6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
After I’d locked him in, I brought my prisoner some C 14
water and a dry ham-salad sandwich that I made from 15
white bread and a can off the shelf. There was a small 16
space between the bottom of the cell door and the floor.
17
This space was large enough to pass the tin plate and 18
squat glass through.
19
“Lights out,” I said at the hatch.
20
The look in his eyes was both frightened and resolved.
21
I pulled the string on the lightbulb. I decided to put a 22
lock on the hatch door in the morning. For one night in 23
the hole, he could go without security.
24
I didn’t sleep much that night. Fidgety and nervous, I 25
broke out into sweats every now and then. Sounds that 26
could have been the hatch to the basement drove me from S 27
the bed a half-dozen times. I looked out the window and R 28
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Walter Mosley
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once even ventured into the yard. I didn’t lift the cellar door 2
though. I didn’t want to show Bennet how scared I was.
3
He was locked up in a nine-foot cell and I was still 4
afraid of him. Actually the fear started when the lock en-5
gaged. He was empowered by the fact of his helplessness.
6
And I was at risk. I lay in bed worrying about kids sneak-7
ing into the cellar and finding Bennet. Then they’d tell 8
their parents and then the police would come . . .
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One of the few times I fell off to sleep, I dreamed that I 10
was in a courtroom. Lainie and Mr. Gurgel and Ira Min-11
der testified that I was a bank robber. They said that it was 12
armed robbery because I had carried my pocketknife to 13
work and, somehow, the pocketknife turned into the 14
.22 rifle that was in a box on the shelf in my father’s li-15
