Properties
- end_line
- 2370
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:15:40.755Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 2319
- text
- 2220 this Blanchard guy was pretty good. He had this big château and all on the Riviera, in
2221 Europe, and all he did in his spare time was beat women off with a club. He was a real
2222 rake and all, but he knocked women out. He said, in this one part, that a woman's body is
2223 like a violin and all, and that it takes a terrific musician to play it right. It was a very
2224 corny book--I realize that--but I couldn't get that violin stuff out of my mind anyway. In a
2225 way, that's why I sort of wanted to get some practice in, in case I ever get married.
2226 Caulfield and his Magic Violin, boy. It's corny, I realize, but it isn't too corny. I wouldn't
2227 mind being pretty good at that stuff. Half the time, if you really want to know the truth,
2228 when I'm horsing around with a girl, I have a helluva lot of trouble just finding what I'm
2229 looking for, for God's sake, if you know what I mean. Take this girl that I just missed
2230 having sexual intercourse with, that I told you about. It took me about an hour to just get
2231 her goddam brassiere off. By the time I did get it off, she was about ready to spit in my
2232 eye.
2233 Anyway, I kept walking around the room, waiting for this prostitute to show up. I
2234 kept hoping she'd be good-looking. I didn't care too much, though. I sort of just wanted to
2235 get it over with. Finally, somebody knocked on the door, and when I went to open it, I
2236 had my suitcase right in the way and I fell over it and damn near broke my knee. I always
2237 pick a gorgeous time to fall over a suitcase or something.
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2238 When I opened the door, this prostitute was standing there. She had a polo coat
2239 on, and no hat. She was sort of a blonde, but you could tell she dyed her hair. She wasn't
2240 any old bag, though. "How do you do," I said. Suave as hell, boy.
2241 "You the guy Maurice said?" she asked me. She didn't seem too goddam friendly.
2242 "Is he the elevator boy?"
2243 "Yeah," she said.
2244 "Yes, I am. Come in, won't you?" I said. I was getting more and more nonchalant
2245 as it went along. I really was.
2246 She came in and took her coat off right away and sort of chucked it on the bed.
2247 She had on a green dress underneath. Then she sort of sat down sideways on the chair
2248 that went with the desk in the room and started jiggling her foot up and down. She
2249 crossed her legs and started jiggling this one foot up and down. She was very nervous, for
2250 a prostitute. She really was. I think it was because she was young as hell. She was around
2251 my age. I sat down in the big chair, next to her, and offered her a cigarette. "I don't
2252 smoke," she said. She had a tiny little wheeny-whiny voice. You could hardly hear her.
2253 She never said thank you, either, when you offered her something. She just didn't know
2254 any better.
2255 "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jim Steele," I said.
2256 "Ya got a watch on ya?" she said. She didn't care what the hell my name was,
2257 naturally. "Hey, how old are you, anyways?"
2258 "Me? Twenty-two."
2259 "Like fun you are."
2260 It was a funny thing to say. It sounded like a real kid. You'd think a prostitute and
2261 all would say "Like hell you are" or "Cut the crap" instead of "Like fun you are."
2262 "How old are you?" I asked her.
2263 "Old enough to know better," she said. She was really witty. "Ya got a watch on
2264 ya?" she asked me again, and then she stood up and pulled her dress over her head.
2265 I certainly felt peculiar when she did that. I mean she did it so sudden and all. I
2266 know you're supposed to feel pretty sexy when somebody gets up and pulls their dress
2267 over their head, but I didn't. Sexy was about the last thing I was feeling. I felt much more
2268 depressed than sexy.
2269 "Ya got a watch on ya, hey?"
- title
- Chunk 4