The Catcher in the Rye Read online

  I didn’t even answer him. I just threw the pieces in the wastebasket. Then I lay down on my bed, and we both didn’t say anything for a long time. He got all undressed, down to his shorts, and I lay on my bed and lit a cigarette. You weren’t allowed to smoke in the dorm, but you could do it late at night when everybody was asleep or out and nobody could smell the smoke. Besides, I did it to annoy Stradlater. It drove him crazy when you broke any rules. He never smoked in the dorm. It was only me.

  He still didn’t say one single solitary word about Jane. So finally I said, “You’re back pretty goddam late if she only signed out for nine-thirty. Did you make her be late signing in?”

  He was sitting on the edge of his bed, cutting his goddam toenails, when I asked him that. “Coupla minutes,” he said. “Who the hell signs out for nine-thirty on a Saturday night?” God, how I hated him.

  “Did you go to New York?” I said.

  “Ya crazy? How the hell could we go to New York if she only signed out for nine-thirty?”

  “That’s tough.”

  He looked up at me. “Listen,” he said, “if you’re gonna smoke in the room, how ’bout going down to the can and do it? You may be getting the hell out of here, but I have to stick around long enough to graduate.”

  I ignored him. I really did. I went right on smoking like a madman. All I did was sort of turn over on my side and watched him cut his damn toenails. What a school. You were always watching somebody cut their damn toenails or squeeze their pimples or something.

  “Did you give her my regards?” I asked him.

  “Yeah.”

  The hell he did, the bastard.

  “What’d she say?” I said. “Did you ask her if she still keeps all her kings in the back row?”

  “No, I didn’t ask her. What the hell ya think we did all night—play checkers, for Chrissake?”

  I didn’t even answer him. God, how I hated him.

  “If you didn’t go to New York, where’d ya go with her?” I asked him, after a little while. I could hardly keep my voice from shaking all over the place. Boy, was I getting nervous. I just had a feeling something had gone funny.

  He was finished cutting his damn toenails. So he got up from the bed, in just his damn shorts and all, and started getting very damn playful. He came over to my bed and started leaning over me and taking these playful as hell socks at my shoulder. “Cut it out,” I said. “Where’d you go with her if you didn’t go to New York?”

  “Nowhere. We just sat in the goddam car.” He gave me another one of those playful stupid little socks on the shoulder.

  “Cut it out,” I said. “Whose car?”

  “Ed Banky’s.”

  Ed Banky was the basketball coach at Pencey. Old Stradlater was one of his pets, because he was the center on the team, and Ed Banky always let him borrow his car when he wanted it. It wasn’t allowed for students to borrow faculty guys’ cars, but all the athletic bastards stuck together. In every school I’ve gone to, all the athletic bastards stick together.

  Stradlater kept taking these shadow punches down at my shoulder. He had his toothbrush in his hand, and he put it in his mouth. “What’d you do?” I said. “Give her the time in Ed Banky’s goddam car?” My voice was shaking something awful.

  “What a thing to say. Want me to wash your mouth out with soap?”

  “Did you?”

  “That’s a professional secret, buddy.”

  This next part I don’t remember so hot. All I know is I got up from the bed, like I was going down to the can or something, and then I tried to sock him, with all my might, right smack in the toothbrush, so it would split his goddam throat open. Only, I missed. I didn’t connect. All I did was sort of get him on the side of the head or something. It probably hurt him a little bit, but not as much as I wanted. It probably would’ve hurt him a lot, but I did it with my right hand, and I can’t make a good fist with that hand. On account of that injury I told you about.

  Anyway, the next thing I knew, I was on the goddam floor and he was sitting on my chest, with his face all red. That is, he had his goddam knees on my chest, and he weighed about a ton. He had hold of my wrists, too, so I couldn’t take another sock at him. I’d’ve killed him.

  “What the hell’s the matter with you?” he kept saying, and his stupid face kept getting redder and redder.

  “Get your lousy knees off my chest,” I told him. I was almost bawling. I really was. “Go on, get off a me, ya crumby bastard.”

