Properties
- end_line
- 4988
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:18:35.109Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 4944
- text
- 4733 the poor guy had to lace one shoe all the way up. It was a dirty trick, but it killed old
4734 Phoebe. We finally bought a pair of moccasins and charged them. The salesman was very
4735 nice about it. I think he knew we were horsing around, because old Phoebe always starts
4736 giggling.
4737 Anyway, I kept walking and walking up Fifth Avenue, without any tie on or
4738 anything. Then all of a sudden, something very spooky started happening. Every time I
4739 came to the end of a block and stepped off the goddam curb, I had this feeling that I'd
4740 never get to the other side of the street. I thought I'd just go down, down, down, and
4741 nobody'd ever see me again. Boy, did it scare me. You can't imagine. I started sweating
4742 like a bastard--my whole shirt and underwear and everything. Then I started doing
4743 something else. Every time I'd get to the end of a block I'd make believe I was talking to
4744 my brother Allie. I'd say to him, "Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me
4745 disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Please, Allie." And then when I'd reach the other
4746 side of the street without disappearing, I'd thank him. Then it would start all over again as
4747 soon as I got to the next corner. But I kept going and all. I was sort of afraid to stop, I
4748 think--I don't remember, to tell you the truth. I know I didn't stop till I was way up in the
4749 Sixties, past the zoo and all. Then I sat down on this bench. I could hardly get my breath,
4750 and I was still sweating like a bastard. I sat there, I guess, for about an hour. Finally, what
4751 I decided I'd do, I decided I'd go away. I decided I'd never go home again and I'd never
4752 go away to another school again. I decided I'd just see old Phoebe and sort of say good-
4753 by to her and all, and give her back her Christmas dough, and then I'd start hitchhiking
4754 my way out West. What I'd do, I figured, I'd go down to the Holland Tunnel and bum a
4755 ride, and then I'd bum another one, and another one, and another one, and in a few days
4756 I'd be somewhere out West where it was very pretty and sunny and where nobody'd know
4757 me and I'd get a job. I figured I could get a job at a filling station somewhere, putting gas
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4758 and oil in people's cars. I didn't care what kind of job it was, though. Just so people didn't
4759 know me and I didn't know anybody. I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of
4760 those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn't have to have any goddam stupid useless
4761 conversations with anybody. If anybody wanted to tell me something, they'd have to
4762 write it on a piece of paper and shove it over to me. They'd get bored as hell doing that
4763 after a while, and then I'd be through with having conversations for the rest of my life.
4764 Everybody'd think I was just a poor deaf-mute bastard and they'd leave me alone. They'd
4765 let me put gas and oil in their stupid cars, and they'd pay me a salary and all for it, and I'd
4766 build me a little cabin somewhere with the dough I made and live there for the rest of my
4767 life. I'd build it right near the woods, but not right in them, because I'd want it to be sunny
4768 as hell all the time. I'd cook all my own food, and later on, if I wanted to get married or
4769 something, I'd meet this beautiful girl that was also a deaf-mute and we'd get married.
4770 She'd come and live in my cabin with me, and if she wanted to say anything to me, she'd
4771 have to write it on a goddam piece of paper, like everybody else. If we had any children,
4772 we'd hide them somewhere. We could buy them a lot of books and teach them how to
4773 read and write by ourselves.
4774 I got excited as hell thinking about it. I really did. I knew the part about
4775 pretending I was a deaf-mute was crazy, but I liked thinking about it anyway. But I really
- title
- Chunk 11