Properties
- end_line
- 5329
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:18:35.114Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 5277
- text
- 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
5057 around outside, sitting on the benches and all. What I did was, I went up to the window
5058 where they sell the tickets and bought old Phoebe a ticket. Then I gave it to her. She was
5059 standing right next to me. "Here," I said. "Wait a second--take the rest of your dough,
5060 too." I started giving her the rest of the dough she'd lent me.
5061 "You keep it. Keep it for me," she said. Then she said right afterward--"Please."
5062 That's depressing, when somebody says "please" to you. I mean if it's Phoebe or
5063 somebody. That depressed the hell out of me. But I put the dough back in my pocket.
5064 "Aren't you gonna ride, too?" she asked me. She was looking at me sort of funny.
5065 You could tell she wasn't too sore at me any more.
5066 "Maybe I will the next time. I'll watch ya," I said. "Got your ticket?"
5067 "Yes."
5068 "Go ahead, then--I'll be on this bench right over here. I'll watch ya." I went over
5069 and sat down on this bench, and she went and got on the carrousel. She walked all around
5070 it. I mean she walked once all the way around it. Then she sat down on this big, brown,
5071 beat-up-looking old horse. Then the carrousel started, and I watched her go around and
5072 around. There were only about five or six other kids on the ride, and the song the
5073 carrousel was playing was "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." It was playing it very jazzy and
5074 funny. All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was
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5075 sort of afraid she'd fall off the goddam horse, but I didn't say anything or do anything.
5076 The thing with kids is, if they want to grab the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and
5077 not say anything. If they fall off they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them.
5078 When the ride was over she got off her horse and came over to me. "You ride
5079 once, too, this time," she said.
5080 "No, I'll just watch ya. I think I'll just watch," I said. I gave her some more of her
5081 dough. "Here. Get some more tickets."
5082 She took the dough off me. "I'm not mad at you any more," she said.
5083 "I know. Hurry up--the thing's gonna start again."
5084 Then all of a sudden she gave me a kiss. Then she held her hand out, and said,
5085 "It's raining. It's starting to rain."
5086 "I know."
5087 Then what she did--it damn near killed me--she reached in my coat pocket and
5088 took out my red hunting hat and put it on my head.
5089 "Don't you want it?" I said.
5090 "You can wear it a while."
5091 "Okay. Hurry up, though, now. You're gonna miss your ride. You won't get your
5092 own horse or anything."
5093 She kept hanging around, though.
5094 "Did you mean it what you said? You really aren't going away anywhere? Are
5095 you really going home afterwards?" she asked me.
5096 "Yeah," I said. I meant it, too. I wasn't lying to her. I really did go home
5097 afterwards. "Hurry up, now," I said. "The thing's starting."
5098 She ran and bought her ticket and got back on the goddam carrousel just in time.
5099 Then she walked all the way around it till she got her own horse back. Then she got on it.
5100 She waved to me and I waved back.
5101 Boy, it began to rain like a bastard. In buckets, I swear to God. All the parents and
5102 mothers and everybody went over and stood right under the roof of the carrousel, so they
- title
- Chunk 19