{"id":"01KG07C9C153WYX3Z4QGFY1G8R","cid":"bafkreigaxcoupy3zsvv2jeubomaffn5qvclvjveb4t2qm6ahanoli5o6sm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3866,"extracted_at":"2026-01-27T17:17:48.454Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KFYTG9MG93RTB6YAW34V48XG","start_line":3822,"text":" 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","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG0725JTBB28D6YDVSDHWHNJ","peer_label":"20","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS","peer_label":"More Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-01-27T17:17:48.962Z","ts":"2026-01-27T17:17:48.962Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}