New York's terrible when you hear someone laugh at night. You can hear it for miles. It makes you feel so lonesome and depressed. The driver of the cab struck up conversation, so I asked him if he knew where the ducks in the Central Park lagoon went in winter. He was a very impatient-type guy. He said "How the hell should I know a thing like that?" I told him not to get sore about it but he just argued that nobody was sore. I stopped having conversation with him if he was going to be so damn touchy about it. Then he started talking to me again saying that the fish don't go no place - they just stay right in the goddamn lake. But I wanted to know about the ducks. He just told me to use my goddamn head.
When we got to Ernie's and I got out of the cab, he brought the fish up again. He said, "If you was a fish, Mother Nature'd take care of you, wouldn't she? You don't think them fish just die when it gets to winter, do ya?" I said no and then he said "You're goddamn right they don't." And then drove off like a bat out of hell.
When I was in Ernie's this girl came up to me and said, "Holden Caulfield!" It was Lillian Simmons. She used to go around with my brother D.B for a while. She asked about him, and when I said he has in Hollywood you could tell she thought it was a very big deal.
She introduced me to this Navy guy who she was with. You could tell he didn't like her that much, even though he was dating her. I didn't like her much either. Nobody did. She invited me to go and join her but I just said that I was leaving and I had to meet someone. Once I said that I had no choice but to leave. I certainly wasn't going to sit down at a table her and the Navy guy and be bored to death. It made me mad though. People are always ruining things for you.
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