第59章
《THE CATCHER IN THE RYE(麦田里的守望者英文版)》章节:第59章,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
she said right away. She put her arms around my neck and all. She's
very affectionate. I mean she's quite affectionate, for a child. Sometimes she's even too
affectionate. I sort of gave her a kiss, and she said, "Whenja get home7' She was glad as
hell to see me. You could tell.
"Not so loud. Just now. How are ya anyway?"
"I'm fine. Did you get my letter? I wrote you a five-page--"
"Yeah--not so loud. Thanks."
She wrote me this letter. I didn't get a chance to answer it, though. It was all about
this play she was in in school. She told me not to make any dates or anything for Friday
so that I could come see it.
"How's the play?" I asked her. "What'd you say the name of it was?"
"'A Christmas Pageant for Americans.' It stinks, but I'm Benedict Arnold. I have
practically the biggest part," she said. Boy, was she wide-awake. She gets very excited
when she tells you that stuff. "It starts out when I'm dying. This ghost comes in on
Christmas Eve and asks me if I'm ashamed and everything. You know. For betraying my
country and everything. Are you coming to it?" She was sitting way the hell up in the bed
and all. "That's what I wrote you about. Are you?"
"Sure I'm coming. Certainly I'm coming."
"Daddy can't come. He has to fly to California," she said. Boy, was she wide-
awake. It only takes her about two seconds to get wide-awake. She was sitting--sort of
kneeling--way up in bed, and she was holding my goddam hand. "Listen. Mother said
you'd be home Wednesday," she said. "She said Wednesday."
"I got out early. Not so loud. You'll wake everybody up."
"What time is it? They won't be home till very late, Mother said. They went to a
party in Norwalk, Connecticut," old Phoebe said. "Guess what I did this afternoon! What
movie I saw. Guess!"
"I don't know--Listen. Didn't they say what time they'd--"
"The Doctor," old Phoebe said. "It's a special movie they had at the Lister
Foundation. Just this one day they had it--today was the only day. It was all about this
doctor in Kentucky and everything that sticks a blanket over this child's face that's a
cripple and can't walk. Then they send him to jail and everything. It was excellent."
"Listen a second. Didn't they say what time they'd--"
"He feels sorry for it, the doctor. That's why he sticks this blanket over her face
and everything and makes her suffocate. Then they make him go to jail for life
imprisonment, but this child that he stuck the blanket over its head comes to visit him all
/>the time and thanks him for what he did. He was a mercy killer. Only, he knows he
deserves to go to jail because a doctor isn't supposed to take things away from God. This
girl in my class's mother took us. Alice Holmborg, She's my best friend. She's the only
girl in the whole--"
"Wait a second, willya?" I said. "I'm asking you a question. Did they say what
time they'd be back, or didn't they?"
"No, but not till very late. Daddy took the car and everything so they wouldn't
have to worry about trains. We have a radio in it now! Except that Mother said nobody
can play it when the car's in traffic."
I began to relax, sort of. I mean I finally quit worrying about whether they'd catch
me home or not. I figured the hell with it. If they did, they did.
You should've seen old Phoebe. She had on these blue pajamas with red elephants
on the collars. Elephants knock her out.
"So it was a good picture, huh?"