20

Holden lingers drunkenly at the Wicker Bar, eyeing the singer Valencia and asking a headwaiter to invite her for a drink, but nothing comes of it. He fixates on a fantasy of being gut-shot, then leaves to phone Jane but instead dials Sally Hayes, slurring promises to trim her Christmas tree. Sally, half-asleep, urges Holden to go to bed and hangs up, deepening his humiliation.

Reeling, Holden dunks his head in cold water in the men’s room and spars with Valencia’s dismissive pianist, who tells him to go home. In the checkroom Holden cries, loses his claim check, and is kindly given his coat and the “Little Shirley Beans” record by the hat-check girl, who refuses a tip and makes him wear his red hunting hat.

Out in the cold, with his teeth chattering, Holden decides to look for the ducks in Central Park. On the way he drops and shatters Phoebe’s record, pockets the pieces, and finally finds the lagoon partly frozen, with no ducks in sight. He sits shivering, worries he’ll get pneumonia, and imagines his funeral, reliving anguish over Allie’s grave and the cruelty of rain on cemeteries.

Trying to distract himself, Holden skips his remaining coins on the lagoon. Thinking of how Phoebe would feel if he died, he resolves to sneak home quietly to see her, despite fears that the creaky front door might wake his parents. He leaves the park and walks home through the cold night.