  He wouldn’t do it, though. He kept holding onto my wrists and I kept calling him a sonuvabitch and all, for around ten hours. I can hardly even remember what all I said to him. I told him he thought he could give the time to anybody he felt like. I told him he didn’t even care if a girl kept all her kings in the back row or not, and the reason he didn’t care was because he was a goddam stupid moron. He hated it when you called a moron. All morons hate it when you call them a moron.

  “Shut up, now, Holden,” he said with his big stupid red face. “Just shut up, now.”

  “You don’t even know if her first name is Jane or Jean, ya goddam moron!”

  “Now, shut up, Holden, God damn it—I’m warning ya,” he said—I really had him going. “If you don’t shut up, I’m gonna slam ya one.”

  “Get your dirty stinking moron knees off my chest.”

  “If I letcha up, will you keep your mouth shut?”

  I didn’t even answer him.

  He said it over again. “Holden. If I letcha up, willya keep your mouth shut?”

  “Yes.”

  He got up off me, and I got up, too. My chest hurt like hell from his dirty knees. “You’re a dirty stupid sonuvabitch of a moron,” I told him.

  That got him really mad. He shook his big stupid finger in my face. “Holden, God damn it, I’m warning you, now. For the last time. If you don’t keep your yap shut, I’m gonna—”

  “Why should I?” I said—I was practically yelling. “That’s just the trouble with all you morons. You never want to discuss anything. That’s the way you can always tell a moron. They never want to discuss anything intellig—”

  Then he really let one go at me, and the next thing I knew I was on the goddam floor again. I don’t remember if he knocked me out or not, but I don’t think so. It’s pretty hard to knock a guy out, except in the goddam movies. But my nose was bleeding all over the place. When I looked up old Stradlater was standing practically right on top of me. He had his goddam toilet kit under his arm. “Why the hell don’tcha shut up when I tellya to?” he said. He sounded pretty nervous. He probably was scared he’d fractured my skull or something when I hit the floor. It’s too bad I didn’t. “You asked for it, God damn it,” he said. Boy, did he look worried.

  I didn’t even bother to get up. I just lay there in the floor for a while, and kept calling him a moron sonuvabitch. I was so mad, I was practically bawling.

  “Listen. Go wash your face,” Stradlater said. “Ya hear me?”

  I told him to go wash his own moron face—which was a pretty childish thing to say, but I was mad as hell. I told him to stop off on the way to the can and give Mrs. Schmidt the time. Mrs. Schmidt was the janitor’s wife. She was around sixty-five.

  I kept sitting there on the floor till I heard old Stradlater close the door and go down the corridor to the can. Then I got up. I couldn’t find my goddam hunting hat anywhere. Finally I found it. It was under the bed. I put it on, and turned the old peak around to the back, the way I liked it, and then I went over and took a look at my stupid face in the mirror. You never saw such gore in your life. I had blood all over my mouth and chin and even on my pajamas and bath robe. It partly scared me and it partly fascinated me. All that blood and all sort of made me look tough. I’d only been in about two fights in my life, and I lost both of them. I’m not too tough. I’m a pacifist, if you want to know the truth.

  I had a feeling old Ackley’d probably heard all the racket and was awake. So I went through the shower curtains into
his room, just to see what the hell he was doing. I hardly ever went over to his room. It always had a funny stink in it, because he was so crumby in his personal habits.

  7

  A tiny bit of light came through the shower curtains and all from our room, and I could see him lying in bed. I knew damn well he was wide awake. “Ackley?” I said. “Y’awake?”

  “Yeah.”

  It was pretty dark, and I stepped on somebody’s shoe on the floor and damn near fell on my head. Ackley sort of sat up in bed and leaned on his arm. He had a lot of white stuff on his face, for his pimples. He looked sort of spooky in the dark. “What the hellya doing, anyway?” I said.

  “Wuddaya mean what the hell am I doing? I was tryna sleep before you guys started making all that noise. What the hell was the fight about, anyhow?”

  “Where’s the light?” I couldn’t find the light. I was sliding my hand all over the wall.

  “Wuddaya want the light for?… Right next to your hand.”

  I finally found the switch and turned it on. Old Ackley put his hand up so the light wouldn’t hurt his eyes.

