, Maurice. Want me to get his

wallet?" she said. "It's right on the wutchamacallit."

"Yeah, get it."

"Leave my wallet alone!"

"I awreddy got it," Sunny said. She waved five bucks at me. "See? All I'm takin' is

the five you owe me. I'm no crook."

All of a sudden I started to cry. I'd give anything if I hadn't, but I did. "No, you're

no crooks," I said. "You're just stealing five--"

"Shut up," old Maurice said, and gave me a shove.

"Leave him alone, hey," Sunny said. "C'mon, hey. We got the dough he owes us.

Let's go. C'mon, hey."

"I'm comin'," old Maurice said. But he didn't.

"I mean it, Maurice, hey. Leave him alone."

"Who's hurtin' anybody?" he said, innocent as hell. Then what he did, he snapped

his finger very hard on my pajamas. I won't tell you where he snapped it, but it hurt like

hell. I told him he was a goddam dirty moron. "What's that?" he said. He put his hand

behind his ear, like a deaf guy. "What's that? What am I?"

I was still sort of crying. I was so damn mad and nervous and all. "You're a dirty

moron," I said. "You're a stupid chiseling moron, and in about two years you'll be one of

those scraggy guys that come up to you on the street and ask for a dime for coffee. You'll

have snot all over your dirty filthy overcoat, and you'll be--"

Then he smacked me. I didn't even try to get out of the way or duck or anything.

All I felt was this terrific punch in my stomach.

I wasn't knocked out or anything, though, because I remember looking up from

the floor and seeing them both go out the door and shut it. Then I stayed on the floor a

fairly long time, sort of the way I did with Stradlater. Only, this time I thought I was

dying. I really did. I thought I was drowning or something. The trouble was, I could

hardly breathe. When I did finally get up, I had to walk to the bathroom all doubled up

and holding onto my stomach and all.

But I'm crazy. I swear to God I am. About halfway to the bathroom, I sort of

started pretending I had a bullet in my guts. Old 'Maurice had plugged me. Now I was on

the way to the bathroom to get a good shot of bourbon or something to steady my nerves

and help me really go into action. I pictured myself coming out of the goddam bathroom,

dressed and all, with my automatic in my pocket, and staggering around a little bit. Then

I'd walk downstairs, instead of using the elevator. I'd hold onto the banister and all, with

this blood trickling out of the side of my mouth a little at a time. What I'd do, I'd walk

down a few floors--holding onto my guts, blood leaking all over the place-- and then I'd

ring the elevator bell. As soon as old Maurice opened the doors, he'd see me with the

automatic in my hand and he'd start screaming at me, in this very high-pitched, yellow-

belly voice, to leave him alone. But I'd plug him anyway. Six shots right through his fat

hairy belly. Then I'd throw my automatic down the elevator shaft--after I'd wiped off all

the finger prints and all. Then I'd crawl back to my room and call up Jane and have her

come over and bandage up my guts. I pictured her holding a cigarette for me to smoke

while I was bleeding and all.

The goddam movies. They can ruin you. I'm not kidding.

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I stayed in the bathroom for about an hour, taking a bath and all. Then I got back

in bed. It took me quite a while to get to sleep--I wasn't even tired--but finally I did. What

I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I

probably would've done it, too, if I'd been sure somebody'd cover me up as soon as I

landed. I didn't want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory.

15

I didn't sleep too long, because I think it was only around ten o'clock when I woke

up. I felt pretty hungry as soon as I had a cigarette. The last time I'd eaten was those two

hamburgers I had with Brossard and Ackley when we went in to Agerstown to the

movies. That was a long time ago. It seemed like fifty years ago. The phone was right

next to me, and I started to call down and have them send up some breakfast, but I was

sort of afraid they might send it up with old Maurice. If you think I was dying to see him

again, you're crazy. So I just laid around in bed for a while and smoked another cigarette.

I thought of giving old Jane a buzz, to see if she was home yet and all, but I wasn't in the

mood.

What I did do, I gave old Sally Hayes a buzz. She went to Mary A. Woodruff, and

I knew she was home because I'd had this letter from her a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't

too crazy about her, but I'd known her for years. I used to think she was quite intelligent,

in my stupidity. The reason I did was because she knew quite a lot about the theater and

plays and literature and all that stuff. If somebody knows quite a lot about those things, it

takes you quite a while to find out whether they're really stupid or not. It took me years to

find it out, in old Sally's case. I think I'd have found it out a lot sooner if we hadn't necked

so damn much. My big trouble is, I always sort of think whoever I'm necking is a pretty

intelligent person. It hasn't got a goddam thing to do with it, but I keep thinking it

anyway.

Anyway, I gave her a buzz. First the maid answered. Then her father. Then she

got on. "Sally?" I said.

"Yes--who is this?" she said. She was quite a little phony. I'd already told her

father who it was.

"Holden Caulfield. How are ya?"

"Holden! I'm fine! How are you?"

"Swell. Listen. How are ya, anyway? I mean how's school?"

"Fine," she said. "I mean--you know."

"Swell. Well, listen. I was wondering if you were busy today. It's Sunday, but

there's always one or two matinees going on Sunday. Benefits and that stuff. Would you

care to go?"

"I'd love to. Grand."

Grand. If there's one word I hate, it's grand. It's so phony. For a second, I was

tempted to tell her to forget about the matinee. But we chewed the fat for a while. That is,

she chewed it. You couldn't get a word in edgewise. First she told me about some

Harvard guy-- it probably was a freshman, but she didn't say, naturally--that was rushing

hell out of her. Calling her up night and day. Night and day--that killed me. Then she told

me about some other guy, some West Point cadet, that was cutting his throat over her too.

Big deal. I told her to meet me under the clock at the Biltmore at two o'clock, and not to

be late, because the show probably started at two-thirty. She was always late. Then I hung

up. She gave me a pain in the ass, but she was very good-looking.

After I made the date with old Sally, I got out of bed and got dressed and packed

my bag. I took a look out the window before I left the room, though, to see how all the

perverts were doing, but they all had their shades down. They were the heighth of

modesty in the morning. Then I went down in the elevator and checked out. I didn't see

old Maurice around anywhere. I didn't break my neck looking for him, naturally, the

bastard.

I got a cab outside the hotel, but I didn't have the faintest damn idea where I was

going. I had no place to go. It was only Sunday, and I couldn't go home till Wednesday--

or Tuesday the soonest. And I certainly didn't feel like going to another hotel and getting

my brains beat out. So what I did, I told the driver to take me to Grand Central Station. It

was right near the Biltmore, where I was meeting Sally later, and I figured what I'd do, I'd

check my bags in one of those strong boxes that they give you a key to, then get some

breakfast. I was sort of hungry. While I was in the cab, I took out my wallet and sort of

counted my money. I don't remember exactly what I had left, but it was no fortune or

anything. I'd spent a king's ransom in about two lousy weeks. I really had. I'm a goddam

spendthrift at heart. What I don't spend, I lose. Half the time I sort of even forget to pick

up my change, at restaurants and night clubs and all. It drives my parents crazy. You can't

blame them. My father's quite wealthy, though. I don't know how much he makes--he's

never discussed that stuff with me--but I imagine quite a lot. He's a corporation lawyer.

