The Bell Jar Chapter 2

Frankie's place is decorated like a western ranch, even though it is in the middle of the city. He puts on music and shows off all his very expensive recording equipment. Doreen thinks he is great, but asks Esther to stay around in case he tries anything. Lenny offers to get another man to entertain her, but she says it doesn't matter. Lenny and Doreen dance as Esther thinks, "There is something demoralizing about watching two people get more and more crazy about each other, especially when you are the extra person in the room." Chapter 2, pg. 14. The pair kiss and as Esther falls asleep, Doreen bites his ear and he screams. Esther looks up and sees Doreen's breasts hanging out of her dress. Doreen and Lenny are making out. Esther leaves quickly, embarrassed, and steps out into a wall of heat. She is forty-three blocks from her hotel. When she finally gets there, it is empty. The silence depresses her. She looks at the telephone, half expecting it to ring. She had given her number to Mrs. Willard, Buddy Willard's mother. Buddy has never called her. He is in a sanitarium getting cured for TB. She takes a hot bath and feels better, more like herself. When there is a knock at the door, she opens it to some woman who is supporting a very drunk Doreen. Doreen falls to the ground and vomits. At this, Esther decides she will have little more to do with Doreen. She gets up in the morning and leaves before Doreen wakes. She steps over the discolored spot on the carpet.