The Catcher in the Rye Epilogue

    I bet you're wondering how I've turned out. If I'm still a madman and all. Well, I don't really know. I'm sort of still figuring things out. I had to go to the hospital for awhile, and while I was there, I decided to give old Jane a buzz. I called her up and told her where I was, and boy, was she glad to hear from me. She kills me. She really does. Anyway, so she visited me sometimes, and sometimes she even brought old Phoebe with her. When I got out of the hospital, the three of us went out to that museum with the Indians and then we went to the park to watch the ducks. I still don't know where the hell they go in winter, but it was nice watching them come back and all. It was a nice day. It really was. And I was so damn happy. I had my two favorite people with me and I wasn't feeling so depressed anymore.

     When I got home from the hospital, my parents were trying to decide what to do with me about school. I didn't really want to go back, but I started thinking about what old Antolini said about how I need to start applying myself and all. The problem is, I didn't want to waste my time applying myself in school and nothing be any different. If I went back to school, it would still be full of phonies. But the whole world is full of them, so even if I didn't go back to school, I would still be surrounded by phonies. Since I couldn't decide on anything, my parents gave me a choice: either try prep school one more time, or they send me off to military school. I decided to go back to school because I'm sort of a yellow guy, and military school is not the place for yellow guys.

     Anyway, so I went back to school and had an alright roommate. He wasn't too terrifically boring, and he wasn't obnoxious like Ackley back at Pencey. His name was Melvin. Melvin for Chrissake. He had a pretty good sense of humor and all. You sort of have to with a name like that. We got along alright and he even helped me with some of my assignments. I still had trouble paying attention and applying myself, but Melvin was pretty nice about it.

     I started going out with Jane more and more. We played checkers sometimes, and she still kept her kings on the back row. I swear she kills me with that. When we got tired of playing checkers we would walk around New York until we found something else to do. We spent a lot of time together, and I was so happy that she still liked me. I was crazy for that old Jane. I still am.

     I finished school, with the help of Melvin, and decided to start building a life for myself. The trouble was, though, I had no idea what to do. I didn't want to work a depressing desk job, but I just couldn't decide on a practical career. I still just wanted to be the catcher in the rye and all. In the end, I decided against going to college and started writing, like D.B. I got a few things published, and I made enough money to get by.

     Then one day I did something crazy. I saved up some of that dough and bought old Jane a ring. Then I asked her to marry me. I was twenty at the time. I told her I wanted her to run away with me and we could start over somewhere else. We could get out of New York and go anywhere in the world we wanted. She said yes, and the next day we packed our bags and left. I said goodbye to Phoebe first, though. She begged to go with us, but I told her she needed to stay and finish school and not upset our parents. They lost Allie, D.B. was in Hollywood, and I was leaving, so I thought it would be best for her to stay.

     I've grown up quite a bit since I left Pencey, but I still don't have everything all figured out. I still act immature sometimes, and I still get depressed sometimes. But now I've got Jane with me, and when we played checkers the day I asked her to marry me, she did something I had never seen her do before. She moved her kings from the back row. I almost cried, I was so damn happy.

     That's all I'm going to tell you. I don't know what you were expecting. If you were expecting answers for how I got through everything, I don't have any. I still carry around Allie's baseball glove with the poems in green ink, and I still have trouble letting go of the past and all of that crap. But one thing I do know is that I've got a goddam Jane Caulfield sitting next to me, and that's how I want it to stay.