Properties
- end_line
- 694
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:13:49.919Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 646
- text
- 619 4
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620 I didn't have anything special to do, so I went down to the can and chewed the rag
621 with him while he was shaving. We were the only ones in the can, because everybody
622 was still down at the game. It was hot as hell and the windows were all steamy. There
623 were about ten washbowls, all right against the wall. Stradlater had the middle one. I sat
624 down on the one right next to him and started turning the cold water on and off--this
625 nervous habit I have. Stradlater kept whistling 'Song of India" while he shaved. He had
626 one of those very piercing whistles that are practically never in tune, and he always
627 picked out some song that's hard to whistle even if you're a good whistler, like "Song of
628 India" or "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue." He could really mess a song up.
629 You remember I said before that Ackley was a slob in his personal habits? Well,
630 so was Stradlater, but in a different way. Stradlater was more of a secret slob. He always
631 looked all right, Stradlater, but for instance, you should've seen the razor he shaved
632 himself with. It was always rusty as hell and full of lather and hairs and crap. He never
633 cleaned it or anything. He always looked good when he was finished fixing himself up,
634 but he was a secret slob anyway, if you knew him the way I did. The reason he fixed
635 himself up to look good was because he was madly in love with himself. He thought he
636 was the handsomest guy in the Western Hemisphere. He was pretty handsome, too--I'll
637 admit it. But he was mostly the kind of a handsome guy that if your parents saw his
638 picture in your Year Book, they'd right away say, "Who's this boy?" I mean he was
639 mostly a Year Book kind of handsome guy. I knew a lot of guys at Pencey I thought were
640 a lot handsomer than Stradlater, but they wouldn't look handsome if you saw their
641 pictures in the Year Book. They'd look like they had big noses or their ears stuck out. I've
642 had that experience frequently.
643 Anyway, I was sitting on the washbowl next to where Stradlater was shaving, sort
644 of turning the water on and off. I still had my red hunting hat on, with the peak around to
645 the back and all. I really got a bang out of that hat.
646 "Hey," Stradlater said. "Wanna do me a big favor?"
647 "What?" I said. Not too enthusiastic. He was always asking you to do him a big
648 favor. You take a very handsome guy, or a guy that thinks he's a real hot-shot, and they're
649 always asking you to do them a big favor. Just because they're crazy about themseif, they
650 think you're crazy about them, too, and that you're just dying to do them a favor. It's sort
651 of funny, in a way.
652 "You goin' out tonight?" he said.
653 "I might. I might not. I don't know. Why?"
654 "I got about a hundred pages to read for history for Monday," he said. "How 'bout
655 writing a composition for me, for English? I'll be up the creek if I don't get the goddam
656 thing in by Monday, the reason I ask. How 'bout it?"
657 It was very ironical. It really was.
658 "I'm the one that's flunking out of the goddam place, and you're asking me to
659 write you a goddam composition," I said.
660 "Yeah, I know. The thing is, though, I'll be up the creek if I don't get it in. Be a
661 buddy. Be a buddyroo. Okay?"
662 I didn't answer him right away. Suspense is good for some bastards like
663 Stradlater.
664 "What on?" I said.
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