Properties
- end_line
- 5281
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:18:35.113Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 5235
- text
- 5012 see across the street and I couldn't see where the hell she was. But when we got to the
5013 zoo, I yelled over to her, "Phoebe! I'm going in the zoo! C'mon, now!" She wouldn't look
5014 at me, but I could tell she heard me, and when I started down the steps to the zoo I turned
5015 around and saw she was crossing the street and following me and all.
5016 There weren't too many people in the zoo because it was sort of a lousy day, but
5017 there were a few around the sea lions' swimming pool and all. I started to go by but old
5018 Phoebe stopped and made out she was watching the sea lions getting fed--a guy was
5019 throwing fish at them--so I went back. I figured it was a good chance to catch up with her
5020 and all. I went up and sort of stood behind her and sort of put my hands on her shoulders,
5021 but she bent her knees and slid out from me--she can certainly be very snotty when she
5022 wants to. She kept standing there while the sea lions were getting fed and I stood right
5023 behind her. I didn't put my hands on her shoulders again or anything because if I had she
5024 really would've beat it on me. Kids are funny. You have to watch what you're doing.
5025 She wouldn't walk right next to me when we left the sea lions, but she didn't walk
5026 too far away. She sort of walked on one side of the sidewalk and I walked on the other
5027 side. It wasn't too gorgeous, but it was better than having her walk about a mile away
5028 from me, like before. We went up and watched the bears, on that little hill, for a while,
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5029 but there wasn't much to watch. Only one of the bears was out, the polar bear. The other
5030 one, the brown one, was in his goddam cave and wouldn't come out. All you could see
5031 was his rear end. There was a little kid standing next to me, with a cowboy hat on
5032 practically over his ears, and he kept telling his father, "Make him come out, Daddy.
5033 Make him come out." I looked at old Phoebe, but she wouldn't laugh. You know kids
5034 when they're sore at you. They won't laugh or anything.
5035 After we left the bears, we left the zoo and crossed over this little street in the
5036 park, and then we went through one of those little tunnels that always smell from
5037 somebody's taking a leak. It was on the way to the carrousel. Old Phoebe still wouldn't
5038 talk to me or anything, but she was sort of walking next to me now. I took a hold of the
5039 belt at the back of her coat, just for the hell of it, but she wouldn't let me. She said, "Keep
5040 your hands to yourself, if you don't mind." She was still sore at me. But not as sore as she
5041 was before. Anyway, we kept getting closer and closer to the carrousel and you could
5042 start to hear that nutty music it always plays. It was playing "Oh, Marie!" It played that
5043 same song about fifty years ago when I was a little kid. That's one nice thing about
5044 carrousels, they always play the same songs.
5045 "I thought the carrousel was closed in the wintertime," old Phoebe said. It was the
5046 first time she practically said anything. She probably forgot she was supposed to be sore
5047 at me.
5048 "Maybe because it's around Christmas," I said.
5049 She didn't say anything when I said that. She probably remembered she was
5050 supposed to be sore at me.
5051 "Do you want to go for a ride on it?" I said. I knew she probably did. When she
5052 was a tiny little kid, and Allie and D.B. and I used to go to the park with her, she was
5053 mad about the carrousel. You couldn't get her off the goddam thing.
5054 "I'm too big." she said. I thought she wasn't going to answer me, but she did.
5055 "No, you're not. Go on. I'll wait for ya. Go on," I said. We were right there then.
5056 There were a few kids riding on it, mostly very little kids, and a few parents were waiting
- title
- Chunk 18