{"id":"01KG07DPXNJP5KAWBYYVX91M7S","cid":"bafkreifa2u7p7jmlk43emsnq3w4iajwz3lcdosopwrp4hxpjnuksjffb6m","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5015,"extracted_at":"2026-01-27T17:18:35.110Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 12","source_file":"01KFYTG9MG93RTB6YAW34V48XG","start_line":4984,"text":"  4771\thave to write it on a goddam piece of paper, like everybody else. If we had any children,\n  4772\twe'd hide them somewhere. We could buy them a lot of books and teach them how to\n  4773\tread and write by ourselves.\n  4774\tI got excited as hell thinking about it. I really did. I knew the part about\n  4775\tpretending I was a deaf-mute was crazy, but I liked thinking about it anyway. But I really\n  4776\tdecided to go out West and all. All I wanted to do first was say good-by to old Phoebe.\n  4777\tSo all of a sudden, I ran like a madman across the street--I damn near got killed doing it,\n  4778\tif you want to know the truth--and went in this stationery store and bought a pad and\n  4779\tpencil. I figured I'd write her a note telling her where to meet me so I could say good-by\n  4780\tto her and give her back her Christmas dough, and then I'd take the note up to her school\n  4781\tand get somebody in the principal's office to give it to her. But I just put the pad and\n  4782\tpencil in my pocket and started walking fast as hell up to her school--I was too excited to\n  4783\twrite the note right in the stationery store. I walked fast because I wanted her to get the\n  4784\tnote before she went home for lunch, and I didn't have any too much time.\n  4785\tI knew where her school was, naturally, because I went there myself when I was a\n  4786\tkid. When I got there, it felt funny. I wasn't sure I'd remember what it was like inside, but\n  4787\tI did. It was exactly the same as it was when I went there. They had that same big yard\n  4788\tinside, that was always sort of dark, with those cages around the light bulbs so they\n  4789\twouldn't break if they got hit with a ball. They had those same white circles painted all\n  4790\tover the floor, for games and stuff. And those same old basketball rings without any nets-\n  4791\t-just the backboards and the rings.\n  4792\tNobody was around at all, probably because it wasn't recess period, and it wasn't\n  4793\tlunchtime yet. All I saw was one little kid, a colored kid, on his way to the bathroom. He\n  4794\thad one of those wooden passes sticking out of his hip pocket, the same way we used to\n  4795\thave, to show he had permission and all to go to the bathroom.\n  4796\tI was still sweating, but not so bad any more. I went over to the stairs and sat\n  4797\tdown on the first step and took out the pad and pencil I'd bought. The stairs had the same\n  4798\tsmell they used to have when I went there. Like somebody'd just taken a leak on them.\n  4799\tSchool stairs always smell like that. Anyway, I sat there and wrote this note:\n  4800\tDEAR PHOEBE,\n  4801\tI can't wait around till Wednesday any more so I will\n","title":"Chunk 12"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG0725KRV1Y3Q27GR0RPHVES","peer_label":"24","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS","peer_label":"More Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-01-27T17:18:35.740Z","ts":"2026-01-27T17:18:35.740Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}