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.