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14 C
That evening I took three suits from the hall closet. I 15
hadn’t worn a suit since I worked for the bank. There was 16
a brown one, a deep green, and a blue so dark that I 17
bought it thinking it was black. They were all cleaned and 18
pressed. Before he got sick my father had repaneled all the 19
closets with cedar, so no moths had gotten to them. I 20
rummaged around for some dress shirts and ties. They 21
were my father’s, but we were the same size. His suits fit 22
me too. They seemed to have more character than my 23
straight-cuffed wear. His pants were roomier in the thighs.
24
His socks were argyle. He had bigger shoulders than me, 25
so the jackets were loose but stylish. There were a dozen 26
of his suits in my mother’s closet. And they covered the 27 S
rainbow.
28 R
I’d always wondered why he had so many suits. He was
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The Man in My Basement
a butcher in Southampton his whole life until he died. I 1
guess he just liked them.
2
3
4
I brought Bennet a Big Mac and fries at about 9:00. He 5
wanted to talk to me, but I didn’t bite. I just shoved his 6
food in and carried the dirty dishes back to the house.
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The next day, after feeding the prisoner, I put on a white 10
gabardine that my father wore and a dark-blue dress shirt 11
and cream-colored tie. Tennis shoes were all I had to go 12
with the ensemble, but they looked good in the full-13
length mirror. I noticed something different about me, 14
but I wasn’t sure what it was. It might have been the hip-15
ster clothes, but maybe it was something else.
16
Giving up that mystery, I drove off to see Narciss Gully.
17
She wasn’t expecting me. The door to her shop was 18