Those boys really haul it in. Another reason I know he's quite well off, he's always

investing money in shows on Broadway. They always flop, though, and it drives my

mother crazy when he does it. She hasn't felt too healthy since my brother Allie died.

She's very nervous. That's another reason why I hated like hell for her to know I got the

ax again.

After I put my bags in one of those strong boxes at the station, I went into this

little sandwich bar and bad breakfast. I had quite a large breakfast, for me--orange juice,

bacon and eggs, toast and coffee. Usually I just drink some orange juice. I'm a very light

eater. I really am. That's why I'm so damn skinny. I was supposed to be on this diet where

you eat a lot of starches and crap, to gain weight and all, but I didn't ever do it. When I'm

out somewhere, I generally just eat a Swiss cheese sandwich and a malted milk. It isn't

much, but you get quite a lot of vitamins in the malted milk. H. V. Caulfield. Holden

Vitamin Caulfield.

While I was eating my eggs, these two nuns with suitcases and all--I guessed they

were moving to another convent or something and were waiting for a train--came in and

sat down next to me at the counter. They didn't seem to know what the hell to do with

their suitcases, so I gave them a hand. They were these very inexpensive-looking

suitcases--the ones that aren't genuine leather or anything. It isn't important, I know, but I

hate it when somebody has cheap suitcases. It sounds terrible to say it, but I can even get

to hate somebody, just looking at them, if they have cheap suitcases with them.

Something happened once. For a while when I was at Elkton Hills, I roomed with this

boy, Dick Slagle, that had these very inexpensive suitcases. He used to keep them under

the bed, instead of on the rack, so that nobody'd see them standing next to mine. It

depressed holy hell out of me, and I kept wanting to throw mine out or something, or

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even trade with him. Mine came from Mark Cross, and they were genuine cowhide and

all that crap, and I guess they cost quite a pretty penny. But it was a funny thing. Here's

what happened. What I did, I finally put my suitcases under my bed, instead of on the

rack, so that old Slagle wouldn't get a goddam inferiority complex about it. But here's

what he did. The day after I put mine under my bed, he took them out and put them back

on the rack. The reason he did it, it took me a while to find out, was because he wanted

people to think my bags were his. He really did. He was a very funny guy, that way. He

was always saying snotty things about them, my suitcases, for instance. He kept saying

they were too new and bourgeois. That was his favorite goddam word. He read it

somewhere or heard it somewhere. Everything I had was bourgeois as hell. Even my

fountain pen was bourgeois. He borrowed it off me all the time, but it was bourgeois

anyway. We only roomed together about two months. Then we both asked to be moved.

And the funny thing was, I sort of missed him after we moved, because he had a helluva

good sense of humor and we had a lot of fun sometimes. I wouldn't be surprised if he

missed me, too. At first he only used to be kidding when he called my stuff bourgeois,

and I didn't give a damn--it was sort of funny, in fact. Then, after a while, you could tell

he wasn't kidding any more. The thing is, it's really hard to be roommates with people if

your suitcases are much better than theirs--if yours are really good ones and theirs aren't.

You think if they're intelligent and all, the other person, and have a good sense of humor,

that they don't give a damn whose suitcases are better, but they do. They really do. It's

one of the reasons why I roomed with a stupid bastard like Stradlater. At least his

suitcases were as good as mine.

Anyway, these two nuns were sitting next to me, and we sort of struck up a

conversation. The one right next to me had one of those straw baskets that you see nuns

and Salvation Army babes collecting dough with around Christmas time. You see them

standing on corners, especially on Fifth Avenue, in front of the big department stores and

all. Anyway, the one next to me dropped hers on the floor and I reached down and picked

it up for her. I asked her if she was out collecting money for charity and all. She said no.

She said she couldn't get it in her suitcase when she was packing it and she was just

carrying it. She had a pretty nice smile when she looked at you. She had a big nose, and

she had on those glasses with sort of iron rims that aren't too attractive, but she had a

helluva kind face. "I thought if you were taking up a collection," I told her, "I could make

a small contribution. You could keep the money for when you do take up a collection."

"Oh, how very kind of you," she said, and the other one, her friend, looked over at

me. The other one was reading a little black book while she drank her coffee. It looked

like a Bible, but it was too skinny. It was a Bible-type book, though. All the two of them

were eating for breakfast was toast and coffee. That depressed me. I hate it if I'm eating

bacon and eggs or something and somebody else is only eating toast and coffee.

They let me give them ten bucks as a contribution. They kept asking me if I was

sure I could afford it and all. I told them I had quite a bit of money with me, but they

didn't seem to believe me. They took it, though, finally. The both of them kept thanking

me so much it was embarrassing. I swung the conversation around to general topics and

asked them where they were going. They said they were schoolteachers and that they'd

just come from Chicago and that they were going to start teaching at some convent on

168th Street or 186th Street or one of those streets way the hell uptown. The one next to

me, with the iron glasses, said she taught English and her friend taught history and

American government. Then I started wondering like a bastard what the one sitting next

to me, that taught English, thought about, being a nun and all, when she read certain

books for English. Books not necessarily with a lot of sexy stuff in them, but books with

lovers and all in them. Take old Eustacia Vye, in The Return of the Native by Thomas

Hardy. She wasn't too sexy or anything, but even so you can't help wondering what a nun

maybe thinks about when she reads about old Eustacia. I didn't say anything, though,

naturally. All I said was English was my best subject.

"Oh, really? Oh, I'm so glad!" the one with the glasses, that taught English, said.

"What have you read this year? I'd be very interested to know." She was really nice.

"Well, most of the time we were on the Anglo-Saxons. Beowulf, and old Grendel,

and Lord Randal My Son, and all those things. But we had to read outside books for extra

credit once in a while. I read The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, and Romeo and

Juliet and Julius--"

"Oh, Romeo and Juliet! Lovely! Didn't you just love it?" She certainly didn't

sound much like a nun.

"Yes. I did. I liked it a lot. There were a few things I didn't like about it, but it was

quite moving, on the whole."

"What didn't you like about it? Can you remember?" To tell you the truth, it was

sort of embarrassing, in a way, to be talking about Romeo and Juliet with her. I mean that

play gets pretty sexy in some parts, and she was a nun and all, but she asked me, so I

discussed it with her for a while. "Well, I'm not too crazy about Romeo and Juliet," I said.

"I mean I like them, but--I don't know. They get pretty annoying sometimes. I mean I felt

much sorrier when old Mercutio got killed than when Romeo and Juliet did. The think is,

I never liked Romeo too much after Mercutio gets stabbed by that other man--Juliet's

cousin--what's his name?"

"Tybalt."

"That's right. Tybalt," I said--I always forget that guy's name. "It was Romeo's

fault. I mean I liked him the best in the play, old Mercutio. I don't know. All those

Montagues and Capulets, they're all right--especially Juliet--but Mercutio, he was--it's

hard to explain. He was very smart and entertaining and all. The thing is, it drives me

crazy if somebody gets killed-- especially somebody very smart and entertaining and all--

and it's somebody else's fault. Romeo and Juliet, at least it was their own fault."

