Chapter 17

At two o’clock, I went to meet Sally at the Biltmore Hotel; she was late by abotu 10 minutes but she looked stunning, so I immediately forgave her. We horsed around in the taxi on the way to the theater. whilst we were watching the play all i coudl think abotu was how much the actors really annoyed me because, like Ernie the piano player, they were almost too good at what they did and seemed really full of themselves, and all. During the intermission, Sally really irritated me by flirting with sum stuck up son of a bitch from Andover, another prep school, but when she asked to go iceskating i agreed and took her to Radio City after the show.
While we were skating I though about how Sally might only have wanted to go ice-skating so she could wear the short skirts, her ass did look pretty cute though. When we took a break and sat down indoors, me and Sally really got talking. I began to rant about all the phonies at the prep schools I'd been to and in New York, and all. Then I had this really great idea, me and Sally should run away together and escape from society, live on our own in a cabin, and all. Sally started saying that this dream was ridiculous, that when I got really agitated. We were arguing for quite a while when i said something that i regretted straight after, I called Sally a royal pain in the ass, thats when she started to cry. I apologized like a madman, but Sally was upset and angry with me, I couldn't take it any longer and left without her.

I finished my breakfast around twelve, but I wasn’t meeting Sally until two. So I decided I would do for a walk. But all I could think about were the two nunsi had met the previous day. The old beat up straw basket that they collected their money in. I walked over to Broadway. I wanted to go to this record store to find Phoebe’s favourite record. ‘Little Shirley Beans.’ It was very hard to get. It was about this kid that wouldn’t go out of the house because she didn’t have her two front teeth. i new she would love that, and i new exactly where she would be so i could go and give it her straight away. I saw this family walking infront of me. A father, mother and a little kid. The father and his wife were just talking, not paying any attention to the kid. The kid was swell. Instead of waking on the sidewalk he walked right next to the curb. He kept singing. ‘If a body catch a body coming through the rye.’ It made me feel a little bit better. I wasn’t so depressed anymore.

Chapter 15

I didn’t sleep because it was only around ten o’clock when I woke up. I felt pretty hungry, the last thing i had eaten was two hamburgers. The phone was right next to me, and I started to call down to reception and have them send me up some breakfast. but instead i just lay in bed for a while. What I did decide to do though was give old Sally Hayes a buzz. I wasn’t to crazy about her. but she was worthy of a phone call, I used to think she was quite intelligent. The reason I did was because she knew quite a lot about the theatre and plays and literature and all that goddam stuff. My trouble is I always think whoever I am necking is a pretty intelligent person.

Chapter 14

I sat on my bed and smoked for a while in my hotel room. I remembered an incident shortly before Allie’s death, when I wouldn't let Allie come down to the Lake on our bikes i said we were taking our BB-guns, and that we were planning on shooting things. I still feel guilty for leaving Allie out. When I went to bed I kinda felt like praying, but I didn't. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. In my pajamas, I opened the door to face the guy from the elevator, Maurice, who had returned with Sunny to collect the extra five dollars Sunny demanded. I tried to refuse, I really did but old Maurice pined me against a wall while Sunny took the money from my wallet. Maurice snaped his finger into my groin, it hurt like hell, that's when I started to insult him. Maurice slugged me in the stomach and left me on the floor. After he had left i tried to imagien myself as a movie actor and that i had been shot... how phoney was that i hate the goddam movies for god sake!!!!

Chapter 13

I walked back to the hotel. Forty one Goddam blocks. I put my hunting hat on. I wish i had my gloves me, it was goddam cold as hell, but some sonuvabitch stole them at Pencey, I wish I knew who’d stolen them. I probly wouldn’t have done anything though even if I knew, im very yellow that way. Anyway I got in the elevator back up to my room. I didn’t feel much like sticking round in that crappy lobby, I wall really depressed and all, I almost wished I was dead, I really did. The elevator guy asked me if I was interested in a good time. I didn’t know what he was talking about at first. He meant a goddam prostitute for the night. He said it was 5 bucks a throw and 15 till noon. I said Ok, I don’t know why though, I was depressed as hell. I wasn’t even thinking straight. A bit later when i had changed, god nows why i did i mean it was only a prostitute, a young girl arrived, too young if you ask me. Her name was Sonny and she was about my age. I didn’t feel like sleeping with her, you could tell she was really scared. It made me feel sad as hell that somebody as young as her did this crappy thing for money, it really did. So instead of sleeping with her i shot the bull about how I was recovering from an operation on my “clavichord”. That killed me. So I gave her the 5bucks and asked her to leave, she said it was 10, but I didn’t give in. After a while she finally left.

Chapter 12

I took a cab to a Greenwich Village nightclub, Ernie’s, a place where I used to go with D. B. The cab driver was named Horwitz, and he seemed a pretty friendly guy. well atleast i thought thsi of him until i tried to ask him about the ducks in the Central Park lagoon, he got all touchy and I was quite suprised really. I mean all i wanted to no was where the ducks go in winter, but thought i was tring to take the piss ou tof him!! At Ernie’s, I listened to him play the piano but was unimpressed.i sat down at the table and ordered a Scotch and soda1 whilst i was sat there i listened to the conversations around me, which I found quite depressing and phony. I bumped into an obnoxious girl named Lillian Simmons, who D. B. used to date! boy did she annoy me even here phoney date seemed unimpressed by her, to escape the goddam phoney I swiftly left the nightclub

