{"id":"01KG073JRSDEMF9MV6VD41TTGD","cid":"bafkreicikmpikspixlxywokg77atctl5vxvppg5zsfxuw4yjoav7p32goa","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":362,"extracted_at":"2026-01-27T17:13:03.336Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KFYTG9MG93RTB6YAW34V48XG","start_line":314,"text":" 301\tcover up his bumpy chest. It wasn't such a beautiful view.\n 302\t\"If I'm not mistaken, I believe you also had some difficulty at the Whooton\n 303\tSchool and at Elkton Hills.\" He didn't say it just sarcastic, but sort of nasty, too.\n 304\t\"I didn't have too much difficulty at Elkton Hills,\" I told him. \"I didn't exactly\n 305\tflunk out or anything. I just quit, sort of.\"\n\n\n 306\t\"Why, may I ask?\"\n 307\t\"Why? Oh, well it's a long story, sir. I mean it's pretty complicated.\" I didn't feel\n 308\tlike going into the whole thing with him. He wouldn't have understood it anyway. It\n 309\twasn't up his alley at all. One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was\n 310\tsurrounded by phonies. That's all. They were coming in the goddam window. For\n 311\tinstance, they had this headmaster, Mr. Haas, that was the phoniest bastard I ever met in\n 312\tmy life. Ten times worse than old Thurmer. On Sundays, for instance, old Haas went\n 313\taround shaking hands with everybody's parents when they drove up to school. He'd be\n 314\tcharming as hell and all. Except if some boy had little old funny-looking parents. You\n 315\tshould've seen the way he did with my roommate's parents. I mean if a boy's mother was\n 316\tsort of fat or corny-looking or something, and if somebody's father was one of those guys\n 317\tthat wear those suits with very big shoulders and corny black-and-white shoes, then old\n 318\tHans would just shake hands with them and give them a phony smile and then he'd go\n 319\ttalk, for maybe a half an hour, with somebody else's parents. I can't stand that stuff. It\n 320\tdrives me crazy. It makes me so depressed I go crazy. I hated that goddam Elkton Hills.\n 321\tOld Spencer asked me something then, but I didn't hear him. I was thinking about\n 322\told Haas. \"What, sir?\" I said.\n 323\t\"Do you have any particular qualms about leaving Pencey?\"\n 324\t\"Oh, I have a few qualms, all right. Sure. . . but not too many. Not yet, anyway. I\n 325\tguess it hasn't really hit me yet. It takes things a while to hit me. All I'm doing right now\n 326\tis thinking about going home Wednesday. I'm a moron.\"\n 327\t\"Do you feel absolutely no concern for your future, boy?\"\n 328\t\"Oh, I feel some concern for my future, all right. Sure. Sure, I do.\" I thought about\n 329\tit for a minute. \"But not too much, I guess. Not too much, I guess.\"\n 330\t\"You will,\" old Spencer said. \"You will, boy. You will when it's too late.\"\n 331\tI didn't like hearing him say that. It made me sound dead or something. It was\n 332\tvery depressing. \"I guess I will,\" I said.\n 333\t\"I'd like to put some sense in that head of yours, boy. I'm trying to help you. I'm\n 334\ttrying to help you, if I can.\"\n 335\tHe really was, too. You could see that. But it was just that we were too much on\n 336\topposite sides ot the pole, that's all. \"I know you are, sir,\" I said. \"Thanks a lot. No\n 337\tkidding. I appreciate it. I really do.\" I got up from the bed then. Boy, I couldn't've sat\n 338\tthere another ten minutes to save my life. \"The thing is, though, I have to get going now.\n 339\tI have quite a bit of equipment at the gym I have to get to take home with me. I really\n 340\tdo.\" He looked up at me and started nodding again, with this very serious look on his\n 341\tface. I felt sorry as hell for him, all of a sudden. But I just couldn't hang around there any\n 342\tlonger, the way we were on opposite sides of the pole, and the way he kept missing the\n 343\tbed whenever he chucked something at it, and his sad old bathrobe with his chest\n 344\tshowing, and that grippy smell of Vicks Nose Drops all over the place. \"Look, sir. Don't\n 345\tworry about me,\" I said. \"I mean it. I'll be all right. I'm just going through a phase right\n 346\tnow. Everybody goes through phases and all, don't they?\"\n 347\t\"I don't know, boy. I don't know.\"","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG0725KPVMV05TTCRWCZSD90","peer_label":"2","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS","peer_label":"More Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-01-27T17:13:03.647Z","ts":"2026-01-27T17:13:03.647Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}