{"id":"01KG6FVKJNJKJ7YHKYE8KTVBG5","cid":"bafkreif6qia6kmvmo464bkmlkpnllbbvtmpsapszsbmoj3hy5rsmq7bgsi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3502,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:41:20.744Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG6FT59BXAZ3C5HRJ6SW8F58","start_line":3455,"text":"Anyway, they fell in love right away, on account of they're both so nuts about Charles\nDickens and all, and he helps her run her publishing business. She's a publisher, the girl.\nOnly, she's not doing so hot, because her brother's a drunkard and he spends all their\ndough. He's a very bitter guy, the brother, because he was a doctor in the war and now he\ncan't operate any more because his nerves are shot, so he boozes all the time, but he's\npretty witty and all. Anyway, old Alec writes a book, and this girl publishes it, and they\nboth make a hatful of dough on it. They're all set to get married when this other girl, old\nMarcia, shows up. Marcia was Alec's fiancée before he lost his memory, and she\nrecognizes him when he's in this store autographing books. She tells old Alec he's really a\nduke and all, but he doesn't believe her and doesn't want to go with her to visit his mother\nand all. His mother's blind as a bat. But the other girl, the homey one, makes him go.\nShe's very noble and all. So he goes. But he still doesn't get his memory back, even when\nhis great Dane jumps all over him and his mother sticks her fingers all over his face and\nbrings him this teddy bear he used to slobber around with when he was a kid. But then,\none day, some kids are playing cricket on the lawn and he gets smacked in the head with\na cricket ball. Then right away he gets his goddam memory back and he goes in and\n\n\nkisses his mother on the forehead and all. Then he starts being a regular duke again, and\nhe forgets all about the homey babe that has the publishing business. I'd tell you the rest\nof the story, but I might puke if I did. It isn't that I'd spoil it for you or anything. There\nisn't anything to spoil for Chrissake. Anyway, it ends up with Alec and the homey babe\ngetting married, and the brother that's a drunkard gets his nerves back and operates on\nAlec's mother so she can see again, and then the drunken brother and old Marcia go for\neach other. It ends up with everybody at this long dinner table laughing their asses off\nbecause the great Dane comes in with a bunch of puppies. Everybody thought it was a\nmale, I suppose, or some goddam thing. All I can say is, don't see it if you don't want to\npuke all over yourself.\nThe part that got me was, there was a lady sitting next to me that cried all through\nthe goddam picture. The phonier it got, the more she cried. You'd have thought she did it\nbecause she was kindhearted as hell, but I was sitting right next to her, and she wasn't.\nShe had this little kid with her that was bored as hell and had to go to the bathroom, but\nshe wouldn't take him. She kept telling him to sit still and behave himself. She was about\nas kindhearted as a goddam wolf. You take somebody that cries their goddam eyes out\nover phony stuff in the movies, and nine times out of ten they're mean bastards at heart.\nI'm not kidding.\nAfter the movie was over, I started walking down to the Wicker Bar, where I was\nsupposed to meet old Carl Luce, and while I walked I sort of thought about war and all.\nThose war movies always do that to me. I don't think I could stand it if I had to go to war.\nI really couldn't. It wouldn't be too bad if they'd just take you out and shoot you or\nsomething, but you have to stay in the Army so goddam long. That's the whole trouble.\nMy brother D.B. was in the Army for four goddam years. He was in the war, too--he\nlanded on D-Day and all--but I really think he hated the Army worse than the war. I was\npractically a child at the time, but I remember when he used to come home on furlough\nand all, all he did was lie on his bed, practically. He hardly ever even came in the living\nroom. Later, when he went overseas and was in the war and all, he didn't get wounded or\nanything and he didn't have to shoot anybody. All he had to do was drive some cowboy\ngeneral around all day in a command car. He once told Allie and I that if he'd had to","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6FV1MSFNFB4DZE3SZQJND1","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FT59BXAZ3C5HRJ6SW8F58","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KFF1K6A8V452X8SQKY55DD16","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6FVKJP9F44JRNJZSQFCTJJ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6FVKJPYG8HMCN6G5B6CNKN","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:41:25.973Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:41:31.009Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}