didn’t fool me this time, but I was fascinated by the show.
22
“Tell me, Mr. Bennet . . .”
23
“Yes, Mr. Dodd-Blakey?”
24
“Doesn’t anybody miss you? Don’t you have a mother 25
or wife or good friend who you play golf with on Satur-26
days? Isn’t somebody asking where you are?”
27 S
“Does anybody wonder about you, Mr. Dodd-Blakey?”
28 R
His demeanor changed just that quickly. Suddenly he had
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The Man in My Basement
an insight to my soul. My heart gave a quick gallop and I 1
groped for an answer. But I needn’t have worried.
2
“I mean,” he continued, “we all disappear sometimes.
3
We have to go to the toilet or sleep, go to work or down 4
the street for some bread. It might take five minutes or 5
ten. It might be overnight. Sometimes you forget to call 6
or have to stay an extra day. Sometimes you fall in love 7
with someone else or have an accident. One day you die.”
8
He smiled knowingly, toasting me with his glass. I joined 9
him in the drink and then poured the second round.
10
“One day you just don’t come back,” he said. “People 11
are worried at first. They make calls to the police and hos-12
pitals. They hire detectives. They lose sleep. Some people 13
are so close to their loved ones that they’d die without 14
them. But most of us don’t. Most of us adapt. We recog-15
nize thirst. We go to the toilet and close the door for 16
privacy. We eat. New lovers and friends take the place of 17
those we miss. People die every day, Mr. Dodd-Blakey.
18
We live in the valley of death. That’s our heredity.”
19
“But you aren’t dead, Mr. Bennet. You’re alive and 20
locked up in a cage in a stranger’s basement. You aren’t in 21
love or lost or the victim of some car crash or mugging.
22
You’re in a hole in the ground reading books and farting 23
out cornflakes.”
24
Bennet laughed. I poured two more drinks and relaxed.
25
In the back of my mind I worried about letting my de-26
