Properties
- end_line
- 4290
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:18:13.528Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 4242
- text
- 4061 the other side of the bed. She was about a thousand miles away. "C'mon answer me," I
4062 said. "One thing I like a lot, or one thing I just like?"
4063 "You like a lot."
4064 "All right," I said. But the trouble was, I couldn't concentrate. About all I could
4065 think of were those two nuns that went around collecting dough in those beatup old straw
4066 baskets. Especially the one with the glasses with those iron rims. And this boy I knew at
4067 Elkton Hills. There was this one boy at Elkton Hills, named James Castle, that wouldn't
4068 take back something he said about this very conceited boy, Phil Stabile. James Castle
4069 called him a very conceited guy, and one of Stabile's lousy friends went and squealed on
4070 him to Stabile. So Stabile, with about six other dirty bastards, went down to James
4071 Castle's room and went in and locked the goddam door and tried to make him take back
4072 what he said, but he wouldn't do it. So they started in on him. I won't even tell you what
4073 they did to him--it's too repulsive--but he still wouldn't take it back, old James Castle.
4074 And you should've seen him. He was a skinny little weak-looking guy, with wrists about
4075 as big as pencils. Finally, what he did, instead of taking back what he said, he jumped out
4076 the window. I was in the shower and all, and even I could hear him land outside. But I
4077 just thought something fell out the window, a radio or a desk or something, not a boy or
4078 anything. Then I heard everybody running through the corridor and down the stairs, so I
4079 put on my bathrobe and I ran downstairs too, and there was old James Castle laying right
4080 on the stone steps and all. He was dead, and his teeth, and blood, were all over the place,
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4081 and nobody would even go near him. He had on this turtleneck sweater I'd lent him. All
4082 they did with the guys that were in the room with him was expel them. They didn't even
4083 go to jail.
4084 That was about all I could think of, though. Those two nuns I saw at breakfast and
4085 this boy James Castle I knew at Elkton Hills. The funny part is, I hardly even know
4086 James Castle, if you want to know the truth. He was one of these very quiet guys. He was
4087 in my math class, but he was way over on the other side of the room, and he hardly ever
4088 got up to recite or go to the blackboard or anything. Some guys in school hardly ever get
4089 up to recite or go to the blackboard. I think the only time I ever even had a conversation
4090 with him was that time he asked me if he could borrow this turtleneck sweater I had. I
4091 damn near dropped dead when he asked me, I was so surprised and all. I remember I was
4092 brushing my teeth, in the can, when he asked me. He said his cousin was coming in to
4093 take him for a drive and all. I didn't even know he knew I had a turtleneck sweater. All I
4094 knew about him was that his name was always right ahead of me at roll call. Cabel, R.,
4095 Cabel, W., Castle, Caulfield--I can still remember it. If you want to know the truth, I
4096 almost didn't lend him my sweater. Just because I didn't know him too well.
4097 "What?" I said to old Phoebe. She said something to me, but I didn't hear her.
4098 "You can't even think of one thing."
4099 "Yes, I can. Yes, I can."
4100 "Well, do it, then."
4101 "I like Allie," I said. "And I like doing what I'm doing right now. Sitting here with
4102 you, and talking, and thinking about stuff, and--"
4103 "Allie's dead--You always say that! If somebody's dead and everything, and in
4104 Heaven, then it isn't really--"
4105 "I know he's dead! Don't you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can't
4106 I? Just because somebody's dead, you don't just stop liking them, for God's sake--
4107 especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that're
- title
- Chunk 8