Chapter 24

When I got to Mr Antolinis he was surprised that it was just me at the door. I think they musta had a dinner party that night or something because there were highballs everywhere. They’re real big entertainers. I could tell he was drunk, he’s quite a heavy drinker these days, he’ll end up an alcoholic if he doesn’t watch his step. He asked about Pencey. He was most interested in my English, understandably. I told him I passed, but that I failed in Oral Expression, that stuff drove me crazy.

His wife came in with coffee for me. Then Mr Antolini started to get all serious. He said he was really worried about me. He said “This fall I think you’re riding for – it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind.” I had no idea what he was going on about at first. I think what he was trying to get across was I shouldn’t give everything up before my life even starts, I mean after all I’m only 16. I like the way Mr Antolini understands me like nobody does, he tells me what to do, without actually telling me what to do. Not like my father, or old Phoeb or D.B.

He went over to his desk on the other side of the room. He wanted me to remember something, so he wrote it on a piece of paper. It said “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one”. I thanked him and put it in my pocket.

I was getting really tired but Mr Antolini wasn’t, probably because he was so oiled up. I could hardly even concentrate anymore and I yawned, I know it’s rude and all but I couldn’t help it. He carried on talking on and on about how I should apply myself at the next school I go to, I really didn’t want to listen so I sort of tuned off. After a while of me not saying anything Mr Antolini went and got some sheets and blankets to make a bed for me. We made the bed and I went to sleep.

Then all of a sudden I woke up and I could feel something on my head, a guy’s hand. It scared the hell outta me. Mr Antolini was sat on the floor right next to the couch, and he was sort of patting me on the goddam head. I jumped about a thousand feet. I got so nervous and I had to get away, I mean what the hell was he doing. So I told him I was going to get my bags from the station and that I would go right back, he said my bags would be fine and that I should stay. I didn’t though. When something perverty like that happens, I start sweating like a bastard. That kind of stuff’s happened to me about twenty times since I was a kid.