  “Jesus!” he said. “What the hell happened to you?” He meant all the blood and all.

  “I had a little goddam tiff with Stradlater,” I said. Then I sat down on the floor. They never had any chairs in their room. I don’t know what the hell they did with their chairs. “Listen,” I said, “do you feel like playing a little Canasta?” He was a Canasta fiend.

  “You’re still bleeding, for Chrissake. You better put something on it.”

  “It’ll stop. Listen. Ya wanna play a little Canasta or don’tcha?”

  “Canasta, for Chrissake. Do you know what time it is, by any chance?”

  “It isn’t late. It’s only around eleven, eleven-thirty.”

  “Only around!” Ackley said. “Listen. I gotta get up and go to Mass in the morning, for Chrissake. You guys start hollering and fighting in the middle of the goddam—What the hell was the fight about, anyhow?”

  “It’s a long story. I don’t wanna bore ya, Ackley. I’m thinking of your welfare,” I told him. I never discussed my personal life with him. In the first place, he was even more stupid than Stradlater. Stradlater was a goddam genius next to Ackley. “Hey,” I said, “is it okay if I sleep in Ely’s bed tonight? He won’t be back till tomorrow night, will he?” I knew damn well he wouldn’t. Ely went home damn near every week end.

  “I don’t know when the hell he’s coming back,” Ackley said.

  Boy, did that annoy me. “What the hell do you mean you don’t know when he’s coming back? He never comes back till Sunday night, does he?”

  “No, but for Chrissake, I can’t just tell somebody they can sleep in his goddam bed if they want to.”

  That killed me. I reached up from where I was sitting on the floor and patted him on the goddam shoulder. “You’re a prince, Ackley kid,” I said. “You know that?”

  “No, I mean it—I can’t just tell somebody they can sleep in—”

  “You’re a real prince. You’re a gentleman and a scholar, kid,” I said. He really was, too. “Do you happen to have any cigarettes, by any chance?—Say ‘no’ or I’ll drop dead.”

  “No, I don’t, as a matter of fact. Listen, what the hell was the fight about?”

  I didn’t answer him. All I did was, I got up and went over and looked out the window. I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead.

  “What the hell was the fight about, anyhow?” Ackley said, for about the fiftieth time. He certainly was a bore about that.

  “About you,” I said.

  “About me, for Chrissake?”

  “Yeah. I was defending your goddam honor. Stradlater said you had a lousy personality. I couldn’t let him get away with that stuff.”

  That got him excited. “He did? No kidding? He did?”

  I told him I was only kidding, and then I went over and laid down on Ely’s bed. Boy, did I feel rotten. I felt so damn lonesome.

  “This room stinks,” I said. “I can smell your socks from way over here. Don’tcha ever send them to the laundry?”

  “If you don’t like it, you know what you can do,” Ackley said. What a witty guy. “How ’bout turning off the goddam light?”

  I didn’t turn it off right away, though. I just kept laying there on Ely’s bed, thinking about Jane and all. It just drove me stark staring mad when I thought about her and Stradlater parked somewhere in that fat-assed Ed Banky’s car. Every time I thought about it, I felt like jumping out the window. The thing is, you didn’t know Stradlater. I knew him. Most guys at Pencey just talked about having sexual intercourse with girls all the time—like Ackley, for instance—but old Stradlater really did it. I was personally acquainted with at least two girls he gave the time to. That’s the truth.

  “Tell me the story of your fascinating life, Ackley kid,” I said.

  “How ’bout turning off the goddam light? I gotta get up for Mass in the morning.”

  I got up and turned it off, if it made him happy. Then I laid down on Ely’s bed again.

  “What’re ya gonna do—sleep in Ely’s bed?” Ackley said. He was the perfect host, boy.

  “I may. I may not. Don’t worry about it.”

  “I’m not worried about it. Only, I’d hate like hell if Ely came in all of a sudden and found some guy—”

  “Relax. I’m not gonna sleep here. I wouldn’t abuse your goddam hospitality.”

