Chapter 21

When I reached my parents place I took the elevator up to the apartment. Luckily, the regular elevator operator wasn't there, so I convinced the new one that I was just visiting the Dicksteins, who live across the hall from the my parents.
I sneaked into his the apartment and looked for Phoebe, I forgot she likes to sleep in D.B.'s room when he is in Hollywood. Phoebe sleeping peacefully, children always look peaceful when they are asleep. While she was sleeping I read her old school books. She has signed her name “Phoebe Weatherfield Caulfield,” even though her middle name is Josephine. I enjoy reading the notes to friends, the curious questions, and the random imaginative jottings she scribbled on the pages.
I finally woke her up, she was really happy to see me and all. She started rambling on about one thing after another: her school play, in which she would play Benedict Arnold, a movie she has just seen, a movie D. B. is working on, a boy at school who bullies her, and the fact that our parents are at a party and won’t come home until later. When she calmed down she realized that I was home two days early and must have been kicked out of school. Over and over, she repeated that father will “kill” him. I tried to explain to her, but she refused to listen and covered her head with a pillow. Then I went to go and find some cigarettes.

Chapter 20

After Luce left, I stayed at the bar for a while, got very drunk and all. I found my way to the phone booth and made a late-night call to Sally Hayes, she wasn't too happy about the time. The thing was, I really wanted to trim her tree at Christmas, so I asked her a few times, to make sure she would remember and all. After I had finished talking to Sally I decided to walk to the duck pond in Central Park to see if the ducks were still around. On the way, I broke the record I had bought for Phoebe, that depressed the hell out of me. Then I got worried about getting pneumonia, I had forgotten I had splashed my hair with water to try and sober myself up, my hair was now beginning o freeze. Then I got to thinking about if I died, what would my funeral be like, and who would be there. I didn't go to Allie's funeral because I was in the hospital after breaking the garage windows with my bare hands. But I remember going to Allie’s grave with my parents. Boy they fix you up when your dead. I though about old Phoebe and decided I'd sneak home and see her, my parent should be asleep. I'd be quite as hell.

Chapter 19

At the Wicker Bar, which was right in this posh Seton Hotel, I started thinking about Luce. He's three years older than me and now he's a student at Columbia University. At the Whooton School, Luce used to tell the younger boys about sex and all. He killed you, he really did his is a bit of a phoney though. When Luce arrived, he was cool as hell. We got on the the subject of sex, I was asking questions and all, it was pretty interesting. Luce wouldn't answer them though, he just said he doesn't talk about it much since he left Whooton school. I told his that my sex life was lousy, he just said "Naturally. Your mind is immature." Thats when he suggested me talking to his father, who was a psychoanalysis. I asked Luce is his father had ever analysed him, he got quite mad after that because of my immature questions and left

Chapter 18

After leaving the skating rink, I went and got a Swiss cheese sandwich and a malted milk. Then I got Jane on the mind again, I though about calling her. I remember the time I saw her at a dance with a boy that was obviously a show-off, but Jane argued that the boy had an inferiority complex. Girls always use that same excuse to date arrogant boys. Finally, I called Jane, but no one answered. Then I thought I would give this guy I knew from Whooton School a buzz, he was called Carl Luce, he said he would meet me for drinks later that night.

To kill time, I went to see a movie at Radio City Music Hall. The show I watched, the Rockettes’ Christmas stage show, was ridiculous, full of phoney actors who knew they where good, a bit like Ernie, the piano player. I remember when me and Allie used to love the kettledrum player in the Radio City pit orchestra. The man was an unnoticed, minuscule part of the show, but he seemed to take joy and pride in what he did. After the show and the movie began, which was boring as well. When the movie was finally over I started walking to where I was supposed to meet Luce, it was called the Wicker Bar. After watching the movie, which was all about war and all I started think about what D.B. used to tell me about the army, I decided that I could never be in the military. I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll volunteer for it, I swear to god I will.