"What school do you go to?" she asked me. She probably wanted to get off the

subject of Romeo and Juliet.

I told her Pencey, and she'd heard of it. She said it was a very good school. I let it

pass, though. Then the other one, the one that taught history and government, said they'd

better be running along. I took their check off them, but they wouldn't let me pay it. The

one with the glasses made me give it back to her.

"You've been more than generous," she said. "You're a very sweet boy." She

certainly was nice. She reminded me a little bit of old Ernest Morrow's mother, the one I

met on the train. When she smiled, mostly. "We've enjoyed talking to you so much," she

said.

I said I'd enjoyed talking to them a lot, too. I meant it, too. I'd have enjoyed it

even more though, I think, if I hadn't been sort of afraid, the whole time I was talking to

them, that they'd all of a sudden try to find out if I was a Catholic. Catholics are always

trying to find out if you're a Catholic. It happens to me a lot, I know, partly because my

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last name is Irish, and most people of Irish descent are Catholics. As a matter of fact, my

father was a Catholic once. He quit, though, when he married my mother. But Catholics

are always trying to find out if you're a Catholic even if they don't know your last name. I

knew this one Catholic boy, Louis Shaney, when I was at the Whooton School. He was

the first boy I ever met there. He and I were sitting in the first two chairs outside the

goddam infirmary, the day school opened, waiting for our physicals, and we sort of

struck up this conversation about tennis. He was quite interested in tennis, and so was I.

He told me he went to the Nationals at Forest Hills every summer, and I told him I did

too, and then we talked about certain hot-shot tennis players for quite a while. He knew

quite a lot about tennis, for a kid his age. He really did. Then, after a while, right in the

middle of the goddam conversation, he asked me, "Did you happen to notice where the

Catholic church is in town, by any chance?" The thing was, you could tell by the way he

asked me that he was trying to find out if I was a Catholic. He really was. Not that he was

prejudiced or anything, but he just wanted to know. He was enjoying the conversation

about tennis and all, but you could tell he would've enjoyed it more if I was a Catholic

and all. That kind of stuff drives me crazy. I'm not saying it ruined our conversation or

anything--it didn't--but it sure as hell didn't do it any good. That's why I was glad those

two nuns didn't ask me if I was a Catholic. It wouldn't have spoiled the conversation if

they had, but it would've been different, probably. I'm not saying I blame Catholics. I

don't. I'd be the same way, probably, if I was a Catholic. It's just like those suitcases I was

telling you about, in a way. All I'm saying is that it's no good for a nice conversation.

That's all I'm saying.

When they got up to go, the two nuns, I did something very stupid and

embarrassing. I was smoking a cigarette, and when I stood up to say good-by to them, by

mistake I blew some smoke in their face. I didn't mean to, but I did it. I apologized like a

madman, and they were very polite and nice about it, but it was very embarrassing

anyway.

After they left, I started getting sorry that I'd only given them ten bucks for their

collection. But the thing was, I'd made that date to go to a matinee with old Sally Hayes,

and I needed to keep some dough for the tickets and stuff. I was sorry anyway, though.

Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell.

16

After I had my breakfast, it was only around noon, and I wasn't meeting old Sally

till two o'clock, so I started taking this long walk. I couldn't stop thinking about those two

nuns. I kept thinking about that beatup old straw basket they went around collecting

money with when they weren't teaching school. I kept trying to picture my mother or

somebody, or my aunt, or Sally Hayes's crazy mother, standing outside some department

store and collecting dough for poor people in a beat-up old straw basket. It was hard to

picture. Not so much my mother, but those other two. My aunt's pretty charitable--she

does a lot of Red Cross work and all--but she's very well-dressed and all, and when she

does anything charitable she's always very well-dressed and has lipstick on and all that

crap. I couldn't picture her doing anything for charity if she had to wear black clothes and

no lipstick while she was doing it. And old Sally Hayes's mother. Jesus Christ. The only

way she could go around with a basket collecting dough would be if everybody kissed

her ass for her when they made a contribution. If they just dropped their dough in her

basket, then walked away without saying anything to her, ignoring her and all, she'd quit

in about an hour. She'd get bored. She'd hand in her basket and then go someplace

swanky for lunch. That's what I liked about those nuns. You could tell, for one thing, that

they never went anywhere swanky for lunch. It made me so damn sad when I thought

about it, their never going anywhere swanky for lunch or anything. I knew it wasn't too

important, but it made me sad anyway.

I started walking over toward Broadway, just for the hell of it, because I hadn't

been over there in years. Besides, I wanted to find a record store that was open on

Sunday. There was this record I wanted to get for Phoebe, called "Little Shirley Beans."

It was a very hard record to get. It was about a little kid that wouldn't go out of the house

because two of her front teeth were out and she was ashamed to. I heard it at Pencey. A

boy that lived on the next floor had it, and I tried to buy it off him because I knew it

would knock old Phoebe out, but he wouldn't sell it. It was a very old, terrific record that

this colored girl singer, Estelle Fletcher, made about twenty years ago. She sings it very

Dixieland and whorehouse, and it doesn't sound at all mushy. If a white girl was singing

it, she'd make it sound cute as hell, but old Estelle Fletcher knew what the hell she was

doing, and it was one of the best records I ever heard. I figured I'd buy it in some store

that was open on Sunday and then I'd take it up to the park with me. It was Sunday and

Phoebe goes rollerskating in the park on Sundays quite frequently. I knew where she

hung out mostly.

It wasn't as cold as it was the day before, but the sun still wasn't out, and it wasn't

too nice for walking. But there was one nice thing. This family that you could tell just

came out of some church were walking right in front of me--a father, a mother, and a

little kid about six years old. They looked sort of poor. The father had on one of those

pearl-gray hats that poor guys wear a lot when they want to look sharp. He and his wife

were just walking along, talking, not paying any attention to their kid. The kid was swell.

He was walking in the street, instead of on the sidewalk, but right next to the curb. He

was making out like he was walking a very straight line, the way kids do, and the whole

time he kept singing and humming. I got up closer so I could hear what he was singing.

He was singing that song, "If a body catch a body coming through the rye." He had a

pretty little voice, too. He was just singing for the hell of it, you could tell. The cars

zoomed by, brakes screeched all over the place, his parents paid no attention to him, and

he kept on walking next to the curb and singing "If a body catch a body coming through

the rye." It made me feel better. It made me feel not so depressed any more.

Broadway was mobbed and messy. It was Sunday, and only about twelve o'clock,

but it was mobbed anyway. Everybody was on their way to the movies--the Paramount or

the Astor or the Strand or the Capitol or one of those crazy places. Everybody was all

dressed up, because it was Sunday, and that made it worse. But the worst part was that

you could tell they all wanted to go to the movies. I couldn't stand looking at them. I can

understand somebody going to the movies because there's nothing else to do, but when

somebody really wants to go, and even walks fast so as to get there quicker, then it

depresses hell out of me. Especially if I see millions of people standing in one of those

long, terrible lines, all the way down the block, waiting with this terrific patience for seats

and all. Boy, I couldn't get off that goddam Broadway fast enough. I was lucky. The first

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record store I went into had a copy of "Little Shirley Beans." They charged me five bucks

for it, because it was so hard to get, but I didn't care. Boy, it made me so happy all of a

sudden. I could hardly wait to get to the park to see if old Phoebe was around so that I

could give it to her.