  A couple of minutes later, he was snoring like mad. I kept laying there in the dark anyway, though, trying not to think about old Jane and Stradlater in that goddam Ed Banky’s car. But it was almost impossible. The trouble was, I knew that guy Stradlater’s technique. That made it even worse. We once double-dated, in Ed Banky’s car, and Stradlater was in the back, with his date, and I was in the front with mine. What a technique that guy had. What he’d do was, he’d start snowing his date in this very quiet, sincere voice—like as if he wasn’t only a very handsome guy but a nice, sincere guy, too. I damn near puked, listening to him. His date kept saying, “No—please. Please, don’t. Please.” But old Stradlater kept snowing her in this Abraham Lincoln, sincere voice, and finally there’d be this terrific silence in the back of the car. It was really embarrassing. I don’t think he gave that girl the time that night—but damn near. Damn near.

  While I was laying there trying not to think, I heard old Stradlater come back from the can and go in our room. You could hear him putting away his crumby toilet articles and all, and opening the window. He was a fresh-air fiend. Then, a little while later, he turned off the light. He didn’t even look around to see where I was at.

  It was even depressing out in the street. You couldn’t even hear any cars any more. I got feeling so lonesome and rotten, I even felt like waking Ackley up.

  “Hey, Ackley,” I said, in sort of a whisper, so Stradlater couldn’t hear me through the shower curtain.

  Ackley didn’t hear me, though.

  “Hey, Ackley!”

  He still didn’t hear me. He slept like a rock.

  “Hey, Ackley!”

  He heard that, all right.

  “What the hell’s the matter with you?” he said. “I was asleep, for Chrissake.”

  “Listen. What’s the routine on joining a monastery?” I asked him. I was sort of toying with the idea of joining one. “Do you have to be a Catholic and all?”

  “Certainly you have to be a Catholic. You bastard, did you wake me just to ask me a dumb ques—”

  “Aah, go back to sleep. I’m not gonna join one anyway. The kind of luck I have, I’d probably join one with all the wrong kind of monks in it. All stupid bastards. Or just bastards.”

  When I said that, old Ackley sat way the hell up in bed. “Listen,” he said, “I don’t care what you say about me or anything, but if you start making cracks about my goddam religion, for Chrissake—”

  “Relax,” I said. “Nobody’s making any cracks about your goddam religion.” I got up
off Ely’s bed, and started towards the door. I didn’t want to hang around in that stupid atmosphere any more. I stopped on the way, though, and picked up Ackley’s hand, and gave him a big, phony handshake. He pulled it away from me. “What’s the idea?” he said.

  “No idea. I just want to thank you for being such a goddam prince, that’s all,” I said. I said it in this very sincere voice. “You’re aces, Ackley kid,” I said. “You know that?”

  “Wise guy. Someday somebody’s gonna bash your—”

  I didn’t even bother to listen to him. I shut the damn door and went out in the corridor.

  Everybody was asleep or out or home for the week end, and it was very, very quiet and depressing in the corridor. There was this empty box of Kolynos toothpaste outside Leahy and Hoffman’s door, and while I walked down towards the stairs, I kept giving it a boot with this sheep-lined slipper I had on. What I thought I’d do, I thought I might go down and see what old Mal Brossard was doing. But all of a sudden, I changed my mind. All of a sudden, I decided what I’d really do, I’d get the hell out of Pencey—right that same night and all. I mean not wait till Wednesday or anything. I just didn’t want to hang around any more. It made me too sad and lonesome. So what I decided to do, I decided I’d take a room in a hotel in New York—some very inexpensive hotel and all—and just take it easy till Wednesday. Then, on Wednesday, I’d go home all rested up and feeling swell. I figured my parents probably wouldn’t get old Thurmer’s letter saying I’d been given the ax till maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. I didn’t want to go home or anything till they got it and thoroughly digested it and all. I didn’t want to be around when they first got it. My mother gets very hysterical. She’s not too bad after she gets something thoroughly digested, though. Besides, I sort of needed a little vacation. My nerves were shot. They really were.

  Anyway, that’s what I decided I’d do. So I went back to the room and turned on the light, to start packing and all. I already had quite a few things packed. Old Stradlater didn’t even wake up. I lit a cigarette and got all dressed and then I packed these two Gladstones I have. It only took me about two minutes. I’m a very rapid packer.