Properties
- end_line
- 1943
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T03:41:20.744Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1894
- text
- depressed I can't stand it. I'd've bought the whole three of them a hundred drinks if only
they hadn't told me that.
I left the Lavender Room pretty soon after they did. They were closing it up
anyway, and the band had quit a long time ago. In the first place, it was one of those
places that are very terrible to be in unless you have somebody good to dance with, or
unless the waiter lets you buy real drinks instead of just Cokes. There isn't any night club
in the world you can sit in for a long time unless you can at least buy some liquor and get
drunk. Or unless you're with some girl that really knocks you out.
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All of a sudden, on my way out to the lobby, I got old Jane Gallagher on the brain
again. I got her on, and I couldn't get her off. I sat down in this vomity-looking chair in
the lobby and thought about her and Stradlater sitting in that goddam Ed Banky's car, and
though I was pretty damn sure old Stradlater hadn't given her the time--I know old Jane
like a book--I still couldn't get her off my brain. I knew her like a book. I really did. I
mean, besides checkers, she was quite fond of all athletic sports, and after I got to know
her, the whole summer long we played tennis together almost every morning and golf
almost every afternoon. I really got to know her quite intimately. I don't mean it was
anything physical or anything--it wasn't--but we saw each other all the time. You don't
always have to get too sexy to get to know a girl.
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The way I met her, this Doberman pinscher she had used to come over and relieve
himself on our lawn, and my mother got very irritated about it. She called up Jane's
mother and made a big stink about it. My mother can make a very big stink about that
kind of stuff. Then what happened, a couple of days later I saw Jane laying on her
stomach next to the swimming pool, at the club, and I said hello to her. I knew she lived
in the house next to ours, but I'd never conversed with her before or anything. She gave
me the big freeze when I said hello that day, though. I had a helluva time convincing her
that I didn't give a good goddam where her dog relieved himself. He could do it in the
living room, for all I cared. Anyway, after that, Jane and I got to be friends and all. I
played golf with her that same afternoon. She lost eight balls, I remember. Eight. I had a
terrible time getting her to at least open her eyes when she took a swing at the ball. I
improved her game immensely, though. I'm a very good golfer. If I told you what I go
around in, you probably wouldn't believe me. I almost was once in a movie short, but I
changed my mind at the last minute. I figured that anybody that hates the movies as much
as I do, I'd be a phony if I let them stick me in a movie short.
She was a funny girl, old Jane. I wouldn't exactly describe her as strictly beautiful.
She knocked me out, though. She was sort of muckle-mouthed. I mean when she was
talking and she got excited about something, her mouth sort of went in about fifty
directions, her lips and all. That killed me. And she never really closed it all the way, her
mouth. It was always just a little bit open, especially when she got in her golf stance, or
when she was reading a book. She was always reading, and she read very good books.
She read a lot of poetry and all. She was the only one, outside my family, that I ever
showed Allie's baseball mitt to, with all the poems written on it. She'd never met Allie or
anything, because that was her first summer in Maine--before that, she went to Cape Cod-
-but I told her quite a lot about him. She was interested in that kind of stuff.
My mother didn't like her too much. I mean my mother always thought Jane and
her mother were sort of snubbing her or something when they didn't say hello. My
mother saw them in the village a lot, because Jane used to drive to market with her
mother in this LaSalle convertible they had. My mother didn't think Jane was pretty,
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