Properties
- end_line
- 837
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:13:49.922Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 784
- text
- 751 "Yeah. She wouldn't move any of her kings. What she'd do, when she'd get a king,
752 she wouldn't move it. She'd just leave it in the back row. She'd get them all lined up in the
753 back row. Then she'd never use them. She just liked the way they looked when they were
754 all in the back row."
755 Stradlater didn't say anything. That kind of stuff doesn't interest most people.
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756 "Her mother belonged to the same club we did," I said. "I used to caddy once in a
757 while, just to make some dough. I caddy'd for her mother a couple of times. She went
758 around in about a hundred and seventy, for nine holes."
759 Stradlater wasn't hardly listening. He was combing his gorgeous locks.
760 "I oughta go down and at least say hello to her," I said.
761 "Why don'tcha?"
762 "I will, in a minute."
763 He started parting his hair all over again. It took him about an hour to comb his
764 hair.
765 "Her mother and father were divorced. Her mother was married again to some
766 booze hound," I said. "Skinny guy with hairy legs. I remember him. He wore shorts all
767 the time. Jane said he was supposed to be a playwright or some goddam thing, but all I
768 ever saw him do was booze all the time and listen to every single goddam mystery
769 program on the radio. And run around the goddam house, naked. With Jane around, and
770 all."
771 "Yeah?" Stradlater said. That really interested him. About the booze hound
772 running around the house naked, with Jane around. Stradlater was a very sexy bastard.
773 "She had a lousy childhood. I'm not kidding."
774 That didn't interest Stradlater, though. Only very sexy stuff interested him.
775 "Jane Gallagher. Jesus . . . I couldn't get her off my mind. I really couldn't. "I
776 oughta go down and say hello to her, at least."
777 "Why the hell don'tcha, instead of keep saying it?" Stradlater said.
778 I walked over to the window, but you couldn't see out of it, it was so steamy from
779 all the heat in the can.. "I'm not in the mood right now," I said. I wasn't, either. You have
780 to be in the mood for those things. "I thought she went to Shipley. I could've sworn she
781 went to Shipley." I walked around the can for a little while. I didn't have anything else to
782 do. "Did she enjoy the game?" I said.
783 "Yeah, I guess so. I don't know."
784 "Did she tell you we used to play checkers all the time, or anything?"
785 "I don't know. For Chrissake, I only just met her," Stradlater said. He was finished
786 combing his goddam gorgeous hair. He was putting away all his crumby toilet articles.
787 "Listen. Give her my regards, willya?"
788 "Okay," Stradlater said, but I knew he probably wouldn't. You take a guy like
789 Stradlater, they never give your regards to people.
790 He went back to the room, but I stuck around in the can for a while, thinking
791 about old Jane. Then I went back to the room, too.
792 Stradlater was putting on his tie, in front of the mirror, when I got there. He spent
793 around half his goddam life in front of the mirror. I sat down in my chair and sort of
794 watched him for a while.
795 "Hey," I said. "Don't tell her I got kicked out, willya?"
796 "Okay."
797 That was one good thing about Stradlater. You didn't have to explain every
798 goddam little thing with him, the way you had to do with Ackley. Mostly, I guess,
799 because he wasn't too interested. That's really why. Ackley, it was different. Ackley was
800 a very nosy bastard.
801 He put on my hound's-tooth jacket.
- title
- Chunk 4