When I came out of the record store, I passed this drugstore, and I went in. I

figured maybe I'd give old Jane a buzz and see if she was home for vacation yet. So I

went in a phone booth and called her up. The only trouble was, her mother answered the

phone, so I had to hang up. I didn't feel like getting involved in a long conversation and

all with her. I'm not crazy about talking to girls' mothers on the phone anyway. I

should've at least asked her if Jane was home yet, though. It wouldn't have killed me. But

I didn't feel like it. You really have to be in the mood for that stuff.

I still had to get those damn theater tickets, so I bought a paper and looked up to

see what shows were playing. On account of it was Sunday, there were only about three

shows playing. So what I did was, I went over and bought two orchestra seats for I Know

My Love. It was a benefit performance or something. I didn't much want to see it, but I

knew old Sally, the queen of the phonies, would start drooling all over the place when I

told her I had tickets for that, because the Lunts were in it and all. She liked shows that

are supposed to be very sophisticated and dry and all, with the Lunts and all. I don't. I

don't like any shows very much, if you want to know the truth. They're not as bad as

movies, but they're certainly nothing to rave about. In the first place, I hate actors. They

never act like people. They just think they do. Some of the good ones do, in a very slight

way, but not in a way that's fun to watch. And if any actor's really good, you can always

tell he knows he's good, and that spoils it. You take Sir Laurence Olivier, for example. I

saw him in Hamlet. D.B. took Phoebe and I to see it last year. He treated us to lunch first,

and then he took us. He'd already seen it, and the way he talked about it at lunch, I was

anxious as hell to see it, too. But I didn't enjoy it much. I just don't see what's so

marvelous about Sir Laurence Olivier, that's all. He has a terrific voice, and he's a helluva

handsome guy, and he's very nice to watch when he's walking or dueling or something,

but he wasn't at all the way D.B. said Hamlet was. He was too much like a goddam

general, instead of a sad, screwed-up type guy. The best part in the whole picture was

when old Ophelia's brother--the one that gets in the duel with Hamlet at the very end--

was going away and his father was giving him a lot of advice. While the father kept

giving him a lot of advice, old Ophelia was sort of horsing around with her brother,

taking his dagger out of the holster, and teasing him and all while he was trying to look

interested in the bull his father was shooting. That was nice. I got a big bang out of that.

But you don't see that kind of stuff much. The only thing old Phoebe liked was when

Hamlet patted this dog on the head. She thought that was funny and nice, and it was.

What I'll have to do is, I'll have to read that play. The trouble with me is, I always have to

read that stuff by myself. If an actor acts it out, I hardly listen. I keep worrying about

whether he's going to do something phony every minute.

After I got the tickets to the Lunts' show, I took a cab up to the park. I should've

taken a subway or something, because I was getting slightly low on dough, but I wanted

to get off that damn Broadway as fast as I could.

It was lousy in the park. It wasn't too cold, but the sun still wasn't out, and there

didn't look like there was anything in the park except dog crap and globs of spit and cigar

butts from old men, and the benches all looked like they'd be wet if you sat down on

them. It made you depressed, and every once in a while, for no reason, you got goose

flesh while you walked. It didn't seem at all like Christmas was coming soon. It didn't

seem like anything was coming. But I kept walking over to the Mall anyway, because

that's where Phoebe usually goes when she's in the park. She likes to skate near the

bandstand. It's funny. That's the same place I used to like to skate when I was a kid.

When I got there, though, I didn't see her around anywhere. There were a few kids

around, skating and all, and two boys were playing Flys Up with a soft ball, but no

Phoebe. I saw one kid about her age, though, sitting on a bench all by herself, tightening

her skate. I thought maybe she might know Phoebe and could tell me where she was or

something, so I went over and sat down next to her and asked her, "Do you know Phoebe

Caulfield, by any chance?"

"Who?" she said. All she had on was jeans and about twenty sweaters. You could

tell her mother made them for her, because they were lumpy as hell.

"Phoebe Caulfield. She lives on Seventy-first Street. She's in the fourth grade,

over at--"

"You know Phoebe?"

"Yeah, I'm her brother. You know where she is?"

"She's in Miss Callon's class, isn't she?" the kid said.

"I don't know. Yes, I think she is."

"She's prob'ly in the museum, then. We went last Saturday," the kid said.

"Which museum?" I asked her.

She shrugged her shoulders, sort of. "I don't know," she said. "The museum."

"I know, but the one where the pictures are, or the one where the Indians are?"

"The one where the Indians."

"Thanks a lot," I said. I got up and started to go, but then I suddenly remembered

it was Sunday. "This is Sunday," I told the kid.

She looked up at me. "Oh. Then she isn't."

She was having a helluva time tightening her skate. She didn't have any gloves on

or anything and her hands were all red and cold. I gave her a hand with it. Boy, I hadn't

had a skate key in my hand for years. It didn't feel funny, though. You could put a skate

key in my hand fifty years from now, in pitch dark, and I'd still know what it is. She

thanked me and all when I had it tightened for her. She was a very nice, polite little kid.

God, I love it when a kid's nice and polite when you tighten their skate for them or

something. Most kids are. They really are. I asked her if she'd care to have a hot

chocolate or something with me, but she said no, thank you. She said she had to meet her

friend. Kids always have to meet their friend. That kills me.

Even though it was Sunday and Phoebe wouldn't be there with her class or

anything, and even though it was so damp and lousy out, I walked all the way through the

park over to the Museum of Natural History. I knew that was the museum the kid with

the skate key meant. I knew that whole museum routine like a book. Phoebe went to the

same school I went to when I was a kid, and we used to go there all the time. We had this

teacher, Miss Aigletinger, that took us there damn near every Saturday. Sometimes we

looked at the animals and sometimes we looked at the stuff the Indians had made in

ancient times. Pottery and straw baskets and all stuff like that. I get very happy when I

think about it. Even now. I remember after we looked at all the Indian stuff, usually we

went to see some movie in this big auditorium. Columbus. They were always showing

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Columbus discovering America, having one helluva time getting old Ferdinand and

Isabella to lend him the dough to buy ships with, and then the sailors mutinying on him

and all. Nobody gave too much of a damn about old Columbus, but you always had a lot

of candy and gum and stuff with you, and the inside of that auditorium had such a nice

smell. It always smelled like it was raining outside, even if it wasn't, and you were in the

only nice, dry, cosy place in the world. I loved that damn museum. I remember you had

to go through the Indian Room to get to the auditorium. It was a long, long room, and you

were only supposed to whisper. The teacher would go first, then the class. You'd be two

rows of kids, and you'd have a partner. Most of the time my partner was this girl named

