Then, he smacked me. I didn't every try to get out of the way or duck or anything. All I felt was this terrific punch in my stomach. Boy, did that kill me. Now I was really mad at that sonuvabitch Maurice. Him and his obsession with my goddam five dollars. I fell on the ground and pretended I had a bullet in my gut. This sure did scare the hell outta him. Maurice started shuffling toward me, he started mumbling something I couldn't hear, and I knew he was really worried he almost killed me. All I could see was his big fat hairy stomach, but before he knew it, I socked him hard right in the center of that hairy belly. I hit him with my bad hand, and it started to throb real bad. Boy, this got him reeling. All of a sudden, Maurice was cussing up a storm, calling me a real classy sonuvabitch and all, and all I saw was a big hairy fist smack dab in the center of my face, and the entire room went completely black.
At first, I thought I was still really drunk, everything around me was fuzzy and I couldn't see straight. Then, I start to see this redheaded figure standing over top of me. "Are you all right Holden? What happened to you?" At first, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My eyes started to focus, and there he was, Allie, standing over top of me on his goddam bike, like I just fell off mine. "I dunno, what's going on Allie?" He never answered. I got up, and thought I was dreaming. We were smack dab in the middle of Central Park. I had my camel-hair coat and fur lined gloves on. Allie stared at me like I was a mad drunk, and boy, I probably looked worse. The snow was softly creeping down, and Allie was wearing my hunting cap. "Allie, is that really you? What happened to me? Am I going mad?" Allie just stared and me, and said, "Holden, you're fine. Wanna ride around the park?" At this point, I was just happy to see Allie in his redheaded, freckled glory. We started walking through the park, and I remembered something about the park. "Hey Allie, do you know where the ducks go during the Winter? My goddam phony cabbie told me they just freeze under the water, but I think he's just full of it." Allie started to open his mouth to answer me, but again I was surrounded with darkness and felt like I was falling down a deep dark well.
I started to sit up, and my head was pounding like mad. My hand was swelling up, and I could feel it getting bigger by the second. Then I realized what really happened. My wallet, of course, was five goddam dollars short thanks to Sunny and Maurice. I knew I was crazy to see Allie, but I got all my hopes up for nothing. I don't know what happened, but I just started to go crazy in my hotel room. I was smashing lamps, punching walls, and throwing around towels and toilet paper rolls. Now my bad hand was really getting banged up, but I just didn't give a damn anymore. The hotel was full of crazies and crooks, and I swear to god, I was the only normal one there. I threw all the towels and trash by the door, and started to head downstairs. I decided to start going home, I wanted to talk to Phoebe real bad. I just had to find a way to avoid my parents 'till they got the letter about my expulsion. The snow was sticking to my hunting cap and my hands were freezing, but I started to make my way back home. I was sick and tired of all those phony cab drivers, but forty-two blocks is quite a stretch to walk.
I wrote about this missing segment because I thought it would be a good way to bring Allie back into the book. I started with part of the book so I knew where my missing segment started in the story.
I used the scene with Sunny and Maurice when they tried to cheat five dollars out of Holden. This seemed like a good scene to use because tensions were running high in Holden's hotel room, so unpredictable things could have happened. I could use Maurice's temper to my advantage. Since he got mad at Holden for calling him a cheap phony, I figured I could use his temper to make him hit Holden, and Holden could fight back and aggravate him. I also used Holden's bad hand to connect my version of the story to the real one. Since he banged his hand up breaking windows the night before Allie died, it also helped connect Allie again. Since Holden saw Allie in his dream, but woke up before he could answer his question, it made him even more angry about Allie's death and his unanswered question. This led Holden to release his pent up feelings and smash everything in his hotel room.
The ducks seemed like a recurring theme in the book, so I also tied them in to my missing segment. Holden remembered what the taxi driver said to him, but knew it probably wasn't true. Since Allie was very intelligent, Holden probably would have asked him about the ducks and where they went when the pond froze over.
Even though the bikes were only a small part of the story, I connected them into my story. Since Allie and Holden used to ride bikes together, I tried to create a scene that really could have happened. I set the scene where it seemed like Holden fell off his bike and hit his head, but in reality he got beat up by Sunny and went unconscious.
I also used the Edmont Hotel for inspiration to make my story seem like it fit into the book. I tied in the fact that Holden is self-centered, and has his own strong opinions. Holden thought he was the only normal person in the Edmont Hotel, so I decided to use the same theme again and he restated what he felt.
The last theme I used in my story was Holden's camel-hair coat and fur lined gloves. Since he lost them at Pencey, I thought it might be a good idea to have him wake up wearing all of his stolen clothes. Though this may have been a clue to Holden that he was dreaming, I think he was too surprised that Allie was standing in front of him to notice.
