Properties
- end_line
- 1766
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:14:41.544Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1720
- text
- 1647 the back. I should've waved a buck under the head-waiter's nose. In New York, boy,
1648 money really talks--I'm not kidding.
1649 The band was putrid. Buddy Singer. Very brassy, but not good brassy--corny
1650 brassy. Also, there were very few people around my age in the place. In fact, nobody was
1651 around my age. They were mostly old, show-offy-looking guys with their dates. Except at
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1652 the table right next to me. At the table right next to me, there were these three girls
1653 around thirty or so. The whole three of them were pretty ugly, and they all had on the
1654 kind of hats that you knew they didn't really live in New York, but one of them, the
1655 blonde one, wasn't too bad. She was sort of cute, the blonde one, and I started giving her
1656 the old eye a little bit, but just then the waiter came up for my order. I ordered a Scotch
1657 and soda, and told him not to mix it--I said it fast as hell, because if you hem and haw,
1658 they think you're under twenty-one and won't sell you any intoxicating liquor. I had
1659 trouble with him anyway, though. "I'm sorry, sir," he said, "but do you have some
1660 verification of your age? Your driver's license, perhaps?"
1661 I gave him this very cold stare, like he'd insulted the hell out of me, and asked
1662 him, "Do I look like I'm under twenty-one?"
1663 "I'm sorry, sir, but we have our--"
1664 "Okay, okay," I said. I figured the hell with it. "Bring me a Coke." He started to
1665 go away, but I called him back. "Can'tcha stick a little rum in it or something?" I asked
1666 him. I asked him very nicely and all. "I can't sit in a corny place like this cold sober.
1667 Can'tcha stick a little rum in it or something?"
1668 "I'm very sorry, sir. . ." he said, and beat it on me. I didn't hold it against him,
1669 though. They lose their jobs if they get caught selling to a minor. I'm a goddam minor.
1670 I started giving the three witches at the next table the eye again. That is, the
1671 blonde one. The other two were strictly from hunger. I didn't do it crudely, though. I just
1672 gave all three of them this very cool glance and all. What they did, though, the three of
1673 them, when I did it, they started giggling like morons. They probably thought I was too
1674 young to give anybody the once-over. That annoyed hell out of me-- you'd've thought I
1675 wanted to marry them or something. I should've given them the freeze, after they did that,
1676 but the trouble was, I really felt like dancing. I'm very fond of dancing, sometimes, and
1677 that was one of the times. So all of a sudden, I sort of leaned over and said, "Would any
1678 of you girls care to dance?" I didn't ask them crudely or anything. Very suave, in fact. But
1679 God damn it, they thought that was a panic, too. They started giggling some more. I'm
1680 not kidding, they were three real morons. "C'mon," I said. "I'll dance with you one at a
1681 time. All right? How 'bout it? C'mon!" I really felt like dancing.
1682 Finally, the blonde one got up to dance with me, because you could tell I was
1683 really talking to her, and we walked out to the dance floor. The other two grools nearly
1684 had hysterics when we did. I certainly must've been very hard up to even bother with any
1685 of them.
1686 But it was worth it. The blonde was some dancer. She was one of the best dancers
1687 I ever danced with. I'm not kidding, some of these very stupid girls can really knock you
1688 out on a dance floor. You take a really smart girl, and half the time she's trying to lead
1689 you around the dance floor, or else she's such a lousy dancer, the best thing to do is stay
1690 at the table and just get drunk with her.
1691 "You really can dance," I told the blonde one. "You oughta be a pro. I mean it. I
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- Chunk 7