Gertrude Levine. She always wanted to hold your hand, and her hand was always sticky

or sweaty or something. The floor was all stone, and if you had some marbles in your

hand and you dropped them, they bounced like madmen all over the floor and made a

helluva racket, and the teacher would hold up the class and go back and see what the hell

was going on. She never got sore, though, Miss Aigletinger. Then you'd pass by this long,

long Indian war canoe, about as long as three goddam Cadillacs in a row, with about

twenty Indians in it, some of them paddling, some of them just standing around looking

tough, and they all had war paint all over their faces. There was one very spooky guy in

the back of the canoe, with a mask on. He was the witch doctor. He gave me the creeps,

but I liked him anyway. Another thing, if you touched one of the paddles or anything

while you were passing, one of the guards would say to you, "Don't touch anything,

children," but he always said it in a nice voice, not like a goddam cop or anything. Then

you'd pass by this big glass case, with Indians inside it rubbing sticks together to make a

fire, and a squaw weaving a blanket. The squaw that was weaving the blanket was sort of

bending over, and you could see her bosom and all. We all used to sneak a good look at

it, even the girls, because they were only little kids and they didn't have any more bosom

than we did. Then, just before you went inside the auditorium, right near the doors, you

passed this Eskimo. He was sitting over a hole in this icy lake, and he was fishing

through it. He had about two fish right next to the hole, that he'd already caught. Boy, that

museum was full of glass cases. There were even more upstairs, with deer inside them

drinking at water holes, and birds flying south for the winter. The birds nearest you were

all stuffed and hung up on wires, and the ones in back were just painted on the wall, but

they all looked like they were really flying south, and if you bent your head down and

sort of looked at them upside down, they looked in an even bigger hurry to fly south. The

best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was.

Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would

still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south,

the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and their

pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that

same blanket. Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be

you. Not that you'd be so much older or anything. It wouldn't be that, exactly. You'd just

be different, that's all. You'd have an overcoat on this time. Or the kid that was your

partner in line the last time had got scarlet fever and you'd have a new partner. Or you'd

have a substitute taking the class, instead of Miss Aigletinger. Or you'd heard your

mother and father having a terrific fight in the bathroom. Or you'd just passed by one of

those puddles in the street with gasoline rainbows in them. I mean you'd be different in

some way--I can't explain what I mean. And even if I could, I'm not sure I'd feel like it.

I took my old hunting hat out of my pocket while I walked, and put it on. I knew I

wouldn't meet anybody that knew me, and it was pretty damp out. I kept walking and

walking, and I kept thinking about old Phoebe going to that museum on Saturdays the

way I used to. I thought how she'd see the same stuff I used to see, and how she'd be

different every time she saw it. It didn't exactly depress me to think about it, but it didn't

make me feel gay as hell, either. Certain things they should stay the way they are. You

ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. I

know that's impossible, but it's too bad anyway. Anyway, I kept thinking about all that

while I walked.

I passed by this playground and stopped and watched a couple of very tiny kids

on a seesaw. One of them was sort of fat, and I put my hand on the skinny kid's end, to

sort of even up the weight, but you could tell they didn't want me around, so I let them

alone.

Then a funny thing happened. When I got to the museum, all of a sudden I

wouldn't have gone inside for a million bucks. It just didn't appeal to me--and here I'd

walked through the whole goddam park and looked forward to it and all. If Phoebe'd been

there, I probably would have, but she wasn't. So all I did, in front of the museum, was get

a cab and go down to the Biltmore. I didn't feel much like going. I'd made that damn date

with Sally, though.

17

I was way early when I got there, so I just sat down on one of those leather

couches right near the clock in the lobby and watched the girls. A lot of schools were

home for vacation already, and there were about a million girls sitting and standing

around waiting for their dates to show up. Girls with their legs crossed, girls with their

legs not crossed, girls with terrific legs, girls with lousy legs, girls that looked like swell

girls, girls that looked like they'd be bitches if you knew them. It was really nice

sightseeing, if you know what I mean. In a way, it was sort of depressing, too, because

you kept wondering what the hell would happen to all of them. When they got out of

school and college, I mean. You figured most of them would probably marry dopey guys.

Guys that always talk about how many miles they get to a gallon in their goddam cars.

Guys that get sore and childish as hell if you beat them at golf, or even just some stupid

game like ping-pong. Guys that are very mean. Guys that never read books. Guys that are

very boring--But I have to be careful about that. I mean about calling certain guys bores. I

don't understand boring guys. I really don't. When I was at Elkton Hills, I roomed for

about two months with this boy, Harris Mackim. He was very intelligent and all, but he

was one of the biggest bores I ever met. He had one of these very raspy voices, and he

never stopped talking, practically. He never stopped talking, and what was awful was, he

never said anything you wanted to hear in the first place. But he could do one thing. The

sonuvabitch could whistle better than anybody I ever heard. He'd be making his bed, or

hanging up stuff in the closet--he was always hanging up stuff in the closet--it drove me

crazy--and he'd be whistling while he did it, if he wasn't talking in this raspy voice. He

could even whistle classical stuff, but most of the time he just whistled jazz. He could

take something very jazzy, like "Tin Roof Blues," and whistle it so nice and easy--right

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while he was hanging stuff up in the closet--that it could kill you. Naturally, I never told

him I thought he was a terrific whistler. I mean you don't just go up to somebody and say,

"You're a terrific whistler." But I roomed with him for about two whole months, even

though he bored me till I was half crazy, just because he was such a terrific whistler, the

best I ever heard. So I don't know about bores. Maybe you shouldn't feel too sorry if you

see some swell girl getting married to them. They don't hurt anybody, most of them, and

maybe they're secretly all terrific whistlers or something. Who the hell knows? Not me.

Finally, old Sally started coming up the stairs, and I started down to meet her. She

looked terrific. She really did. She had on this black coat and sort of a black beret. She

hardly ever wore a hat, but that beret looked nice. The funny part is, I felt like marrying

her the minute I saw her. I'm crazy. I didn't even like her much, and yet all of a sudden I

felt like I was in love with her and wanted to marry her. I swear to God I'm crazy. I admit

it.

"Holden!" she said. "It's marvelous to see you! It's been ages." She had one of

these very loud, embarrassing voices when you met her somewhere. She got away with it

because she was so damn good-looking, but it always gave me a pain in the ass.

"Swell to see you," I said. I meant it, too. "How are ya, anyway?"

"Absolutely marvelous. Am I late?"

I told her no, but she was around ten minutes late, as a matter of fact. I didn't give

a damn, though. All that crap they have in cartoons in the Saturday Evening Post and all,

showing guys on street corners looking sore as hell because their dates are late--that's

bunk. If a girl looks swell when she meets you, who gives a damn if she's late? Nobody.

"We better hurry," I said. "The show starts at two-forty." We started going down the

stairs to where the taxis are.

"What are we going to see?" she said.

"I don't know. The Lunts. It's all I could get tickets for."

"The Lunts! Oh, marvelous!" I told you she'd go mad when she heard it was for

the Lunts.

