Properties
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- 4949
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:18:35.108Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
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- 4905
- text
- 4696 quickly, it was a sign that you probably had cancer. I'd had this sore on the inside of my
4697 lip for about two weeks. So figured I was getting cancer. That magazine was some little
4698 cheerer upper. I finally quit reading it and went outside for a walk. I figured I'd be dead in
4699 a couple of months because I had cancer. I really did. I was even positive I would be. It
4700 certainly didn't make me feel too gorgeous. It'sort of looked like it was going to rain, but I
4701 went for this walk anyway. For one thing, I figured I ought to get some breakfast. I wasn't
4702 at all hungry, but I figured I ought to at least eat something. I mean at least get something
4703 with some vitamins in it. So I started walking way over east, where the pretty cheap
4704 restaurants are, because I didn't want to spend a lot of dough.
4705 While I was walking, I passed these two guys that were unloading this big
4706 Christmas tree off a truck. One guy kept saying to the other guy, "Hold the sonuvabitch
4707 up! Hold it up, for Chrissake!" It certainly was a gorgeous way to talk about a Christmas
4708 tree. It was sort of funny, though, in an awful way, and I started to sort of laugh. It was
4709 about the worst thing I could've done, because the minute I started to laugh I thought I
4710 was going to vomit. I really did. I even started to, but it went away. I don't know why. I
4711 mean I hadn't eaten anything unsanitary or like that and usually I have quite a strong
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4712 stomach. Anyway, I got over it, and I figured I'd feel better if I had something to eat. So I
4713 went in this very cheap-looking restaurant and had doughnuts and coffee. Only, I didn't
4714 eat the doughnuts. I couldn't swallow them too well. The thing is, if you get very
4715 depressed about something, it's hard as hell to swallow. The waiter was very nice,
4716 though. He took them back without charging me. I just drank the coffee. Then I left and
4717 started walking over toward Fifth Avenue.
4718 It was Monday and all, and pretty near Christmas, and all the stores were open. So
4719 it wasn't too bad walking on Fifth Avenue. It was fairly Christmasy. All those scraggy-
4720 looking Santa Clauses were standing on corners ringing those bells, and the Salvation
4721 Army girls, the ones that don't wear any lipstick or anything, were tinging bells too. I sort
4722 of kept looking around for those two nuns I'd met at breakfast the day before, but I didn't
4723 see them. I knew I wouldn't, because they'd told me they'd come to New York to be
4724 schoolteachers, but I kept looking for them anyway. Anyway, it was pretty Christmasy all
4725 of a sudden. A million little kids were downtown with their mothers, getting on and off
4726 buses and coming in and out of stores. I wished old Phoebe was around. She's not little
4727 enough any more to go stark staring mad in the toy department, but she enjoys horsing
4728 around and looking at the people. The Christmas before last I took her downtown
4729 shopping with me. We had a helluva time. I think it was in Bloomingdale's. We went in
4730 the shoe department and we pretended she--old Phoebe-- wanted to get a pair of those
4731 very high storm shoes, the kind that have about a million holes to lace up. We had the
4732 poor salesman guy going crazy. Old Phoebe tried on about twenty pairs, and each time
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
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