Sally's Matinee and Maurice — The Catcher in the Rye

Holden fusses over his clothes and meets Sally at the Biltmore. For a moment she looks glad to see him and he lets himself hope. The matinee is hollow to him and pleasant to her. At intermission a boy from another school name-drops. Holden smiles and seethes. Afterwards he complains about the actors and the audience. Sally tells him to stop. She wants a nice afternoon. He wants someone who understands why he cannot enjoy it. Under the bickering he is already thinking about the Edmont and the money still owed.

When he goes back, Sunny arrives with Maurice. They want five dollars more. Holden refuses. Maurice pushes him and punches him in the stomach. Sunny takes cash from his wallet. He ends on the floor. For a minute he imagines himself a film tough with a pistol. The picture dies. He is a bruised boy on a bed, the theatre afternoon unfinished beside the pain.

The theatre tickets and the bruise end up in the same afternoon. He had wanted a normal date and got a debt collected by force. Sally is unfinished. Maurice is not. Hope at the Biltmore does not survive the ride back to the hotel.