aperfectdayforbananafish.docx

1、aperfectdayforbananafishA Perfect Day for BananafishBy J.D. SalingerThere were ninety-seven New York advertising men in the hotel, and, the way they were monopolizing the long-distance lines, the girl in 507 had to wait from noon till almost two-thirty to get her call through. She used the time, tho

2、ugh. She read an article in a women s pocket-size magazine, called Sex Is Fun - or Hell. She washed her b and brush. She took the spot out of the skirt of her beige suit. She moved the button on her Saks blouse. She tweezed out two freshly surfaced hairs in her mole. When the operator finally rang h

3、er room, she was sitting on the window seat and had almost finished putting lacquer on the nails of her left hand.She was a girl who for a ringing phone dropped exactly nothing. She looked as if her phone had been ringing continually ever since she had reached puberty.With her little lacquer brush,

4、while the phone was ringing, she went over the nail of her little finger, accentuating the line of the moon. She then replaced the cap on the bottle of lacquer and, standing up, passed her left the wet hand back and forththrough the air. With her dry hand, she picked up a congested ashtray from the

5、window seat and carried it with her over to the night table, on which the phone stood. She sat down on one of the made-up twin beds and it was the fifth or sixth ring pickedup the phone.Hello, she said, keeping the fingers of her left hand outstretched and away from her white silk dressing gown, whi

6、ch was all that she was wearing, except mules her ringswere in the bathroom.I have your call to New York now, Mrs. Glass, the operator said.Thank you, said the girl, and made room on the night table for the ashtray.A woman s voice came through. Muriel? Is that you?The girl turned the receiver slight

7、ly away from her ear. Yes, Mother. How are you? she said.I ve been worried to death about you. Why haven t you phoned? Are you all right?I tried to get you last night and the night before. The phone here s been .Are you all right, Muriel?The girl increased the angle between the receiver and her ear.

8、 I m fine. I m hot.This is the hottest day they ve had in Florida in -.Why haven t you called me? I ve been worried to - -.Mother, darling, don t yell at me. I can hear you beautifully, said the girl. I called you twice last night. Once just after - -.I told your father you d probably call last nigh

9、t. But, no, he had to - Are you allright Muriel? Tell me the truth.I m fine. Stop asking me that, please.When did you get there?I don t know. Wednesday morning, early.Who drove?He did, said the girl. And don t get excited. He drove very nicely. I was amazed.He drove? Muriel, you gave me your word of

10、 -. Mother, the girl interrupted, I just told you. He drove very nicely. Under fiftythe whole way, as a matter of fact.Did he try any of that funny business with the trees?I said he drove very nicely, Mother. Now, please. I asked him to stay close to the white line, and all, and he knew what I meant

11、, and he did. He was even trying not to look at the trees - you could tell. Did Daddy get the car fixed, incidentally?Not yet. They want four hundred dollars, just to-.Mother, Seymour told Daddy that he d pay for it. There s no reason for -.Well, well see. How did he behave in the car and all?All ri

12、ght, said the girl.Did he keep calling you that awful-.No. He has something new now.What?Oh, what s the difference, Mother?Muriel, I want to know. Your father-.All right, all right. He calls me Miss Spiritual Tramp of 1948, the girl said, and giggled.It isn t funny, Muriel. It isn t funny at all. It

13、 s horrible. It s sad, actually. When I think how-Mother, the girl interrupted, listen to me. You remember that book he sent me fromGermany? You know, those German poems. What d I do with it? I ve been racking my-.You have it. Are you sure? said the girl.Certainly. That is, I have it. It s in Freddy

14、 s room. You left it here and I didn t have room for it in the Why? Does he want it?No. Only, he asked me about it, when we were driving down. He wanted to know if I d read it.It was in German!Yes, dear. That doesn t make any difference, said the girl, crossing her legs. Hesaid that the poems happen

15、 to be written by the only great poet of the century. He said I should ve bought a translation or something. Or learned the language, if you please.Awful. Awful. It s sad, actually, is what it is. Your father said last night .Just a second, Mother, the girl said. She went over to the window seat for

16、 hercigarettes, lit one, and returned to her seat on the bed. Mother, she said, exhaling smoke.Muriel. Now, listen to me.I m listening.Your father talked to Dr. Sivetski.Oh? said the girl.He told him everything. At least, he said he did you know your father. The trees.That business with the window.

