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.