14

As dawn approaches, Holden sits alone, miserably depressed after Sunny leaves. He talks aloud to his dead brother Allie, replaying a childhood memory when he excluded Allie from a bike trip with Bobby Fallon, a slight he fixates on whenever he feels low.

Holden gets into bed and considers praying but cannot. He reflects on being “sort of an atheist,” liking Jesus but disliking the Disciples, and recalls debates at Whooton with Arthur Childs about biblical figures and Judas’s fate. His irritation with ministers’ phony voices undercuts any attempt to pray.

A knock at the door interrupts him. Maurice, the elevator operator, and Sunny enter, demanding an extra five dollars. Holden insists he paid the agreed five, but Maurice pressures him, threatening exposure. Sunny takes the bill from Holden’s wallet, and when Holden insults Maurice, Maurice snaps his pajamas and then punches him in the stomach before leaving.

Curled on the floor and struggling to breathe, Holden staggers to the bathroom. He drifts into a movie-fed fantasy of being gut-shot, confronting Maurice with a gun, killing him, discarding the weapon, and calling Jane to tend to his wounds—an escape into melodrama that he blames on the movies.

Holden soaks in the bath for an hour, then returns to bed. Overwhelmed and humiliated, he contemplates suicide but resists because he does not want strangers staring at his body. Eventually, he falls asleep.