The Catcher in the Rye
Chapter 4
"Where is the light?" I couldn't find the light. Finally, I turned it on.
"Jesus!" Ackley said. "What the hell happened to you?"
"I had a little goddam fight with Stradlater," I said. "It's a long story. I don't want to bore you, Ackley." I never discussed my personal life with him. "Do you have any cigarettes, by any chance?"
"No, I don't. Listen, what the hell was the fight about?"
"About you," I said.
"About me, for Chrissake?"
"Yes. I was defending your goddam honour. Stradlater said you had a lousy personality. I couldn't let him get away with that stuff."
"He did? No kidding? He did?"
I told him I was only kidding, and then I went over andlaid down in Ackley's room. I left so damn lonely. I was laying on the bed, thinking about Jane and all. It just drove me mad when I thought about her and Stradlater parked somewhere in Ed Bankey'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. Ackley was sleeping and snoring like mad.
I heard old Stradlater come back in our room. You could hear him opening the window, turning off the light. He didn't even look around to see where I was at.
I got up and went out in the corridor. Everybody was asleep or out or home for the weekend, and it was very, very quiet and depressing in the corridor. All of a sudden, I decided what I would do. I'd get the hell out of Pencey - right that same night. I decided to take a room in a hotel in New York - some very inexpensive hotel - and just take it easy till Wednesday. Then on Wensday, I'd go home.
So I went back to the room and turned on the light, to start packing and all. Old Stradlater didn't even wake up. It only took me about two minnutes. After I got packed, I counted my money. I don't remember exactly how much I had, but quite a lot.
When I was ready to go, I stood for a while and look a last look down the goddam corridor. I was sort of crying. I don't know why.
I put my red hunting hat on, and turned the peak around to the back, the way I like it, and then I shouted very loudly, "Sleep tight, you morons!" I think I woke up everybody.Then I got out.
It was too late to find a cab, so I walked the whole way to the station. It wasn't too far, but it was cold as hell, and the snow made it hard for walking. I enjoyed the air.
I was quite lucky when i got to the station, because I only had to wait about ten minutes for a train. While I waited, I got some snow in my hand and washed my face with it. I still had a bit of blood on.
Usually I like riding on trains. I buy a ham sandwith and about four magazines. If I'm on a train at night, I can usually even read one of those stupid stories in a magazine. But this time it was different. I just didn't feel like it. I tiik off my hunting hat and put it in my pocket.
All of a sudden, the lady got on at Trenton station and sat down next to me. Practically the whole car was empty, because it was late, but she sat down next to me. She was about forty or forty-five, I think,but she was very good-looking. Women kill me. They really do. I just like them.
Anyway, we were sitting there, and all of a sudden she said to me, "Excuse me, but isn't that a Pencey Prep sticker?" She was looking up at my suitcases.
"Yes, it is," i said. She was right. I did have a goddam Pencey sticker on one of my suitcases.
"Oh, do you go to Pencey?" she said. She had a nice voice.
"Yes, I do," I said.
"Oh, how lovely! Perhaps you know my son then, Ernest Morrow? He goes to Pencey."
"Yes, I do. He's in my class."
Her son was doubtless the biggest bastard that ever went to Pencey, in the whole history of the school. "On, how nice!" the lady said. She was just nice and all. "I must tell Ernest we met," she said. "May, I ask your name, dear?"

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