We horsed around a little bit in the cab on the way over to the theater. At first she

didn't want to, because she had her lipstick on and all, but I was being seductive as hell

and she didn't have any alternative. Twice, when the goddam cab stopped short in traffic,

I damn near fell off the seat. Those damn drivers never even look where they're going, I

swear they don't. Then, just to show you how crazy I am, when we were coming out of

this big clinch, I told her I loved her and all. It was a lie, of course, but the thing is, I

meant it when I said it. I'm crazy. I swear to God I am.

"Oh, darling, I love you too," she said. Then, right in the same damn breath, she

said, "Promise me you'll let your hair grow. Crew cuts are getting corny. And your hair's

so lovely."

Lovely my ass.

The show wasn't as bad as some I've seen. It was on the crappy side, though. It

was about five hundred thousand years in the life of this one old couple. It starts out when

they're young and all, and the girl's parents don't want her to marry the boy, but she

marries him anyway. Then they keep getting older and older. The husband goes to war,

and the wife has this brother that's a drunkard. I couldn't get very interested. I mean I

didn't care too much when anybody in the family died or anything. They were all just a

bunch of actors. The husband and wife were a pretty nice old couple--very witty and all--

but I couldn't get too interested in them. For one thing, they kept drinking tea or some

goddam thing all through the play. Every time you saw them, some butler was shoving

some tea in front of them, or the wife was pouring it for somebody. And everybody kept

coming in and going out all the time--you got dizzy watching people sit down and stand

up. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were the old couple, and they were very good, but I

didn't like them much. They were different, though, I'll say that. They didn't act like

people and they didn't act like actors. It's hard to explain. They acted more like they knew

they were celebrities and all. I mean they were good, but they were too good. When one

of them got finished making a speech, the other one said something very fast right after it.

It was supposed to be like people really talking and interrupting each other and all. The

trouble was, it was too much like people talking and interrupting each other. They acted a

little bit the way old Ernie, down in the Village, plays the piano. If you do something too

good, then, after a while, if you don't watch it, you start showing off. And then you're not

as good any more. But anyway, they were the only ones in the show--the Lunts, I mean--

that looked like they had any real brains. I have to admit it.

At the end of the first act we went out with all the other jerks for a cigarette. What

a deal that was. You never saw so many phonies in all your life, everybody smoking their

ears off and talking about the play so that everybody could hear and know how sharp they

were. Some dopey movie actor was standing near us, having a cigarette. I don't know his

name, but he always plays the part of a guy in a war movie that gets yellow before it's

time to go over the top. He was with some gorgeous blonde, and the two of them were

trying to be very blas?and all, like as if he didn't even know people were looking at him.

Modest as hell. I got a big bang out of it. Old Sally didn't talk much, except to rave about

the Lunts, because she was busy rubbering and being charming. Then all of a sudden, she

saw some jerk she knew on the other side of the lobby. Some guy in one of those very

dark gray flannel suits and one of those checkered vests. Strictly Ivy League. Big deal.

He was standing next to the wall, smoking himself to death and looking bored as hell.

Old Sally kept saying, "I know that boy from somewhere." She always knew somebody,

any place you took her, or thought she did. She kept saying that till I got bored as hell,

and I said to her, "Why don't you go on over and give him a big soul kiss, if you know

him? He'll enjoy it." She got sore when I said that. Finally, though, the jerk noticed her

and came over and said hello. You should've seen the way they said hello. You'd have

thought they hadn't seen each other in twenty years. You'd have thought they'd taken

baths in the same bathtub or something when they were little kids. Old buddyroos. It was

nauseating. The funny part was, they probably met each other just once, at some phony

party. Finally, when they were all done slobbering around, old Sally introduced us. His

name was George something--I don't even remember--and he went to Andover. Big, big

deal. You should've seen him when old Sally asked him how he liked the play. He was

the kind of a phony that have to give themselves room when they answer somebody's

question. He stepped back, and stepped right on the lady's foot behind him. He probably

broke every toe in her body. He said the play itself was no masterpiece, but that the

Lunts, of course, were absolute angels. Angels. For Chrissake. Angels. That killed me.

Then he and old Sally started talking about a lot of people they both knew. It was the

phoniest conversation you ever heard in your life. They both kept thinking of places as

fast as they could, then they'd think of somebody that lived there and mention their name.

I was all set to puke when it was time to go sit down again. I really was. And then, when

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the next act was over, they continued their goddam boring conversation. They kept

thinking of more places and more names of people that lived there. The worst part was,

the jerk had one of those very phony, Ivy League voices, one of those very tired, snobby

voices. He sounded just like a girl. He didn't hesitate to horn in on my date, the bastard. I

even thought for a minute that he was going to get in the goddam cab with us when the

show was over, because he walked about two blocks with us, but he had to meet a bunch

of phonies for cocktails, he said. I could see them all sitting around in some bar, with

their goddam checkered vests, criticizing shows and books and women in those tired,

snobby voices. They kill me, those guys.

I sort of hated old Sally by the time we got in the cab, after listening to that phony

Andover bastard for about ten hours. I was all set to take her home and all--I really was--

but she said, "I have a marvelous idea!" She was always having a marvelous idea.

"Listen," she said. "What time do you have to be home for dinner? I mean are you in a

terrible hurry or anything? Do you have to be home any special time?"

"Me? No. No special time," I said. Truer word was never spoken, boy. "Why?"

"Let's go ice-skating at Radio City!"

That's the kind of ideas she always had.

"Ice-skating at Radio City? You mean right now?"

"Just for an hour or so. Don't you want to? If you don't want to--"

"I didn't say I didn't want to," I said. "Sure. If you want to."

"Do you mean it? Don't just say it if you don't mean it. I mean I don't give a darn,

one way or the other."

Not much she didn't.

"You can rent those darling little skating skirts," old Sally said. "Jeannette Cultz

did it last week."

That's why she was so hot to go. She wanted to see herself in one of those little

skirts that just come down over their butt and all.

So we went, and after they gave us our skates, they gave Sally this little blue butt-

twitcher of a dress to wear. She really did look damn good in it, though. I save to admit it.

And don't think she didn't know it. The kept walking ahead of me, so that I'd see how

cute her little ass looked. It did look pretty cute, too. I have to admit it.

The funny part was, though, we were the worst skaters on the whole goddam rink.

I mean the worst. And there were some lulus, too. Old Sally's ankles kept bending in till

they were practically on the ice. They not only looked stupid as hell, but they probably

hurt like hell, too. I know mine did. Mine were killing me. We must've looked gorgeous.

And what made it worse, there were at least a couple of hundred rubbernecks that didn't

have anything better to do than stand around and watch everybody falling all over

themselves.

"Do you want to get a table inside and have a drink or something?" I said to her

finally.

"That's the most marvelous idea you've had all day," the said. She was killing

herself. It was brutal. I really felt sorry for her.

