Pages 11-19 Summary

Bill stops by Jack's apartment but Jack is out; instead, Bill meets Mary, a tall red-haired girl. Mary invites Bill into the apartment and they engage in small talk about various objects that Jack has collected. Mary explains that she has a rare disease that causes her bones to slowly dissolve. Bill imagines her as a protoplasmic boneless mass, undulating about. Some younger kids stop by and then Mary and Bill decide to use drugs and they travel about the city in a taxicab looking for dealers. They finally buy some Benzedrine and get high, sitting in the apartment talking. Mary tells Bill a great deal about how to be a successful female prostitute and then becomes angry at her personal plight.

A few days later, Herman and Bill form an informal partnership, buy a kilogram of marijuana, and start to...