Holden's anxiety as he crosses streets on Fifth Avenue is reminiscent of the feelings that he had on his way to Mr. Spencer's home near the end of Chapter 1. There, too, he felt that he was disappearing every time he crossed a road. The terror is related to the horror he feels toward mutability and death; it is not surprising that he calls on Allie for support. Allie has crossed over and knows the territory.
Holden's efforts concerning Phoebe seem ambiguous. He says he wants to see her before he leaves for the West. Because she is his most trusted living link to family, we have to wonder, even at this point, whether he really wants to say good-bye or whether he just longs for home. While delivering a note for Phoebe to the principal's office of her school, he sees that someone has written "Fuck you" on the wall by the stairs. This enrages him. Holden's own language is often salty, and Phoebe asked him to stop cursing when he visited her in the apartment, but he finds this word especially abhorrent and does not use it around his sister. It upsets him that innocent children must see such a thing. While waiting for Phoebe at the Museum of Art, he shows two boys an Egyptian tomb and sees the same obscenity on the wall even there. Holden concludes that there is no way to escape the ugliness of the world. Death is never far from his thoughts, and he guesses that someone probably will put the phrase on his tombstone, right under his name and the dates of his birth and death.
