{"id":"01KG0725JTBB28D6YDVSDHWHNJ","cid":"bafkreibhgxuga4lair75yedp64m6k2cbmjmesmo5zm6ixwprilitc66ehi","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# Chapter 20 of *The Catcher in the Rye*\n\n## Overview \nThis entity is [Chapter 20](arke:01KG0725JTBB28D6YDVSDHWHNJ) of *The Catcher in the Rye*, a novel by J.D. Salinger. The chapter is presented as a continuous narrative text extracted from pages 81–84 of the source document, capturing a pivotal and emotionally turbulent night in the life of the protagonist, Holden Caulfield. It is part of the larger digital collection titled [More Classics](arke:01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS), which includes canonical literary works.\n\n## Context \nThe chapter is situated within Holden’s journey through New York City after leaving Pencey Prep. Deeply alienated and emotionally fragile, he spends the evening at a bar, drinking heavily and descending into a state of psychological distress. The narrative reflects his deteriorating mental state, marked by fantasies of physical injury, loneliness, and intrusive thoughts about death. References to his late brother Allie and his younger sister Phoebe underscore the emotional weight driving his actions. The chapter builds on earlier themes of innocence, grief, and the phoniness Holden perceives in the adult world.\n\n## Contents \nThe chapter details Holden’s drunken visit to a bar where he becomes infatuated with a new performer, Valencia, and attempts to contact her through the headwaiter. After failing to connect, he calls Sally Hayes in a drunken state, proposing to visit her on Christmas Eve, but she dismisses him. He then retreats into a phone booth, dunks his head in water to sober up, and speaks briefly with the pianist before breaking down in the hat-check room. Leaving the bar, he walks to Central Park to check on the ducks in the lagoon, but drops and breaks the record he had bought for Phoebe. Sitting on a bench, he becomes consumed by morbid thoughts—fearing pneumonia, imagining his own funeral, and reflecting on Allie’s death and the pain of visiting his grave. Overwhelmed by the thought of Phoebe’s grief if he were to die, he decides to return home to see her, despite the risk of being caught. The chapter ends as he begins walking through the cold, empty streets toward his family’s apartment, emotionally raw and isolated.","description_generated_at":"2026-01-27T17:22:16.300Z","description_model":"Qwen/Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507","description_title":"Chapter 20 of *The Catcher in the Rye*","end_line":3914,"extracted_at":"2026-01-27T17:12:16.507Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"20","source_file":"01KFYTG9MG93RTB6YAW34V48XG","start_line":3726,"text":" 3567\t20\n 3568\tI kept sitting there getting drunk and waiting for old Tina and Janine to come out\n 3569\tand do their stuff, but they weren't there. A flitty-looking guy with wavy hair came out\n 3570\tand played the piano, and then this new babe, Valencia, came out and sang. She wasn't\n 3571\tany good, but she was better than old Tina and Janine, and at least she sang good songs.\n 3572\tThe piano was right next to the bar where I was sitting and all, and old Valencia was\n 3573\tstanding practically right next to me. I sort of gave her the old eye, but she pretended she\n 3574\tdidn't even see me. I probably wouldn't have done it, but I was getting drunk as hell.\n 3575\tWhen she was finished, she beat it out of the room so fast I didn't even get a chance to\n 3576\tinvite her to join me for a drink, so I called the headwaiter over. I told him to ask old\n 3577\tValencia if she'd care to join me for a drink. He said he would, but he probably didn't\n 3578\teven give her my message. People never give your message to anybody.\n 3579\tBoy, I sat at that goddam bar till around one o'clock or so, getting drunk as a\n 3580\tbastard. I could hardly see straight. The one thing I did, though, I was careful as hell not\n 3581\tto get boisterous or anything. I didn't want anybody to notice me or anything or ask how\n 3582\told I was. But, boy, I could hardly see straight. When I was really drunk, I started that\n 3583\tstupid business with the bullet in my guts again. I was the only guy at the bar with a\n 3584\tbullet in their guts. I kept putting my hand under my jacket, on my stomach and all, to\n 3585\tkeep the blood from dripping all over the place. I didn't want anybody to know I was\n 3586\teven wounded. I was concealing the fact that I was a wounded sonuvabitch. Finally what\n 3587\tI felt like, I felt like giving old Jane a buzz and see if she was home yet. So I paid my\n\n\n 3588\tcheck and all. Then I left the bar and went out where the telephones were. I kept keeping\n 3589\tmy hand under my jacket to keep the blood from dripping. Boy, was I drunk.