Properties
- end_line
- 2606
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:16:00.018Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 2553
- text
- 2444 When I said that, he got up from his chair and started walking towards me and all.
2445 He looked like he was very, very tired or very, very bored. God, was I scared. I sort of
2446 had my arms folded, I remember. It wouldn't have been so bad, I don't think, if I hadn't
2447 had just my goddam pajamas on.
2448 "Let's have it, chief." He came right up to where I was standing. That's all he
2449 could say. "Let's have it, chief." He was a real moron.
2450 "No."
2451 "Chief, you're gonna force me inna roughin' ya up a little bit. I don't wanna do it,
2452 but that's the way it looks," he said. "You owe us five bucks."
2453 "I don't owe you five bucks," I said. "If you rough me up, I'll yell like hell. I'll
2454 wake up everybody in the hotel. The police and all." My voice was shaking like a bastard.
2455 "Go ahead. Yell your goddam head off. Fine," old Maurice said. "Want your
2456 parents to know you spent the night with a whore? High-class kid like you?" He was
2457 pretty sharp, in his crumby way. He really was.
2458 "Leave me alone. If you'd said ten, it'd be different. But you distinctly--"
2459 "Are ya gonna let us have it?" He had me right up against the damn door. He was
2460 almost standing on top of me, his crumby old hairy stomach and all.
2461 "Leave me alone. Get the hell out of my room," I said. I still had my arms folded
2462 and all. God, what a jerk I was.
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2463 Then Sunny said something for the first time. "Hey, Maurice. Want me to get his
2464 wallet?" she said. "It's right on the wutchamacallit."
2465 "Yeah, get it."
2466 "Leave my wallet alone!"
2467 "I awreddy got it," Sunny said. She waved five bucks at me. "See? All I'm takin' is
2468 the five you owe me. I'm no crook."
2469 All of a sudden I started to cry. I'd give anything if I hadn't, but I did. "No, you're
2470 no crooks," I said. "You're just stealing five--"
2471 "Shut up," old Maurice said, and gave me a shove.
2472 "Leave him alone, hey," Sunny said. "C'mon, hey. We got the dough he owes us.
2473 Let's go. C'mon, hey."
2474 "I'm comin'," old Maurice said. But he didn't.
2475 "I mean it, Maurice, hey. Leave him alone."
2476 "Who's hurtin' anybody?" he said, innocent as hell. Then what he did, he snapped
2477 his finger very hard on my pajamas. I won't tell you where he snapped it, but it hurt like
2478 hell. I told him he was a goddam dirty moron. "What's that?" he said. He put his hand
2479 behind his ear, like a deaf guy. "What's that? What am I?"
2480 I was still sort of crying. I was so damn mad and nervous and all. "You're a dirty
2481 moron," I said. "You're a stupid chiseling moron, and in about two years you'll be one of
2482 those scraggy guys that come up to you on the street and ask for a dime for coffee. You'll
2483 have snot all over your dirty filthy overcoat, and you'll be--"
2484 Then he smacked me. I didn't even try to get out of the way or duck or anything.
2485 All I felt was this terrific punch in my stomach.
2486 I wasn't knocked out or anything, though, because I remember looking up from
2487 the floor and seeing them both go out the door and shut it. Then I stayed on the floor a
2488 fairly long time, sort of the way I did with Stradlater. Only, this time I thought I was
2489 dying. I really did. I thought I was drowning or something. The trouble was, I could
2490 hardly breathe. When I did finally get up, I had to walk to the bathroom all doubled up
2491 and holding onto my stomach and all.
2492 But I'm crazy. I swear to God I am. About halfway to the bathroom, I sort of
2493 started pretending I had a bullet in my guts. Old 'Maurice had plugged me. Now I was on
2494 the way to the bathroom to get a good shot of bourbon or something to steady my nerves
2495 and help me really go into action. I pictured myself coming out of the goddam bathroom,
- title
- Chunk 3