Properties
- end_line
- 3412
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:17:08.781Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 3368
- text
- 3225 18
3226 When I left the skating rink I felt sort of hungry, so I went in this drugstore and
3227 had a Swiss cheese sandwich and a malted, and then I went in a phone booth. I thought
3228 maybe I might give old Jane another buzz and see if she was home yet. I mean I had the
3229 whole evening free, and I thought I'd give her a buzz and, if she was home yet, take her
3230 dancing or something somewhere. I never danced with her or anything the whole time I
3231 knew her. I saw her dancing once, though. She looked like a very good dancer. It was at
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3232 this Fourth of July dance at the club. I didn't know her too well then, and I didn't think I
3233 ought to cut in on her date. She was dating this terrible guy, Al Pike, that went to Choate.
3234 I didn't know him too well, but he was always hanging around the swimming pool. He
3235 wore those white Lastex kind of swimming trunks, and he was always going off the high
3236 dive. He did the same lousy old half gainer all day long. It was the only dive he could do,
3237 but he thought he was very hot stuff. All muscles and no brains. Anyway, that's who Jane
3238 dated that night. I couldn't understand it. I swear I couldn't. After we started going around
3239 together, I asked her how come she could date a showoff bastard like Al Pike. Jane said
3240 he wasn't a show-off. She said he had an inferiority complex. She acted like she felt sorry
3241 for him or something, and she wasn't just putting it on. She meant it. It's a funny thing
3242 about girls. Every time you mention some guy that's strictly a bastard--very mean, or very
3243 conceited and all--and when you mention it to the girl, she'll tell you he has an inferiority
3244 complex. Maybe he has, but that still doesn't keep him from being a bastard, in my
3245 opinion. Girls. You never know what they're going to think. I once got this girl Roberta
3246 Walsh's roommate a date with a friend of mine. His name was Bob Robinson and he
3247 really had an inferiority complex. You could tell he was very ashamed of his parents and
3248 all, because they said "he don't" and "she don't" and stuff like that and they weren't very
3249 wealthy. But he wasn't a bastard or anything. He was a very nice guy. But this Roberta
3250 Walsh's roommate didn't like him at all. She told Roberta he was too conceited--and the
3251 reason she thought he was conceited was because he happened to mention to her that he
3252 was captain of the debating team. A little thing like that, and she thought he was
3253 conceited! The trouble with girls is, if they like a boy, no matter how big a bastard he is,
3254 they'll say he has an inferiority complex, and if they don't like him, no matter how nice a
3255 guy he is, or how big an inferiority complex he has, they'll say he's conceited. Even smart
3256 girls do it.
3257 Anyway, I gave old Jane a buzz again, but her phone didn't answer, so I had to
3258 hang up. Then I had to look through my address book to see who the hell might be
3259 available for the evening. The trouble was, though, my address book only has about three
3260 people in it. Jane, and this man, Mr. Antolini, that was my teacher at Elkton Hills, and my
3261 father's office number. I keep forgetting to put people's names in. So what I did finally, I
3262 gave old Carl Luce a buzz. He graduated from the Whooton School after I left. He was
3263 about three years older than I was, and I didn't like him too much, but he was one of these
3264 very intellectual guys-- he had the highest I.Q. of any boy at Whooton--and I thought he
3265 might want to have dinner with me somewhere and have a slightly intellectual
3266 conversation. He was very enlightening sometimes. So I gave him a buzz. He went to
3267 Columbia now, but he lived on 65th Street and all, and I knew he'd be home. When I got
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