The Catcher in the Rye

*1

Im on the edge of the cliff. Im standing there, in suspense. 2

My legs are twitchy ya'know ? My palms are sweating. My cut of jeans are frayed and the frays are blowing in the wind, not a strong wind mind you. More of a breeze. A warm breeze. Its real sunny. Im squinting to see the peak of the hill. Its just above the cliff then at the bottom of the hill theres the field. Then the edge of the cliff. Where I am standing. Waiting. 3

My braces are cutting into my shoulders. I should really loosen em to be honest, but honestly I cant be bothered. Its not important ya'know ? Im still squinting. Even though I gots a wide brimmed hat on, the kinda straw looking ones. Like a farmer really. I got no shoes on. Bare footed. The grounds hard but not hard enough to hurt ya'know ? 4

The strangest thing is though. I mean the thing I dont understand, is I got a net. A big net. Its got a long wooden poll. Its like them ole' nets the bee catchers use. But this ones bigger. It just seems weird ya'know ? to have a net and all. The rye is slowly rocking. Its rocking back and forth in the breeze. The field of rye below the hill. Just before the edge of the cliff. Where im standing. The sun is awful bright. Its kinda making everything golden. There aint a cloud in the sky. Well theres kinda puffy wisps of white but thats all. I mean there aint no proper clouds. Just wisps is all. So just the big ole' golden sun and a few wisps a white in the big blueish orange sky. Its kinda orange on the account of it being quite late in the day and all.5

Im kinda shuffling on my bare feet. Like the rye in the breeze cept its not the breeze thats making me shuffle. Im still squinting ya'know. Straining to see the top of the hill, its kinda blacked out what with the sun and all.Thats when I hear it. A faint rumbling. The big ole' willow tree beside me is rustling. Its all droopy and gold. Everythings a goddamn shade of gold. Like someone carved everything you can see from gold. Even my goddamn arms look like their glowing. Not my feet though, there all dirty. Anyways the rumbling. It kept growing louder and louder. At the top of the hill, the one I kept squinting to look at, there were these kinda hazy clouds of dust. Just sorta specks in the air. Its kinda hard to see though. Im quite far away and everythings so goddamn gold. Then the rumbling gets louder. I mean real loud. Im sweating so goddamn much. Its stinging my eyes. I wipe the sweat from my brow, I aint got a handkerchief. Boy am I sweating. I can feel my heart thudding in my chest.6

Then the rumbling gets really loud, the dust at the top of the hills all in air now. The rocks around my fit are moving all over the place. My hearts thudding like a drum. Then silence. Its freaky. Pure silence. The dust is settling on the hill. The breeze aint even blowing nomore. I feel like I should hold my breath or something. Thats when I see em'.7

My goddamn legs are shaking. Then I see em’. Almost galloping down the hill towards the field a’ rye. There’s so many of em’. I can’t even count how many of em’ there are. A haze of dust is everywhere on the hill. Then they hit it. They hit the goddamn field a’ rye. The rye looks so gold and so tall. It’s so tall, taller than the children. So once they hit the rye you couldn’t see em’ no more. You couldn’t see no faces if you was there. Honest to god. The sun jus’ made em’ look like shadows. Then they just disappeared into the rye. You couldn’t see no faces. 8

The rye was rustling all over the goddamn place as they ran through it. I’m still standing at the edge of the cliff. They didn’t even see me. They didn’t even glance in my direction. They just kept running and the rye just kept rustling.Everything was so goddamn silent.I swear those kids were crazy. Goddamn stir crazy. By this time they were about a quarter the way through the field. Everything was so goddamn golden. 9

Then I realised they were not going to stop running. The wasnt even playing tag or anything. They wasnt even talking or laughing or even crying. They were just ghosting through the rye. Towards the edge of the cliff. It was like a silent movie.........where everything was stupid shades of gold !10

I grabbed the net and shot through the rye. I was taller than the rye, only just though. I could only see the rustling the kids were making. No kids. I was really running now. The net held above my head. I was getting closer now. I was never gonna be able to save them. I tried to shout out, to tell them to stop, to tell them they were gonna die unless they stopped running. But no words come from my lips. No sound. No goddamn sound from anything ! I dont know why but I started crying, not sobs but like silent years ya'know ? they just started running down my cheeks. My skin felt so dry and the tears were kinda nice. I felt so depressed. I felt so alone. I mean I know I was alone and all but suddenly it seemed like it was just me. In the entire universe I was the only person. Alone. Nothing mattered anymore.11

**12

It sure was golden. The field and all. My heart was throbbing like it was gonna pop outta my chest and my goddamn feet were bleeding. It didnt matter. It was real quaint though. There was this guy standing on the edge of the cliff. Just after the field of the rye. He was standing there. With a wide brimmed straw hat on his head and this huge net at his feet. Thats all I could make out. It was just so quaint. He was standing there. Not moving. I couldnt see his face on account of the hat. He just seemed to be frozen. A lone figure after the rye. He must have been some kinda crazy.13

We were like a stampede. We hurtled down the hill but no one said anything. No one smiled, No one laughed, No one cried. Was anyone even breathing ? I dared not look at anyone. I just looked infront of me. Everyone just looked infront. We darted through the rye like ghosts. It whipped my face, it probably did to them. But no one said anything. No one was gonna make noise. As I was running I saw the guy. The guy with the net ! He was kneeling on the floor. Head down and crying. Boy he was crying. No sound mind you. But you could see the tears streaming from his eyes. I kinda felt sorry for him ya'know ? He seemed so lonely. Kinda like how I felt. Like your the only person in the universe ya'know ? Its just you and the goddamn gold sun. Dunno why he dont just follow us. Its kinda the obvious thing to do. So anyways I sped past him. He seemed kinda crazy. We all did. You could feel em' running through with you.14

Finally we was out. Out of the golden rye. I wasnt at the front so I saw the first of em go over. They just kept running untill they plummeted over the cliff. Like them Lemmings, just throwing themselves of the cliff. Mass suicide. I was very near now only a feet away. I member asking my pa' bout them lemmings. He said because 'they just do'. I always found that pretty chilling ya'know ?15

I was just about to escape, I was so close to the edge. Then a goddamn net covers me. It pulls me back. Pulls me back from heaven. I turn round. Angry as hell. A wide brimmed straw hats on the floor. The others have gone. All gone over. I look up at the guy with the net. I look up into a mirror.16

I look up at the Catcher in the Rye.