\n 3590\tBut when I got inside this phone booth, I wasn't much in the mood any more to\n 3591\tgive old Jane a buzz. I was too drunk, I guess. So what I did, I gave old Sally Hayes a\n 3592\tbuzz.\n 3593\tI had to dial about twenty numbers before I got the right one. Boy, was I blind.\n 3594\t\"Hello,\" I said when somebody answered the goddam phone. I sort of yelled it, I\n 3595\twas so drunk.\n 3596\t\"Who is this?\" this very cold lady's voice said.\n 3597\t\"This is me. Holden Caulfield. Lemme speaka Sally, please.\"\n 3598\t\"Sally's asleep. This is Sally's grandmother. Why are you calling at this hour,\n 3599\tHolden? Do you know what time it is?\"\n 3600\t\"Yeah. Wanna talka Sally. Very important. Put her on.\"\n 3601\t\"Sally's asleep, young man. Call her tomorrow. Good night.\"\n 3602\t\"Wake 'er up! Wake 'er up, hey. Attaboy.\"\n 3603\tThen there was a different voice. \"Holden, this is me.\" It was old Sally. \"What's\n 3604\tthe big idea?\"\n 3605\t\"Sally? That you?\"\n 3606\t\"Yes--stop screaming. Are you drunk?\"\n 3607\t\"Yeah. Listen. Listen, hey. I'll come over Christmas Eve. Okay? Trimma goddarn\n 3608\ttree for ya. Okay? Okay, hey, Sally?\"\n 3609\t\"Yes. You're drunk. Go to bed now. Where are you? Who's with you?\"\n 3610\t\"Sally? I'll come over and trimma tree for ya, okay? Okay, hey?\"\n 3611\t\"Yes. Go to bed now. Where are you? Who's with you?\"\n 3612\t\"Nobody. Me, myself and I.\" Boy was I drunk! I was even still holding onto my\n 3613\tguts. \"They got me. Rocky's mob got me. You know that? Sally, you know that?\"\n 3614\t\"I can't hear you. Go to bed now. I have to go. Call me tomorrow.\"\n 3615\t\"Hey, Sally! You want me trimma tree for ya? Ya want me to? Huh?\"\n 3616\t\"Yes. Good night. Go home and go to bed.\"\n 3617\tShe hung up on me.\n 3618\t\"G'night. G'night, Sally baby. Sally sweetheart darling,\" I said. Can you imagine\n 3619\thow drunk I was? I hung up too, then. I figured she probably just came home from a date.\n 3620\tI pictured her out with the Lunts and all somewhere, and that Andover jerk. All of them\n 3621\tswimming around in a goddam pot of tea and saying sophisticated stuff to each other and\n 3622\tbeing charming and phony. I wished to God I hadn't even phoned her. When I'm drunk,\n 3623\tI'm a madman.\n 3624\tI stayed in the damn phone booth for quite a while. I kept holding onto the phone,\n 3625\tsort of, so I wouldn't pass out. I wasn't feeling too marvelous, to tell you the truth.\n 3626\tFinally, though, I came out and went in the men's room, staggering around like a moron,\n 3627\tand filled one of the washbowls with cold water. Then I dunked my head in it, right up to\n 3628\tthe ears. I didn't even bother to dry it or anything. I just let the sonuvabitch drip. Then I\n 3629\twalked over to this radiator by the window and sat down on it. It was nice and warm. It\n 3630\tfelt good because I was shivering like a bastard. It's a funny thing, I always shiver like\n 3631\thell when I'm drunk.\n 3632\tI didn't have anything else to do, so I kept sitting on the radiator and counting\n 3633\tthese little white squares on the floor. I was getting soaked. About a gallon of water was\n\n\n 3634\tdripping down my neck, getting all over my collar and tie and all, but I didn't give a\n 3635\tdamn. I was too drunk to give a damn. Then, pretty soon, the guy that played the piano\n 3636\tfor old Valencia, this very wavyhaired, flitty-looking guy, came in to comb his golden\n 3637\tlocks. We sort of struck up a conversation while he was combing it, except that he wasn't\n 3638\ttoo goddam friendly.\n 3639\t\"Hey. You gonna see that Valencia babe when you go back in the bar?\" I asked\n 3640\thim.\n 3641\t\"It's highly probable,\" he said. Witty bastard. All I ever meet is witty bastards.\n 3642\t\"Listen. Give her my compliments. Ask her if that goddam waiter gave her my\n 3643\tmessage, willya?\"\n 3644\t\"Why don't you go home, Mac? How old are you, anyway?\"\n 3645\t\"Eighty-six. Listen. Give her my compliments. Okay?\"\n 3646\t\"Why don't you go home, Mac?\"\n 3647\t\"Not me. Boy, you can play that goddam piano.\" I told him. I was just flattering\n 3648\thim. He played the piano stinking, if you want to know the truth. \"You oughta go on the\n 3649\tradio,\" I said. \"Handsome chap like you. All those goddam golden locks. Ya need a\n 3650\tmanager?\"\n 3651\t\"Go home, Mac, like a good guy. Go home and hit the sack.\"\n 3652\t\"No home to go to. No kidding--you need a manager?