We took off our goddam skates and went inside this bar where you can get drinks

and watch the skaters in just your stocking feet. As soon as we sat down, old Sally took

off her gloves, and I gave her a cigarette. She wasn't looking too happy. The waiter came

up, and I ordered a Coke for her--she didn't drink--and a Scotch and soda for myself, but

the sonuvabitch wouldn't bring me one, so I had a Coke, too. Then I sort of started

lighting matches. I do that quite a lot when I'm in a certain mood. I sort of let them burn

down till I can't hold them any more, then I drop them in the ashtray. It's a nervous habit.

Then all of a sudden, out of a clear blue sky, old Sally said, "Look. I have to

know. Are you or aren't you coming over to help me trim the tree Christmas Eve? I have

to know." She was still being snotty on account of her ankles when she was skating.

"I wrote you I would. You've asked me that about twenty times. Sure, I am."

"I mean I have to know," she said. She started looking all around the goddam

room.

All of a sudden I quit lighting matches, and sort of leaned nearer to her over the

table. I had quite a few topics on my mind. "Hey, Sally," I said.

"What?" she said. She was looking at some girl on the other side of the room.

"Did you ever get fed up?" I said. "I mean did you ever get scared that everything

was going to go lousy unless you did something? I mean do you like school, and all that

stuff?"

"It's a terrific bore."

"I mean do you hate it? I know it's a terrific bore, but do you hate it, is what I

mean."

"Well, I don't exactly hate it. You always have to--"

"Well, I hate it. Boy, do I hate it," I said. "But it isn't just that. It's everything. I

hate living in New York and all. Taxicabs, and Madison Avenue buses, with the drivers

and all always yelling at you to get out at the rear door, and being introduced to phony

guys that call the Lunts angels, and going up and down in elevators when you just want to

go outside, and guys fitting your pants all the time at Brooks, and people always--"

"Don't shout, please," old Sally said. Which was very funny, because I wasn't

even shouting.

"Take cars," I said. I said it in this very quiet voice. "Take most people, they're

crazy about cars. They worry if they get a little scratch on them, and they're always

talking about how many miles they get to a gallon, and if they get a brand-new car

already they start thinking about trading it in for one that's even newer. I don't even like

old cars. I mean they don't even interest me. I'd rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at

least human, for God's sake. A horse you can at least--"

"I don't know what you're even talking about," old Sally said. "You jump from

one--"

"You know something?" I said. "You're probably the only reason I'm in New

York right now, or anywhere. If you weren't around, I'd probably be someplace way the

hell off. In the woods or some goddam place. You're the only reason I'm around,

practically."

"You're sweet," she said. But you could tell she wanted me to change the damn

subject.

"You ought to go to a boys' school sometime. Try it sometime," I said. "It's full of

phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be

able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give

a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all

day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques. The guys that are

on the basketball team stick together, the Catholics stick together, the goddam

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intellectuals stick together, the guys that play bridge stick together. Even the guys that

belong to the goddam Book-of-the-Month Club stick together. If you try to have a little

intelligent--"

"Now, listen," old Sally said. "Lots of boys get more out of school than that."

"I agree! I agree they do, some of them! But that's all I get out of it. See? That's

my point. That's exactly my goddam point," I said. "I don't get hardly anything out of

anything. I'm in bad shape. I'm in lousy shape."

"You certainly are."

Then, all of a sudden, I got this idea.

"Look," I said. "Here's my idea. How would you like to get the hell out of here?

Here's my idea. I know this guy down in Greenwich Village that we can borrow his car

for a couple of weeks. He used to go to the same school I did and he still owes me ten

bucks. What we could do is, tomorrow morning we could drive up to Massachusetts and

Vermont, and all around there, see. It's beautiful as hell up there, It really is." I was

getting excited as hell, the more I thought of it, and I sort of reached over and took old

Sally's goddam hand. What a goddam fool I was. "No kidding," I said. "I have about a

hundred and eighty bucks in the bank. I can take it out when it opens in the morning, and

then I could go down and get this guy's car. No kidding. We'll stay in these cabin camps

and stuff like that till the dough runs out. Then, when the dough runs out, I could get a

job somewhere and we could live somewhere with a brook and all and, later on, we could

get married or something. I could chop all our own wood in the wintertime and all.

Honest to God, we could have a terrific time! Wuddaya say? C'mon! Wuddaya say? Will

you do it with me? Please!"

"You can't just do something like that," old Sally said. She sounded sore as hell.

"Why not? Why the hell not?"

"Stop screaming at me, please," she said. Which was crap, because I wasn't even

screaming at her.

"Why can'tcha? Why not?"

"Because you can't, that's all. In the first place, we're both practically children.

And did you ever stop to think what you'd do if you didn't get a job when your money ran

out? We'd starve to death. The whole thing's so fantastic, it isn't even--"

"It isn't fantastic. I'd get a job. Don't worry about that. You don't have to worry

about that. What's the matter? Don't you want to go with me? Say so, if you don't."

"It isn't that. It isn't that at all," old Sally said. I was beginning to hate her, in a

way. "We'll have oodles of time to do those things--all those things. I mean after you go

to college and all, and if we should get married and all. There'll be oodles of marvelous

places to go to. You're just--"

"No, there wouldn't be. There wouldn't be oodles of places to go to at all. It'd be

entirely different," I said. I was getting depressed as hell again.

"What?" she said. "I can't hear you. One minute you scream at me, and the next

you--"

"I said no, there wouldn't be marvelous places to go to after I went to college and

all. Open your ears. It'd be entirely different. We'd have to go downstairs in elevators

with suitcases and stuff. We'd have to phone up everybody and tell 'em good-by and send

'em postcards from hotels and all. And I'd be working in some office, making a lot of

dough, and riding to work in cabs and Madison Avenue buses, and reading newspapers,

and playing bridge all the time, and going to the movies and seeing a lot of stupid shorts

and coming attractions and newsreels. Newsreels. Christ almighty. There's always a

dumb horse race, and some dame breaking a bottle over a ship, and some chimpanzee

riding a goddam bicycle with pants on. It wouldn't be the same at all. You don't see what

I mean at all."

"Maybe I don't! Maybe you don't, either," old Sally said. We both hated each

other's guts by that time. You could see there wasn't any sense trying to have an

intelligent conversation. I was sorry as hell I'd started it.

"C'mon, let's get outa here," I said. "You give me a royal pain in the ass, if you

want to know the truth."

Boy, did she hit the ceiling when I said that. I know I shouldn't've said it, and I

probably wouldn't've ordinarily, but she was depressing the hell out of me. Usually I

never say crude things like that to girls. Boy, did she hit the ceiling. I apologized like a

madman, but she wouldn't accept my apology. She was even crying. Which scared me a

little bit, because I was a little afraid she'd go home and tell her father I called her a pain

in the ass. Her father was one of those big silent bastards, and he wasn't too crazy about

me anyhow. He once told old Sally I was too goddam noisy.

"No kidding. I'm sorry," I kept telling her.

"You're sorry. You're sorry. That's very funny," she said. She was still sort of

crying, and all of a sudden I did feel sort of sorry I'd said it.

"C'mon, I'll take ya home. No kidding."

"I can go home by myself, thank you. If you think I'd let you take me home,

you're mad. No boy ever said that to me in my entire life."

