Properties
- end_line
- 1947
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:14:57.709Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1902
- text
- 1821 11
1822 All of a sudden, on my way out to the lobby, I got old Jane Gallagher on the brain
1823 again. I got her on, and I couldn't get her off. I sat down in this vomity-looking chair in
1824 the lobby and thought about her and Stradlater sitting in that goddam Ed Banky's car, and
1825 though I was pretty damn sure old Stradlater hadn't given her the time--I know old Jane
1826 like a book--I still couldn't get her off my brain. I knew her like a book. I really did. I
1827 mean, besides checkers, she was quite fond of all athletic sports, and after I got to know
1828 her, the whole summer long we played tennis together almost every morning and golf
1829 almost every afternoon. I really got to know her quite intimately. I don't mean it was
1830 anything physical or anything--it wasn't--but we saw each other all the time. You don't
1831 always have to get too sexy to get to know a girl.
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1832 The way I met her, this Doberman pinscher she had used to come over and relieve
1833 himself on our lawn, and my mother got very irritated about it. She called up Jane's
1834 mother and made a big stink about it. My mother can make a very big stink about that
1835 kind of stuff. Then what happened, a couple of days later I saw Jane laying on her
1836 stomach next to the swimming pool, at the club, and I said hello to her. I knew she lived
1837 in the house next to ours, but I'd never conversed with her before or anything. She gave
1838 me the big freeze when I said hello that day, though. I had a helluva time convincing her
1839 that I didn't give a good goddam where her dog relieved himself. He could do it in the
1840 living room, for all I cared. Anyway, after that, Jane and I got to be friends and all. I
1841 played golf with her that same afternoon. She lost eight balls, I remember. Eight. I had a
1842 terrible time getting her to at least open her eyes when she took a swing at the ball. I
1843 improved her game immensely, though. I'm a very good golfer. If I told you what I go
1844 around in, you probably wouldn't believe me. I almost was once in a movie short, but I
1845 changed my mind at the last minute. I figured that anybody that hates the movies as much
1846 as I do, I'd be a phony if I let them stick me in a movie short.
1847 She was a funny girl, old Jane. I wouldn't exactly describe her as strictly beautiful.
1848 She knocked me out, though. She was sort of muckle-mouthed. I mean when she was
1849 talking and she got excited about something, her mouth sort of went in about fifty
1850 directions, her lips and all. That killed me. And she never really closed it all the way, her
1851 mouth. It was always just a little bit open, especially when she got in her golf stance, or
1852 when she was reading a book. She was always reading, and she read very good books.
1853 She read a lot of poetry and all. She was the only one, outside my family, that I ever
1854 showed Allie's baseball mitt to, with all the poems written on it. She'd never met Allie or
1855 anything, because that was her first summer in Maine--before that, she went to Cape Cod-
1856 -but I told her quite a lot about him. She was interested in that kind of stuff.
1857 My mother didn't like her too much. I mean my mother always thought Jane and
1858 her mother were sort of snubbing her or something when they didn't say hello. My
1859 mother saw them in the village a lot, because Jane used to drive to market with her
1860 mother in this LaSalle convertible they had. My mother didn't think Jane was pretty,
1861 even. I did, though. I just liked the way she looked, that's all.
1862 I remember this one afternoon. It was the only time old Jane and I ever got close
1863 to necking, even. It was a Saturday and it was raining like a bastard out, and I was over at
1864 her house, on the porch--they had this big screened-in porch. We were playing checkers. I
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