Properties
- end_line
- 1862
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:14:41.545Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1814
- text
- 1737 bit, if they play a fast one? Not corny jitterbug, not jump or anything--just nice and easy.
1738 Everybody'll all sit down when they play a fast one, except the old guys and the fat guys,
1739 and we'll have plenty of room. Okay?"
1740 "It's immaterial to me," she said. "Hey--how old are you, anyhow?"
1741 That annoyed me, for some reason. "Oh, Christ. Don't spoil it," I said. "I'm
1742 twelve, for Chrissake. I'm big for my age."
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1743 "Listen. I toleja about that. I don't like that type language," she said. "If you're
1744 gonna use that type language, I can go sit down with my girl friends, you know."
1745 I apologized like a madman, because the band was starting a fast one. She started
1746 jitterbugging with me-- but just very nice and easy, not corny. She was really good. All
1747 you had to do was touch her. And when she turned around, her pretty little butt twitched
1748 so nice and all. She knocked me out. I mean it. I was half in love with her by the time we
1749 sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if
1750 they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with
1751 them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can
1752 drive you crazy. They really can.
1753 They didn't invite me to sit down at their table-- mostly because they were too
1754 ignorant--but I sat down anyway. The blonde I'd been dancing with's name was Bernice
1755 something--Crabs or Krebs. The two ugly ones' names were Marty and Laverne. I told
1756 them my name was Jim Steele, just for the hell of it. Then I tried to get them in a little
1757 intelligent conversation, but it was practically impossible. You had to twist their arms.
1758 You could hardly tell which was the stupidest of the three of them. And the whole three
1759 of them kept looking all around the goddam room, like as if they expected a flock of
1760 goddam movie stars to come in any minute. They probably thought movie stars always
1761 hung out in the Lavender Room when they came to New York, instead of the Stork Club
1762 or El Morocco and all. Anyway, it took me about a half hour to find out where they all
1763 worked and all in Seattle. They all worked in the same insurance office. I asked them if
1764 they liked it, but do you think you could get an intelligent answer out of those three
1765 dopes? I thought the two ugly ones, Marty and Laverne, were sisters, but they got very
1766 insulted when I asked them. You could tell neither one of them wanted to look like the
1767 other one, and you couldn't blame them, but it was very amusing anyway.
1768 I danced with them all--the whole three of them--one at a time. The one ugly one,
1769 Laverne, wasn't too bad a dancer, but the other one, old Marty, was murder. Old Marty
1770 was like dragging the Statue of Liberty around the floor. The only way I could even half
1771 enjoy myself dragging her around was if I amused myself a little. So I told her I just saw
1772 Gary Cooper, the movie star, on the other side of the floor.
1773 "Where?" she asked me--excited as hell. "Where?"
1774 "Aw, you just missed him. He just went out. Why didn't you look when I told
1775 you?"
1776 She practically stopped dancing, and started looking over everybody's heads to
1777 see if she could see him. "Oh, shoot!" she said. I'd just about broken her heart-- I really
1778 had. I was sorry as hell I'd kidded her. Some people you shouldn't kid, even if they
1779 deserve it.
1780 Here's what was very funny, though. When we got back to the table, old Marty
1781 told the other two that Gary Cooper had just gone out. Boy, old Laverne and Bernice
1782 nearly committed suicide when they heard that. They got all excited and asked Marty if
1783 she'd seen him and all. Old Mart said she'd only caught a glimpse of him. That killed me.
- title
- Chunk 9