The Man in My Basement

this summer, Mr. Blakey.”

13

“I just told you —”

14

“I can make it very much worth your while.”

15

It was his tone that cut me off. Suddenly he was one of 16

those no-nonsense-white-men-in-charge. What he seemed 17

to be saying was “I know something that you had better 18

listen to, fool. Here you think you know what’s going on 19

when really you don’t have a clue.”

20

I knew that there were white people in the Hamptons 21

that rented their homes for four and five thousand dollars 22

a month over the summer. I owned a home like that. It 23

was three stories high and about two hundred years old. It 24

was in excellent shape too. My father had worked at keep-25

ing it up to code, as he’d say, for most of his life.

26

“I’m sorry, Mr. Bennet,” I said again.

S 27

“I’m willing to pay quite a bit for what I want, Mr.

R 28

5

3rd Pass Pages

ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 6

Walter Mosley

1

Blakey,” the white man said, no longer fidgeting or wag-2

ging his head. He was looking straight at me with eyes as 3

blue as you please.

4

“No,” I said, a little more certain.

5

“Maybe this is a bad time. Will you call me when 6

you’ve had a chance to think about it? Maybe discuss it 7

with your wife?” He handed me a small white business 8

card as he spoke.

9

“No wife, no roommate, Mr. Bennet. I live alone and I 10

like it like that.”

11

“Sometimes,” he said and then hesitated, “sometimes 12

an opportunity can show up just at the right moment.

13

Sometimes that opportunity might be looking you in the 14

face and you don’t quite recognize it.”

15

It was almost as if he were threatening me. But he was 16

mild and unassuming. Maybe it was a sales technique he 17