\"\n 3653\tHe didn't answer me. He just went out. He was all through combing his hair and\n 3654\tpatting it and all, so he left. Like Stradlater. All these handsome guys are the same. When\n 3655\tthey're done combing their goddam hair, they beat it on you.\n 3656\tWhen I finally got down off the radiator and went out to the hat-check room, I\n 3657\twas crying and all. I don't know why, but I was. I guess it was because I was feeling so\n 3658\tdamn depressed and lonesome. Then, when I went out to the checkroom, I couldn't find\n 3659\tmy goddam check. The hat-check girl was very nice about it, though. She gave me my\n 3660\tcoat anyway. And my \"Little Shirley Beans\" record--I still had it with me and all. I gave\n 3661\ther a buck for being so nice, but she wouldn't take it. She kept telling me to go home and\n 3662\tgo to bed. I sort of tried to make a date with her for when she got through working, but\n 3663\tshe wouldn't do it. She said she was old enough to be my mother and all. I showed her\n 3664\tmy goddam gray hair and told her I was forty-two--I was only horsing around, naturally.\n 3665\tShe was nice, though. I showed her my goddam red hunting hat, and she liked it. She\n 3666\tmade me put it on before I went out, because my hair was still pretty wet. She was all\n 3667\tright.\n 3668\tI didn't feel too drunk any more when I went outside, but it was getting very cold\n 3669\tout again, and my teeth started chattering like hell. I couldn't make them stop. I walked\n 3670\tover to Madison Avenue and started to wait around for a bus because I didn't have hardly\n 3671\tany money left and I had to start economizing on cabs and all. But I didn't feel like\n 3672\tgetting on a damn bus. And besides, I didn't even know where I was supposed to go. So\n 3673\twhat I did, I started walking over to the park. I figured I'd go by that little lake and see\n 3674\twhat the hell the ducks were doing, see if they were around or not, I still didn't know if\n 3675\tthey were around or not. It wasn't far over to the park, and I didn't have anyplace else\n 3676\tspecial to go to--I didn't even know where I was going to sleep yet--so I went. I wasn't\n 3677\ttired or anything. I just felt blue as hell.\n 3678\tThen something terrible happened just as I got in the park. I dropped old Phoebe's\n 3679\trecord. It broke-into about fifty pieces. It was in a big envelope and all, but it broke\n\n\n 3680\tanyway. I damn near cried, it made me feel so terrible, but all I did was, I took the pieces\n 3681\tout of the envelope and put them in my coat pocket. They weren't any good for anything,\n 3682\tbut I didn't feel like just throwing them away. Then I went in the park. Boy, was it dark.\n 3683\tI've lived in New York all my life, and I know Central Park like the back of my\n 3684\thand, because I used to roller-skate there all the time and ride my bike when I was a kid,\n 3685\tbut I had the most terrific trouble finding that lagoon that night. I knew right where it\n 3686\twas--it was right near Central Park South and all--but I still couldn't find it. I must've\n 3687\tbeen drunker than I thought. I kept walking and walking, and it kept getting darker and\n 3688\tdarker and spookier and spookier. I didn't see one person the whole time I was in the\n 3689\tpark. I'm just as glad. I probably would've jumped about a mile if I had. Then, finally, I\n 3690\tfound it. What it was, it was partly frozen and partly not frozen. But I didn't see any\n 3691\tducks around. I walked all around the whole damn lake--I damn near fell in once, in fact-\n 3692\t-but I didn't see a single duck. I thought maybe if there were any around, they might be\n 3693\tasleep or something near the edge of the water, near the grass and all. That's how I nearly\n 3694\tfell in. But I couldn't find any.\n 3695\tFinally I sat down on this bench, where it wasn't so goddam dark. Boy, I was still\n 3696\tshivering like a bastard, and the back of my hair, even though I had my hunting hat on,\n 3697\twas sort of full of little hunks of ice. That worried me. I thought probably I'd get\n 3698\tpneumonia and die. I started picturing millions of jerks coming to my funeral and all. My\n 3699\tgrandfather from Detroit, that keeps calling out the numbers of the streets when you ride\n 3700\ton a goddam bus with him, and my aunts--I have about fifty aunts--and all my lousy\n 3701\tcousins. What a mob'd be there. They all came when Allie died, the whole goddam stupid\n 3702\tbunch of them. I have this one stupid aunt with halitosis that kept saying how peaceful he\n 3703\tlooked lying there, D.B. told me. I wasn't there. I was still in the hospital. I had to go to\n 3704\tthe hospital and all after I hurt my hand. Anyway, I kept worrying that I was getting\n 3705\tpneumonia, with all those hunks of ice in my hair, and that I was going to die. I felt sorry\n 3706\tas hell for my mother and father. Especially my mother, because she still isn't over my\n 3707\tbrother Allie yet. I kept picturing her not knowing what to do with all my suits and\n 3708\tathletic equipment and all. The only good thing, I knew she wouldn't let old Phoebe come\n 3709\tto my goddam funeral because she was only a little kid. That was the only good part.