- end_line
- 1022
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:14:35.244Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 983
- text
- 940 6
941 Some things are hard to remember. I'm thinking now of when Stradlater got back
942 from his date with Jane. I mean I can't remember exactly what I was doing when I heard
943 his goddam stupid footsteps coming down the corridor. I probably was still looking out
944 the window, but I swear I can't remember. I was so damn worried, that's why. When I
945 really worry about something, I don't just fool around. I even have to go to the bathroom
946 when I worry about something. Only, I don't go. I'm too worried to go. I don't want to
947 interrupt my worrying to go. If you knew Stradlater, you'd have been worried, too. I'd
948 double-dated with that bastard a couple of times, and I know what I'm talking about. He
949 was unscrupulous. He really was.
950 Anyway, the corridor was all linoleum and all, and you could hear his goddam
951 footsteps coming right towards the room. I don't even remember where I was sitting when
952 he came in--at the window, or in my chair or his. I swear I can't remember.
953 He came in griping about how cold it was out. Then he said, "Where the hell is
954 everybody? It's like a goddam morgue around here." I didn't even bother to answer him.
955 If he was so goddam stupid not to realize it was Saturday night and everybody was out or
956 asleep or home for the week end, I wasn't going to break my neck telling him. He started
957 getting undressed. He didn't say one goddam word about Jane. Not one. Neither did I. I
958 just watched him. All he did was thank me for letting him wear my hound's-tooth. He
959 hung it up on a hanger and put it in the closet.
960 Then when he was taking off his tie, he asked me if I'd written his goddam
961 composition for him. I told him it was over on his goddam bed. He walked over and read
962 it while he was unbuttoning his shirt. He stood there, reading it, and sort of stroking his
963 bare chest and stomach, with this very stupid expression on his face. He was always
964 stroking his stomach or his chest. He was mad about himself.
965 All of a sudden, he said, "For Chrissake, Holden. This is about a goddam baseball
966 glove."
967 "So what?" I said. Cold as hell.
968 "Wuddaya mean so what? I told ya it had to be about a goddam room or a house
969 or something."
970 "You said it had to be descriptive. What the hell's the difference if it's about a
971 baseball glove?"
972 "God damn it." He was sore as hell. He was really furious. "You always do
973 everything backasswards." He looked at me. "No wonder you're flunking the hell out of
974 here," he said. "You don't do one damn thing the way you're supposed to. I mean it. Not
975 one damn thing."
976 "All right, give it back to me, then," I said. I went over and pulled it right out of
977 his goddam hand. Then I tore it up.
978 "What the hellja do that for?" he said.
- title
- Chunk 1