Properties
- end_line
- 4858
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T03:41:20.747Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 4820
- text
- pants in the dark. I could hardly get them on I was so damn nervous. I know more damn
perverts, at schools and all, than anybody you ever met, and they're always being perverty
when I'm around.
"You have to go where?" Mr. Antolini said. He was trying to act very goddam
casual and cool and all, but he wasn't any too goddam cool. Take my word.
"I left my bags and all at the station. I think maybe I'd better go down and get
them. I have all my stuff in them."
"They'll be there in the morning. Now, go back to bed. I'm going to bed myself.
What's the matter with you?"
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"Nothing's the matter, it's just that all my money and stuff's in one of my bags. I'll
be right back. I'll get a cab and be right back," I said. Boy, I was falling all over myself in
the dark. "The thing is, it isn't mine, the money. It's my mother's, and I--"
"Don't be ridiculous, Holden. Get back in that bed. I'm going to bed myself. The
money will be there safe and sound in the morn--"
"No, no kidding. I gotta get going. I really do." I was damn near all dressed
already, except that I couldn't find my tie. I couldn't remember where I'd put my tie. I put
on my jacket and all without it. Old Mr. Antolini was sitting now in the big chair a little
ways away from me, watching me. It was dark and all and I couldn't see him so hot, but I
knew he was watching me, all right. He was still boozing, too. I could see his trusty
highball glass in his hand.
"You're a very, very strange boy."
"I know it," I said. I didn't even look around much for my tie. So I went without it.
"Good-by, sir," I said, "Thanks a lot. No kidding."
He kept walking right behind me when I went to the front door, and when I rang
the elevator bell he stayed in the damn doorway. All he said was that business about my
being a "very, very strange boy" again. Strange, my ass. Then he waited in the doorway
and all till the goddam elevator came. I never waited so long for an elevator in my whole
goddam life. I swear.
I didn't know what the hell to talk about while I was waiting for the elevator, and
he kept standing there, so I said, "I'm gonna start reading some good books. I really am."
I mean you had to say something. It was very embarrassing.
"You grab your bags and scoot right on back here again. I'll leave the door
unlatched."
"Thanks a lot," I said. "G'by!" The elevator was finally there. I got in and went
down. Boy, I was shaking like a madman. I was sweating, too. When something perverty
like that happens, I start sweating like a bastard. That kind of stuff's happened to me
about twenty times since I was a kid. I can't stand it.
- title
- Chunk 7