I’m Sally Hayes, and I met Holden a few years ago. Our mothers are members at the same Fifth Avenue Club and when they met each other and became pretty good friends and ever since then, I’ve known Holden.
Actually, I went out to the theater just a couple nights ago. He called me up one day, it had been a while since I heard from him, since he goes to Pencey and I go to Woodruff. Last I heard, he was at Pencey, but he’s gotten kicked out of several schools, so I wasn’t so sure, but that’s typical Holden.
Anyways, he called me and invited me to go to this matinee. I could’ve gone out with any of these…5…no 6, other guys who are just grand. I felt kind of bad for him and I hadn’t seen him in a while so I thought I would go, I mean he’s not a bad guy so I figured why not?. He told me specifically to show up at 2:00 but I was about ten minutes late, I’m always running a bit late, he didn’t seem to really mind though, he was just sitting in the lobby, waiting for me.
I was only late because I was putting on my makeup and deciding what I should wear. In the end I just threw on a black coat and put on a beret outfit. It wasn’t a truly exceptional outfit, not one of the nicer ones, but still he made this face at me when I was coming down the stairs to greet him, like he was gonna start drooling or something; not that people don’t usually stare at me (it happens quite often).
Anyhow, He told me he had just bought two tickets to a play with the Lunts in them, and I just adore the Lunts. We went into the play and every time I glanced at him he looked either totally lost in thought or watching with a disgusted look on his face. I think he was even relieved when the play ended. That made me feel like he was really not enjoying the date, which has never really happened to me, so that was weird. And also, how could he not like the Lunts? They’re only the best actors of the century! I’ve been to about a thousand of their productions with my parents.
So when we exited the theater I saw this guy, George, he goes to Andover. We got talking for a while and Holden got really annoyed so I figured we’d better go. We went ice skating after that, only for a short while though, I didn’t think Holden was enjoying it much, and then Holden took me for a drink; that’s when things got pretty awkward. We were just chatting, the usual small-talk, like about school and things like that, when all of the sudden he got really worked up about how he hated New York, he said that I was the only reason he was here. Then he mentioned that he wanted to leave, that he would borrow a car take all him money and drive north. He asked me to come with him too, that we could go live in Vermont and that we could live on the money he had and when the money ran out he would get a job and that in the future we could get married, or something. I tried my best to be polite about turning down his offer because really I was quite worried about him and his plans, I mean, we are both practically still children. I can’t even imagine leaving home, and to a place as rural as Vermont? That’s insane!
He was making me feel really uncomfortable about not wanting to go though, I don’t think he even tried to see from my perspective, I wasn’t unhappy about living in New York like he was. He kept yelling about how we should, and asking me why I wouldn’t go. I kept asking him to quiet down and to be quiet, but he continued to scream at me. I got freaked out after that, he went pretty insane. After a while of being screamed at he left me there all alone and I decided to get a cab home, I was pretty upset too, he had been really mean. I really just wanted to forget this ever happened, and go home.
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