Properties
- end_line
- 1203
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:14:37.239Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1146
- text
- 1097 7
1098 A tiny bit of light came through the shower curtains and all from our room, and I
1099 could see him lying in bed. I knew damn well he was wide awake. "Ackley?" I said.
1100 "Y'awake?"
1101 "Yeah."
1102 It was pretty dark, and I stepped on somebody's shoe on the floor and danm near
1103 fell on my head. Ackley sort of sat up in bed and leaned on his arm. He had a lot of white
1104 stuff on his face, for his pimples. He looked sort of spooky in the dark. "What the hellya
1105 doing, anyway?" I said.
1106 "Wuddaya mean what the hell am I doing? I was tryna sleep before you guys
1107 started making all that noise. What the hell was the fight about, anyhow?"
1108 "Where's the light?" I couldn't find the light. I was sliding my hand all over the
1109 wall.
1110 "Wuddaya want the light for? . . . Right next to your hand."
1111 I finally found the switch and turned It on. Old Ackley put his hand up so the light
1112 wouldn't hurt his eyes.
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1113 "Jesus!" he said. "What the hell happened to you?" He meant all the blood and all.
1114 "I had a little goddam tiff with Stradlater," I said. Then I sat down on the floor.
1115 They never had any chairs in their room. I don't know what the hell they did with their
1116 chairs. "Listen," I said, "do you feel like playing a little Canasta?" He was a Canasta
1117 fiend.
1118 "You're still bleeding, for Chrissake. You better put something on it."
1119 "It'll stop. Listen. Ya wanna play a little Canasta or don'tcha?"
1120 "Canasta, for Chrissake. Do you know what time it is, by any chance?"
1121 "It isn't late. It's only around eleven, eleven-thirty."
1122 "Only around!" Ackley said. "Listen. I gotta get up and go to Mass in the
1123 morning, for Chrissake. You guys start hollering and fighting in the middle of the
1124 goddam--What the hell was the fight about, anyhow?"
1125 "It's a long story. I don't wanna bore ya, Ackley. I'm thinking of your welfare," I
1126 told him. I never discussed my personal life with him. In the first place, he was even
1127 more stupid than Stradlater. Stradlater was a goddam genius next to Ackley. "Hey," I
1128 said, "is it okay if I sleep in Ely's bed tonight? He won't be back till tomorrow night, will
1129 he?" I knew damn well he wouldn't. Ely went home damn near every week end.
1130 "I don't know when the hell he's coming back," Ackley said.
1131 Boy, did that annoy me. "What the hell do you mean you don't know when he's
1132 coming back? He never comes back till Sunday night, does he?"
1133 "No, but for Chrissake, I can't just tell somebody they can sleep in his goddam
1134 bed if they want to."
1135 That killed me. I reached up from where I was sitting on the floor and patted him
1136 on the goddam shoulder. "You're a prince, Ackley kid," I said. "You know that?"
1137 "No, I mean it--I can't just tell somebody they can sleep in--"
1138 "You're a real prince. You're a gentleman and a scholar, kid," I said. He really
1139 was, too. "Do you happen to have any cigarettes, by any chance?--Say 'no' or I'll drop
1140 dead."
1141 "No, I don't, as a matter of fact. Listen, what the hell was the fight about?"
1142 I didn't answer him. All I did was, I got up and went over and looked out the
1143 window. I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead.
1144 "What the hell was the fight about, anyhow?" Ackley said, for about the fiftieth
1145 time. He certainly was a bore about that.
1146 "About you," I said.
1147 "About me, for Chrissake?"
1148 "Yeah. I was defending your goddam honor. Stradlater said you had a lousy
1149 personality. I couldn't let him get away with that stuff."
1150 That got him excited. "He did? No kidding? He did?"
1151 I told him I was only kidding, and then I went over and laid down on Ely's bed.
1152 Boy, did I feel rotten. I felt so damn lonesome.
- title
- Chunk 1