West of West Egg, halfway towards New York City, Carraway tells of "a valley of ashes - a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens" Chapter 2, pg. 23. In this ash heap there is an old billboard on which is painted a pair of blue eyes, each a yard high, gazing out from beneath a set of large yellow eyeglasses. This ominously staring creature is called Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, the name of the eye doctor whom the faded advertisement was promoting. Nick mentions seeing this figure nearly every time he passes through the ash heap on his way to New York. On the other side of this valley of ash is a drawbridge, which has been pulled up to let ships sail through as impatient train passengers are forced to stare out at the wasteland, just like Eckleburg, as they make their way westward to Queens.
One Sunday afternoon while the train is being delayed, Tom Buchanan, who is going to visit the city with Nick Carraway and, already "tanked up" from his drinking during lunch time, suddenly pulls him off of the train. He declares that he wants to introduce Carraway to his mistress, leading him towards a ramshackle gas station owned by George Wilson. This gas station is near two other structures: an empty building up for rent and an all-night restaurant owned by a Greek man called Michaelis. Despite his earlier disdain for the idea of having such a mistress, let alone meeting her, Nick passively agrees and follows him.
Inside the gas station, Tom talks to George, who is a thin, blond-haired, scrawny fellow. George asks Tom about a car he was planning to sell him; a question that Tom neatly avoids answering. Wilson's wife, and Tom's mistress, Myrtle, suddenly enters the garage area of the station where the two men are talking. She ignores her husband and greets Buchanan, shaking his hand. George leaves quickly to get some chairs so they may sit down. Tom tells her to meet him in New York at the train terminal after he gets off; she agrees and soon after, as the drawbridge drops and Nick and Tom reboard the train, Myrtle is already sitting in another car. Curious, Nick inquires about how Wilson cannot suspect that his wife is having an affair, to which Tom replies offhandedly that "He thinks she goes to see her sister in New York. He's so dumb he doesn't know he's alive." Chapter 2, pg. 26. Again, Nick does not comment but only observes, concealing his disapproval. In New York, Myrtle Wilson buys a Town Tattle at the newsstand and afterwards begs Tom to buy her a puppy from a vendor nearby as they prepare to get into the taxi. He does and she is overjoyed. On the way to their destination, Nick comments on how suddenly pastoral and rustic the air of the city seems, followed by a request to Tom that he leave the two of them. Buchanan and Myrtle both urge Nick to stay with them, and he agrees. They arrive at a penthouse apartment somewhere in the upper West Side. Myrtle goes off to call others to join them: her sister Catherine and a gentleman from downstairs, Chester McKee, and his wife, Mrs. McKee.
The furniture of the lavish apartment is decorated with scenes of the great French garden at Versailles, and the room seems small for the amount of things that are in it. Nick becomes very drunk due to Buchanan's presentation of a bottle of whiskey for all of them. More copies of Town Tattle sit on the table as well as a religious book named Simon called Peter which Nick reads patiently while Tom and Myrtle go off together in another room. Detailed references are made to the presence of newspapers or books, things of the written word. Upon their reentry the three other guests arrive into the cigarette-filled, drunken haze of the room. Mrs. McKee admires Myrtle's yellow dress while her husband, a photographer, speaks of capturing Myrtle on film wearing the dress, while holding a modeling pose. He becomes absorbed in some sort of vision, imagining this, and hushes his wife to be quiet when she tries to speak to him. A small spot of shaving cream remains poised on Chester McKee's neck. Disinterested but flattered, Myrtle plays with the puppy while Chester goes on about some scenes he has filmed on Long Island, Montauk Point - The Gulls and Montauk Point - The Sea. Nick seems a bit curious at hearing this and explains that he lives at West Egg, to which McKee replies that he had been there recently at a party in Jay Gatsby's mansion. Once more the name of this mysterious man arises even though Nick has not met him in person except for his vague sighting of a man staring out at the green light near the beach.
Myrtle and Tom continue to flirt with one another as Catherine, her sister, explains those two are both in unhappy marriages and claims that Tom cannot be divorced since Daisy is Catholic, which Nick knows is untrue . He continues to listen and observe. A discussion about romantic relationships follows as Mrs. McKee explains how happy she is with Chester, andMyrtle speaks of how she had thought George was a man of dignity until she discovered that he was a man of illusions. "'He borrowed somebody's best suit to get married in, and never told me about it, and the man came after it one day when he was out....I gave it to him and then I lay down and cried...all afternoon.'" Chapter 2, pg. 35. Wilson was a man she had desired and loved, until she found out that he was not a wealthy man.
Nick comments on his simultaneous feelings of belonging and disconnection at that time, "Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets....I saw him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without," Chapter 2, pg. 36. He talks to the people around him and yet he doesn't seem to feel as if he is one of them. This is due to his midwestern roots, more familiar with humble farmers than the high-class social elite. Myrtle recalls her first meeting with Buchanan on the train and then declares that she shall give her dress to Mrs. McKee, since the woman likes it so much. In the drunken stupor that follows, Nick sees people come and go through the cigarette smoke; Mr. McKee passes out and the dog sits alone in the middle of the room. Nick wipes the shaving spot off of McKee's neck at last. Later, around midnight, Myrtle and Tom are arguing about Daisy and he slaps her face so hard he breaks her nose. Pages from the Town Tattle are used to protect the furniture from being stained. Deciding that things are beginning to get a bit out of hand, Nick staggers downstairs in the elevator to Mr. McKee's room. Chester McKee shows him a portfolio of some artwork he has done with the camera, called Beauty and the Beast, Loneliness, Old Grocery Horse and Brook'n Bridge. Finally Nick leaves and makes it to Penn Station for the return train at four o'clock in the morning, while reading the Tribune newspaper.