Chapter 11

All i could think about was Jane i couldn't get her of my goddam mind. I was pretty sure Stradlater hadn't give her the time! It took me a while to get Jane to stop giving me the freeze the first time I ever said hello to her, because my mum made a big stink about her dog relieving itself on our grass! Anyway, we soon got friends!
I spent alot of time with Jane Gallager, but I only got close to necking with her once. I remember that afternoon. We were sat playing checkers in her porch, she had all her Kings on the back row. All of a sudden the booze hound her Mum was married to and asked Jane if there were any cigarettes at the house. I didn't know him well but I knew he had a lousy personality. Jane ignored him, he asked her twice but she didn't answer, she just stared down at the game. When the guy finally went back in the house I asked Jane what the hell was going on. Seconds later a big tear just dropped onto the board, I can still see it now. It bothered the hell outta me, I don't know why. She wouldn't tell me what was going on! I just told her to move over and sat down next to her, I was practically on her knee! Before I knew it, I was kissing her all over, her eyes, ears, nose, head, but just not her mouth. She sorta wouldn't let me get to her mouth. After a while she went in and put on this red and white sweater and we went to the cinema. Boy i hate the movies. Anyway, that was the closest we ever got to necking.
Anyway, thats what I was thinking when I was sat in the lobby. When I looked round there was hardy anyone in the lobby anymore, even the whory blondes had gone. All of a sudden I felt like getting the hell outta there. I went downstairs and got a cab and told the cab driver to take me to Ernies. D.B. used to take me there, Ernie is this big black man that sits there playing the piano. He's a terrific snob, but he really can play the piano. You can tell he's the sorta guy who won't talk to you unless your a big shot

I went to a phone booth, I felt like giving somebody a buzz. I thought about a girl I used to go around, Sally Hayes, I knew her Christmas vacation had started already. But I knew her mother would and answer, she said I was wild and had no direction in life, so I decided not to. Besides it was much too late.
I checked in at a Hotel. They gave me this goddam crappy room, I was to depressed to care though. That hotel was lousy with perverts, men dressing in womens clothing, men and women taking turns at squirting water at each other out of their mouths. Im probably the biggest sex maniac you every saw but I was probably the only normal bastard in the place. I think if you really like a girl you shouldn’t horse around with her. So you don’t spoil it. Sex is something I really don’t understand too hot. I swear to god I don’t.
I decided to ring up this girl a guy from Princeton told me about. She wasn’t a whore or anything but she didn’t mind doing it once in a while. Anyway she wouldn’t come on account of the time and all, so I left it.

I went through the shower curtain and asked whether he was awake. He was - and yeah, he did hear us. He sat up in bed with a very white face, the cream for all his goddam crappy spots. I couldnt find the light, which I really needed on. He kept asking why I wanted the light on, that really annoyed me, he was always askin why why why!!
He asked what the fight was about, I just said long story. I asked if i could stay in Ely's - he was away for the weekend. Anyway Ackley kept on asking about this goddam lousy fight me and Stradlater had. I told him it was about him, that really got him going. I told him I was kidding though. So I went over and got onto Ely's bed. I couldnt stop thinking about Jane and just what hapened in Ed Banky's car. Boy did it get on my nerves, I was going insane just thinking about all the things Stradlater could have tried to do to her, or did to her!
I woke Ackley up to take my mind of Jane. I asked him about joining a monastery, he wasnt to pleased. I got up from Ely's bed and started toward the door, I couldnt stand staying in that crappy atmosphere any longer. I gave Ackley a big phoney handshake and left.
Everybody was asleep or at home for the weekend. I didnt want to hang around Pencey anymore, you know just waiting 'til Wednesday for the big goodbye, after all theres no putting of what you know is going to happen. So I got my things together and counted my dough. I was pretty loaded, my Grandmother sent me some money about a week before and shes quite lavish with her money. She sends me birthday money 4 times a year, shes not got all her marbles anymore.
I went down the corridor and asked Frederick Woodruff how much he would give me for my typewriter I lent him, he was a pretty wealthy guy. I could tell he didnt really want it, but I managed to get twenty outta him.

I knew damn well he was awake when I saw him lying in his bed. I finally found the switch to the light and turned it on. Old Ackley put his hands up so it wouldn't hurt his eyes. He asked what the hell happened to me when he saw the blood and all from where Stradlater hit me. He asked what the goddamn fight was about but I just said it was a long story. I never discussed my personal life with him. After a while I went over and looked out of the window. I felt so lonesome all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead. Ackley asked what the fight was about for about the goddamn fiftieth time. He certainly was a bore about that. I went over and laid down on Ely's bed. Boy did I feel lonesome. I just laid there and thought about Jane and all.
Once I'd left Ackley snoring in his bed, I decided that I was going to leave Pencey - right that same night and all. I mean, not wait till Wednesday or anything. I went back to my room and started to pack. It made me a little depressed because I had to pack these brand-new ice skated my mother had sent me a couple of days before. She bought me the wrong kind of skated though.

I couldn't remember what I was doing when I heard Stradlater come through the door, I propably couldn't here him because I was so god damn worried!
If you knew Sradlater, you would’ve been very worried too. I’d double dated with him before and I know what I am talking about.

After he chatted to me for a bit, he asked me if I had done his go dam composition. He started moaning because I write it about a baseball mitt. He said “You don’t do one god damn thing the way you’re supposed to.” The sonnovabitch annoyed me so much that I ripped it up in his face. I lay down on my bed and smoked a cigarette.

I asked if he had a good night and all that bull. I asked if he gave her my regards. He said yes, but to hell he did. Phoney! All he did all night was sit in Ed Banky’s car. That’s it! Ed Banky is the basketball coach you see. He let all the athletic sonnovabitches use his car, even though they weren’t meant too