In Chapter 12 of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden takes a taxi to a bar called Ernie's. He tries unsuccessfully to engage the impatient taxi driver in conversation about where ducks go in the winter. At Ernie's bar, the crowd enthusiastically applauds the pianist Ernie after his performance, though Holden thinks they applaud for the wrong reasons. A girl named Lillian recognizes Holden and asks him to join her and a sailor, but Holden lies and says he is leaving, making him then feel compelled to actually leave.

1. The Catcher in the Rye

2. Chapter 12

3. On the way to the bar in a taxi, a depressed Holden mentally complains that he always gets "those vomity kind of cabs." Once again Holden tries to strike up a conversation with the driver and find out where the ducks take refuge in winter.

4. "Well, you know the ducks that swim around in it? In the springtime and all? Do you happen to know where they go in the wintertime, by any chance?“ "Where who goes?" "The ducks. Do you know, by any chance? I mean does somebody come around in a truck or something and take them away, or do they fly away by themselves--go south or something?"

5. Old Horwitz turned all the way around and looked at me. He was a very impatient-type guy. He wasn't a bad guy, though. "How the hell should I know?" he said. "How the hell should I know a stupid thing like that?" I stopped having a conversation with him, if he was going to get so damn touchy about it. But he started it up again himself.

6. He turned all the way around again, and said, "The fish don't go no place. They stay right where they are, the fish. Right in the goddam lake." "The fish--that's different. The fish is different. I'm talking about the ducks," I said.

7. "What's different about it? Nothin's different about it," Horwitz said. Everything he said, he sounded sore about something. "It's tougher for the fish, the winter and all, than it is for the ducks, for Chrissake. Use your head, for Chrissake.“

8. As earlier, Holden asks the taxi-driver to have a drink with him and is again rejected.

9. Even though it was so late, old Ernie's was jampacked. It was pretty quiet, though, because Ernie was playing the piano. It was supposed to be something holy, for God's sake, when he sat down at the piano. Nobody's that good.

10. About three couples, besides me, were waiting for tables, and they were all shoving and standing on tiptoes to get a look at old Ernie while he played. He had a big damn mirror in front of the piano, with this big spotlight on him, so that everybody could watch his face while he played. You couldn't see his fingers while he played--just his big old face.

11. You should've heard the crowd, though, when he was finished. You would've puked. They went mad. They were exactly the same morons that laugh like hyenas in the movies at stuff that isn't funny.

12. I swear to God, if I were a piano player or an actor or something and all those dopes thought I was terrific, I'd hate it. I wouldn't even want them to clap for me. People always clap for the wrong things. If I were a piano player, I'd play it in the goddam closet.

13. Anyway, when he was finished, and everybody was clapping their heads off, old Ernie turned around on his stool and gave this very phony, humble bow. Like as if he was a helluva humble guy, besides being a terrific piano player. It was very phony--I mean him being such a big snob and all.

14. While Holden sits there smoking and drinking, a girl named Lillian Simmons comes up to him and asks about his brother D.B., whom she once dated. She introduces the sailor who is with her and asks Holden if he would like to join them. Holden refuses the offer, saying he is about to leave. Holden is immediately sad that he told this lie, for he now feels compelled to leave since he has said he was going.

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