The whole thing was sort of funny, in a way, if you thought about it, and all of a

sudden I did something I shouldn't have. I laughed. And I have one of these very loud,

stupid laughs. I mean if I ever sat behind myself in a movie or something, I'd probably

lean over and tell myself to please shut up. It made old Sally madder than ever.

I stuck around for a while, apologizing and trying to get her to excuse me, but she

wouldn't. She kept telling me to go away and leave her alone. So finally I did it. I went

inside and got my shoes and stuff, and left without her. I shouldn't've, but I was pretty

goddam fed up by that time.

If you want to know the truth, I don't even know why I started all that stuff with

her. I mean about going away somewhere, to Massachusetts and Vermont and all. I

probably wouldn't've taken her even if she'd wanted to go with me. She wouldn't have

been anybody to go with. The terrible part, though, is that I meant it when I asked her.

That's the terrible part. I swear to God I'm a madman.

18

When I left the skating rink I felt sort of hungry, so I went in this drugstore and

had a Swiss cheese sandwich and a malted, and then I went in a phone booth. I thought

maybe I might give old Jane another buzz and see if she was home yet. I mean I had the

whole evening free, and I thought I'd give her a buzz and, if she was home yet, take her

dancing or something somewhere. I never danced with her or anything the whole time I

knew her. I saw her dancing once, though. She looked like a very good dancer. It was at

www.en8848.com

this Fourth of July dance at the club. I didn't know her too well then, and I didn't think I

ought to cut in on her date. She was dating this terrible guy, Al Pike, that went to Choate.

I didn't know him too well, but he was always hanging around the swimming pool. He

wore those white Lastex kind of swimming trunks, and he was always going off the high

dive. He did the same lousy old half gainer all day long. It was the only dive he could do,

but he thought he was very hot stuff. All muscles and no brains. Anyway, that's who Jane

dated that night. I couldn't understand it. I swear I couldn't. After we started going around

together, I asked her how come she could date a showoff bastard like Al Pike. Jane said

he wasn't a show-off. She said he had an inferiority complex. She acted like she felt sorry

for him or something, and she wasn't just putting it on. She meant it. It's a funny thing

about girls. Every time you mention some guy that's strictly a bastard--very mean, or very

conceited and all--and when you mention it to the girl, she'll tell you he has an inferiority

complex. Maybe he has, but that still doesn't keep him from being a bastard, in my

opinion. Girls. You never know what they're going to think. I once got this girl Roberta

Walsh's roommate a date with a friend of mine. His name was Bob Robinson and he

really had an inferiority complex. You could tell he was very ashamed of his parents and

all, because they said "he don't" and "she don't" and stuff like that and they weren't very

wealthy. But he wasn't a bastard or anything. He was a very nice guy. But this Roberta

Walsh's roommate didn't like him at all. She told Roberta he was too conceited--and the

reason she thought he was conceited was because he happened to mention to her that he

was captain of the debating team. A little thing like that, and she thought he was

conceited! The trouble with girls is, if they like a boy, no matter how big a bastard he is,

they'll say he has an inferiority complex, and if they don't like him, no matter how nice a

guy he is, or how big an inferiority complex he has, they'll say he's conceited. Even smart

girls do it.

Anyway, I gave old Jane a buzz again, but her phone didn't answer, so I had to

hang up. Then I had to look through my address book to see who the hell might be

available for the evening. The trouble was, though, my address book only has about three

people in it. Jane, and this man, Mr. Antolini, that was my teacher at Elkton Hills, and my

father's office number. I keep forgetting to put people's names in. So what I did finally, I

gave old Carl Luce a buzz. He graduated from the Whooton School after I left. He was

about three years older than I was, and I didn't like him too much, but he was one of these

very intellectual guys-- he had the highest I.Q. of any boy at Whooton--and I thought he

might want to have dinner with me somewhere and have a slightly intellectual

conversation. He was very enlightening sometimes. So I gave him a buzz. He went to

Columbia now, but he lived on 65th Street and all, and I knew he'd be home. When I got

him on the phone, he said he couldn't make it for dinner but that he'd meet me for a drink

at ten o'clock at the Wicker Bar, on 54th. I think he was pretty surprised to hear from me.

I once called him a fat-assed phony.

I had quite a bit of time to kill till ten o'clock, so what I did, I went to the movies

at Radio City. It was probably the worst thing I could've done, but it was near, and I

couldn't think of anything else.

I came in when the goddam stage show was on. The Rockettes were kicking their

heads off, the way they do when they're all in line with their arms around each other's

waist. The audience applauded like mad, and some guy behind me kept saying to his

wife, "You know what that is? That's precision." He killed me. Then, after the Rockettes,

a guy came out in a tuxedo and roller skates on, and started skating under a bunch of little

tables, and telling jokes while he did it. He was a very good skater and all, but I couldn't

enjoy it much because I kept picturing him practicing to be a guy that roller-skates on the

stage. It seemed so stupid. I guess I just wasn't in the right mood. Then, after him, they

had this Christmas thing they have at Radio City every year. All these angels start coming

out of the boxes and everywhere, guys carrying crucifixes and stuff all over the place,

and the whole bunch of them--thousands of them--singing "Come All Ye Faithful!" like

mad. Big deal. It's supposed to be religious as hell, I know, and very pretty and all, but I

can't see anything religious or pretty, for God's sake, about a bunch of actors carrying

crucifixes all over the stage. When they were all finished and started going out the boxes

again, you could tell they could hardly wait to get a cigarette or something. I saw it with

old Sally Hayes the year before, and she kept saying how beautiful it was, the costumes

and all. I said old Jesus probably would've puked if He could see it--all those fancy

costumes and all. Sally said I was a sacrilegious atheist. I probably am. The thing Jesus

really would've liked would be the guy that plays the kettle drums in the orchestra. I've

watched that guy since I was about eight years old. My brother Allie and I, if we were

with our parents and all, we used to move our seats and go way down so we could watch

him. He's the best drummer I ever saw. He only gets a chance to bang them a couple of

times during a whole piece, but he never looks bored when he isn't doing it. Then when

he does bang them, he does it so nice and sweet, with this nervous expression on his face.

One time when we went to Washington with my father, Allie sent him a postcard, but I'll

bet he never got it. We weren't too sure how to address it.

After the Christmas thing was over, the goddam picture started. It was so putrid I

couldn't take my eyes off it. It was about this English guy, Alec something, that was in

the war and loses his memory in the hospital and all. He comes out of the hospital

carrying a cane and limping all over the place, all over London, not knowing who the hell

he is. He's really a duke, but he doesn't know it. Then he meets this nice, homey, sincere

girl getting on a bus. Her goddam hat blows off and he catches it, and then they go

upstairs and sit down and start talking about Charles Dickens. He's both their favorite

author and all. He's carrying this copy of Oliver Twist and so's she. I could've puked.

Anyway, they fell in love right away, on account of they're both so nuts about Charles

Dickens and all, and he helps her run her publishing business. She's a publisher, the girl.

Only, she's not doing so hot, because her brother's a drunkard and he spends all their