Despite the late hour, Holden nearly calls Phoebe, his 10-year-old sister. However, he realizes that he almost certainly will have to speak to one of his parents instead.
Phoebe is not only intelligent and pretty, with red hair like Allie's, but she is one person with whom Holden can communicate, his soul mate. Sometimes she seems more mature than he does. Phoebe is thin like Holden; he describes her as "roller-skate skinny." She has pretty ears, and she is unusually perceptive. She knows a good movie from a lousy one, as evidenced by her adoration of the Alfred Hitchcock suspense classic The 39 Steps (1935). She has seen it so many times that she has memorized the dialogue.
Phoebe is a budding creative artist in her own right. She writes books featuring a girl detective named Hazle Weatherfield, an orphan who, nonetheless, has a 20-year-old father who keeps popping up. Phoebe may be Holden's best friend.