17、Those horrible things he said to Granny about her plans for passing away. What he did with all those lovely pictures from Bermuda everything.Well? said the girl.Well. In the first place, he said it was a perfect crime the Army released him fromthe hospital my word of honor. He very definitely told y

18、our father there s a chanee-a very great chanee, he said, that Seymour may pletely lose eontrol of himself. Myword of honor.There s a psychiatrist here at the hotel, said the girl.Who? What s his name?I don t know. Rieser or something. He s supposed to be very good.Never heard of him.Well, he s supp

19、osed to be very good, anyway.Muriel, don t be fresh, please. We re very worried about you. Your father wantedto wire you last night to e home, as a matter of f .I m not ing home right now, Mother. So relax.Muriel. My word of honor. Dr. Sivetski said Seymour may pletely lose contr .I just got here, M

20、other. This is the first vacation I ve had in years, and I m notgoing to just pack everything and e home, said the girl. I couldn t travel now anyway. I m so sunburned I can hardly move.You re badly sunburned? Didn t you use that far of Bronze I put in your bag? I putit right .I used it. I m burned

21、anyway.That s terrible. Where are you burned?All over, dear, all over.That s terrible.I ll live.Tell me, did you talk to this psychiatrist? Well, sort of, said the girl.What d he say? Where was Seymour when you talked to him?In the Ocean Room, playing the piano. He s played the piano both nights we

22、ve beenhere.Well, what d he say?Oh. Nothing much. He spoke to me first. I was sitting next to him at Bingo last night, and he asked me if that wasn t my husband playing the piano in the other room. I saidyes, it was, and he asked me if Seymour s been sick or something. So I said Why d he ask that?I

23、don t know, Mother. I guess because he s so pale and all, said the girl. Anyway, after Bingo he and his wife asked me if I wouldn t like to join them for a drink. SoI did. His wife was horrible. You remember that awful dinner dress we saw in Bonwit s window? The one you said you d have to have a tin

24、y, tiny .The green?She had it on. And all hips. She kept asking me if Seymour s related to that SuzanneGlass that has that place on Madison Avenue - the millinery.What d he say, though? The doctor.Oh. Well, nothing much, really. I mean we were in the bar and all. It was terriblynoisy.Yes, but did -

25、did you tell him what he tried to do with Granny s chair?No, Mother. I didn t go into details very much, said the girl. I II probably get a chance to talk to him again. He s in the bar all day long.Did he say he thought there was a chance he might get - you know - funny or anything?Do something to y

26、ou!Not exactly, said the girl. He had to have more facts, Mother. They have to knowabout your childhood - all that stuff. I told you, we could hardly talk, it was so noisy in there.Well. How s your blue coat?All right. I had some of the padding taken out.How are the clothes this year?Terrible. But o

27、ut of this world. You see sequins - everything, said the girl.Hows your room?All right. Just all right, though. We couldn t get the room we had before the war,said the girl. The people are awful this year. You should see what sits next to us in the dining room. At the next table. They look as if the

28、y drove down in a truck. Well, it s that way all over. How s your ballerina?It s too long. I told you it was too long.Muriel, I m only going to ask you once more - are you really all right?Yes, Mother, said the girl. For the ninetieth time.And you don t want to e home?No, Mother.Your father said las

29、t night that he d be more than willing to pay for it if youd go away some place by yourself and think things over. You could take a lovely cruise. We both thought -.No, thanks, said the girl, and uncrossed her legs. Mother, this call is costing afor-When I think of how you waited for that boy all th

30、rough the war - I mean when you think of all those crazy little wives who .Where is he? On the beach.On the beach? By himself? Does he behave himself on the beach?Mother, said the girl, you talk about him as though he were a raving maniac - I said nothing of the kind, Muriel.Well, you sound that way

31、. I mean all he does is lie there. He won t take his bathrobe off.He won t take his bathrobe off? Why not?I don t know. I guess because he s so pale.My goodness, he needs the sun. Can t you make him?You know Seymour, said the girl, and crossed her legs again. He says he doesn t want a lot of fools looking at his tattoo.He d