The Lavender Room — The Catcher in the Rye

Before Sunny arrives, Holden goes down to the lounge. Three older women from Seattle are waiting for celebrities who never come. He dances, buys drinks, and claims he saw a famous actor in the bathroom. They laugh, enjoy the show, and leave him with the bill. He feels foolish for trying so hard.

He drinks with the bartender and goes upstairs to wait. He half hopes she will not come. Sunny is young, impatient, in a green dress, and she treats the visit as a job she has done before. Holden tries to talk. He says he had an operation on his clavichord and is not in the mood. She wants the money. He pays five dollars. She says Maurice promised ten. The argument goes nowhere. She leaves annoyed, not yet violent.

He puts on pyjamas and cannot read. He thinks of Allie and Phoebe, who do not belong to this transaction, and of the city outside, loud and indifferent. He regrets the call. He also remembers tipping Maurice and leaving the fee on the nightstand. The knock he is afraid of has not come, and he is too tired to run from it. Innocence, in this room, has a price and a green dress, and he cannot undo the call.