\n 3710\tThen I thought about the whole bunch of them sticking me in a goddam cemetery and all,\n 3711\twith my name on this tombstone and all. Surrounded by dead guys. Boy, when you're\n 3712\tdead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to\n 3713\tjust dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam\n 3714\tcemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and\n 3715\tall that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.\n 3716\tWhen the weather's nice, my parents go out quite frequently and stick a bunch of\n 3717\tflowers on old Allie's grave. I went with them a couple of times, but I cut it out. In the\n 3718\tfirst place, I certainly don't enjoy seeing him in that crazy cemetery. Surrounded by dead\n 3719\tguys and tombstones and all. It wasn't too bad when the sun was out, but twice--twice--\n 3720\twe were there when it started to rain. It was awful. It rained on his lousy tombstone, and\n 3721\tit rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place. All the visitors that were\n 3722\tvisiting the cemetery started running like hell over to their cars. That's what nearly drove\n 3723\tme crazy. All the visitors could get in their cars and turn on their radios and all and then\n 3724\tgo someplace nice for dinner--everybody except Allie. I couldn't stand it. I know it's only\n 3725\this body and all that's in the cemetery, and his soul's in Heaven and all that crap, but I\n\n\n 3726\tcouldn't stand it anyway. I just wish he wasn't there. You didn't know him. If you'd\n 3727\tknown him, you'd know what I mean. It's not too bad when the sun's out, but the sun only\n 3728\tcomes out when it feels like coming out.\n 3729\tAfter a while, just to get my mind off getting pneumonia and all, I took out my\n 3730\tdough and tried to count it in the lousy light from the street lamp. All I had was three\n 3731\tsingles and five quarters and a nickel left--boy, I spent a fortune since I left Pencey. Then\n 3732\twhat I did, I went down near the lagoon and I sort of skipped the quarters and the nickel\n 3733\tacross it, where it wasn't frozen. I don't know why I did it, but I did it. I guess I thought\n 3734\tit'd take my mind off getting pneumonia and dying. It didn't, though.\n 3735\tI started thinking how old Phoebe would feel if I got pneumonia and died. It was a\n 3736\tchildish way to think, but I couldn't stop myself. She'd feel pretty bad if something like\n 3737\tthat happened. She likes me a lot. I mean she's quite fond of me. She really is. Anyway, I\n 3738\tcouldn't get that off my mind, so finally what I figured I'd do, I figured I'd better sneak\n 3739\thome and see her, in case I died and all. I had my door key with me and all, and I figured\n 3740\twhat I'd do, I'd sneak in the apartment, very quiet and all, and just sort of chew the fat\n 3741\twith her for a while. The only thing that worried me was our front door. It creaks like a\n 3742\tbastard. It's a pretty old apartment house, and the superintendent's a lazy bastard, and\n 3743\teverything creaks and squeaks. I was afraid my parents might hear me sneaking in. But I\n 3744\tdecided I'd try it anyhow.\n 3745\tSo I got the hell out of the park, and went home. I walked all the way. It wasn't\n 3746\ttoo far, and I wasn't tired or even drunk any more. It was just very cold and nobody\n 3747\taround anywhere.","title":"20"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS","peer_label":"More Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG07C9A4FQW536J86PRD3KZB","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG07C9CNRHD9ZH182XAWVHRN","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG07C9C153WYX3Z4QGFY1G8R","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG07CZ1KT4D3222SKRN717B3","peer_label":"Chunk 4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG07C9A44MEZ479E66SP638X","peer_label":"Chunk 5","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"contains"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-27T17:12:17.341Z","ts":"2026-01-27T17:22:16.641Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}