Properties
- end_line
- 2421
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:15:40.756Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 2365
- text
- 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?"
2270 "No. No, I don't," I said. Boy, was I feeling peculiar. "What's your name?" I asked
2271 her. All she had on was this pink slip. It was really quite embarrassing. It really was.
2272 "Sunny," she said. "Let's go, hey."
2273 "Don't you feel like talking for a while?" I asked her. It was a childish thing to
2274 say, but I was feeling so damn peculiar. "Are you in a very big hurry?"
2275 She looked at me like I was a madman. "What the heck ya wanna talk about?" she
2276 said.
2277 "I don't know. Nothing special. I just thought perhaps you might care to chat for a
2278 while."
2279 She sat down in the chair next to the desk again. She didn't like it, though, you
2280 could tell. She started jiggling her foot again--boy, she was a nervous girl.
2281 "Would you care for a cigarette now?" I said. I forgot she didn't smoke.
2282 "I don't smoke. Listen, if you're gonna talk, do it. I got things to do."
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2283 I couldn't think of anything to talk about, though. I thought of asking her how she
2284 got to be a prostitute and all, but I was scared to ask her. She probably wouldn't've told
2285 me anyway.
2286 "You don't come from New York, do you?" I said finally. That's all I could think
2287 of.
2288 "Hollywood," she said. Then she got up and went over to where she'd put her
2289 dress down, on the bed. "Ya got a hanger? I don't want to get my dress all wrinkly. It's
2290 brand-clean."
2291 "Sure," I said right away. I was only too glad to get up and do something. I took
2292 her dress over to the closet and hung it up for her. It was funny. It made me feel sort of
2293 sad when I hung it up. I thought of her going in a store and buying it, and nobody in the
2294 store knowing she was a prostitute and all. The salesman probably just thought she was a
2295 regular girl when she bought it. It made me feel sad as hell--I don't know why exactly.
2296 I sat down again and tried to keep the old conversation going. She was a lousy
2297 conversationalist. "Do you work every night?" I asked her--it sounded sort of awful, after
2298 I'd said it.
2299 "Yeah." She was walking all around the room. She picked up the menu off the
2300 desk and read it.
2301 "What do you do during the day?"
2302 She sort of shrugged her shoulders. She was pretty skinny. "Sleep. Go to the
2303 show." She put down the menu and looked at me. "Let's go, hey. I haven't got all--"
2304 "Look," I said. "I don't feel very much like myself tonight. I've had a rough night.
2305 Honest to God. I'll pay you and all, but do you mind very much if we don't do it? Do you
2306 mind very much?" The trouble was, I just didn't want to do it. I felt more depressed than
2307 sexy, if you want to know the truth. She was depressing. Her green dress hanging in the
2308 closet and all. And besides, I don't think I could ever do it with somebody that sits in a
2309 stupid movie all day long. I really don't think I could.
2310 She came over to me, with this funny look on her face, like as if she didn't believe
2311 me. "What'sa matter?" she said.
2312 "Nothing's the matter." Boy, was I getting nervous. "The thing is, I had an
2313 operation very recently."
2314 "Yeah? Where?"
2315 "On my wuddayacallit--my clavichord."
2316 "Yeah? Where the hell's that?"
2317 "The clavichord?" I said. "Well, actually, it's in the spinal canal. I mean it's quite a
2318 ways down in the spinal canal."
- title
- Chunk 5