I said. “You’re renting a room and locking the door —
19
that’s all.”
20
“No,” the enigmatic white man said to a space some-21
where over my head. “I am here answering for crimes 22
against humanity. I am doing so because I am guilty, not 23
because I was caught. And in doing so I am making the 24
world a better place. I’m setting an example down here.”
25
“How can you be doing that when no one even knows 26
where you are?”
27 S
“There’s more to the world than one plus one, Mr.
28 R
Dodd-Blakey.”
3rd Pass Pages
ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 135
The Man in My Basement
I barely heard him over the pounding of my heart. I 1
worried that maybe he wasn’t crazy, that he wasn’t even a 2
common crook. Even though I didn’t understand what he 3
was saying, I feared that maybe he was right, that he was 4
living out some moral dilemma and that I was caught up 5
in the center of it all without knowing it.
6
7
8
Once outside I was sweating again. I didn’t want to go in my 9
house, so I got in the car and drove into town. I went to 10
Harbor Savings with the money Narciss had sent. The teller 11
went over the check for a full minute before cashing it.
12
Everyone in the Harbor must have known about my thefts.
13
From the bank I went to Nelson’s Hardware, where I 14
bought three combination padlocks and heavy hinges to 15
hold them. Ricky was sitting on a public bench on Main 16
Street, drinking orange juice from a carton. I pretended 17
not to notice him from across the street.
18
“Hey, Charles,” he called.
19
I looked up, feigning surprise, and then crossed over to 20
him.
21
“Hey, Cat,” I said. “I thought you were working for 22
Wilson Ryder?”
23
“Took the day off,” he said. “Clarance said he saw you 24
