We get the feeling that Holden could stand there and watch Phoebe ride her "big, brown, beat-up-looking old horse" forever, even in the rain. The song the carrousel plays is "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," recalling the natural reaction of tears when smoke gets in people's eyes. Holden is so happy that he is "damned near bawling." Phoebe goes round and round, the music plays, and she looks "so damn nice" in her blue coat on that old wooden horse; for a moment, Holden's world is perfect.
That's all that Holden wants to tell us. He says that he did go home after being at the zoo with Phoebe. He got sick and ended up in California, but, for once, he doesn't want to go into the details. He doesn't know what the future holds, but he misses all the people in his past, even the jerks and bullies. "Don't ever tell anybody anything," he concludes. "If you do, you start missing everybody." Holden wishes that the story would never end. It would be perfect if it just kept going round and round, like that old carrousel.