Chapter 17

At two o’clock, I went to meet Sally at the Biltmore Hotel; she was late but she looked stunning, so I immediately forgave her. We horsed around in the taxi on the way to the theater. When we were at the play, the actors really annoyed me because, like Ernie the piano player, they were almost too good at what they do and seemed really full of themselves, and all. During the intermission, Sally really irritated me by flirting with a pretentious boy from Andover, another prep school, but when she asked to go iceskating he agreed and took her to Radio City after the show.
While we were skating I though about how Sally might only have wanter to go ice-skating so she could wear the short skirts, her ass did look pretty cute though. When we took a break and sit down indoors, me and Sally really got to talking. I began to rant about all the phonies at the prep schools I'd been to and in New York, and all. Then I had this really great idea, me and Sally should run away together and escape from society, live on our own in a cabin, and all. Sally started saying that this dream was ridiculous, that when I got really agitated. We were arguing for quite a while when i said something that i regretted straight after, I called Sally a royal pain in the ass, thats when she started to cry. I apologized like a madman, but Sally was upset and angry with me, I couldn't take it any longer and left without her.

Chapter 16

After breakfast, I went for a walk. I thought about how selfless the nuns must be. I can’t imagine anyone I know being so generous and giving. I headed down Broadway to buy a record called “Little Shirley Beans” for Phoebe. I kinda like the record because, although it is for children, it is sung by a black blues singer who makes it sound raunchy, not cute. I thought about Phoebe, she is a wonderful girl, although she’s only ten, she always understands what I mean when I talk to her. You'd like her. I saw an oblivious little boy walking in the street, singing, “If a body catch a body coming through the rye.” That really gave my a big bang. I was that happy that i decided to give Jane a buzz, but i put the phone down when her mother answered the phone. I bought some tickets to a show called 'I Know My Love', for mine and Sally's date. She'd just die when I told her it was The Lunts.

I wanted to see old Phoebe, so I went to look for her in the park because she often roller-skates there on Sundays. I met this little girl who knows Phoebe. At first, she told me that Phoebe was on a school trip to the Museum of Natural History, but then she remembered that the trip was on the Saturday. Even though Phoebe wouldn't be there I walked to the museum anyway. I remembered the class trips I used to go on there. The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. It just kinda freezes time, everytime you went in, all the exhibits would be the same, even the same birds would be hanging from the ceiling. The only thing that would be different would be you. Not that you'd be so much older or anything. It wouldn't be that, exactly. You'd just be different, that's all. You'd have an overcoat on this time. Or the kid that was you partner in line last time had got scarlet fever and you'd have a new parter. Or you's have a substitute taking the class, instead of Miss Aigletinger. Or you'd heard you mother and father having a terrific fight in the bathroom. Or you'd just passed by one of those puddles in the street with gasoline rainbows in them. I mean you'd be different in some way - I can't explain what I mean. And even if I could, I'm not sure I'd feel like it. When I got there though, I didn't feel much like going in, if Phoebe was there I probably would have, but she wasn't. So I just got a cab down to the Biltmore to meet Sally.

Chapter 15

The next morning, I called Sally Hayes and made a date with her for later that afternoon. I checked out of the hotel and left my bags in a locker at Grand Central Station. I worried about losing my money, I remembered how my my father used to get when I lost things. While i had time to think, I was remembering my mother and how she hasn’t felt too healthy since my brother Allie died. Thats another reason that I can't tell her I got chucked out of Pencey, she might have a heartattack or something, she really might.
I went to eat breakfast at a little sandwich bar, where I met two nuns who were moving to Manhattan to teach in a school. I stuck up a conversation with one of the nuns about Romeo and Juliet. I saw that one of them had a little basket and asked if they were taking contributions because I was willing to make one. I eventually got them to take 10 dollars off me. After they left I realised just how much I shouldn't have given them that money, I needed it for my date with Sally. Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell.