Chapter 20

Holden remains at the Wicker Bar and gets inebriated. At one a.m., he stumbles outside and decides to call Jane, but ends up calling Sally instead. The call infuriates Sally and her grandmother. Holden, however, tells Sally that he will like to help her set up the tree on Christmas Eve. He returns to the bar and continues drinking. He then visits the bathroom and dunks his head in a basin full of water and sits beside the radiator. Later, the piano player walks up to him and asks him to leave. Holden goes to take his coat and flirts with the lady at the counter who is likely as old as his mother. She politely refuses his invitation for a date.

Holden then takes a stroll in Central Park in the hope that he might run into the ducks. The lagoon is frozen, and the weather is bitterly cold. Holden imagines himself dying of pneumonia and remembers that once, when his parents had gone to place flowers at Allie’s grave, it had rained. He remembers thinking that only the deceased are exempt from running for cover from rain. He tells himself that Phoebe would be very sad if Holden were also to die. He decides to go home and meet her. He walks back home and sobers up on his way.