3rd Pass Pages
ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 162
Walter Mosley
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“About killing —”
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“I have to go, Mr. Bennet,” I said. I put down the fried 3
eggs and heated potato patties and pushed them under 4
the door to his cage. I was rattled by his ease at being 5
naked. He wasn’t a powerfully built man, small except for 6
that big dick. And there was a cascading series of cross-7
hatched scars down his right shoulder that was painful to 8
see. His feet were tiny. Something about standing there 9
conversing with the naked man was too much for me.
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“I’ll be back this afternoon,” I said. “We could talk 11
then.”
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“Where you going?”
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“To see my friend. We said we’d get together today.”
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He wanted to keep on talking, but I had to get out of 15
there. I rushed up the stairs and slammed the hatch shut.
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I threw the newly attached bolts and secured them with 17
the padlocks and went straight to my car.
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I never did figure out what it was exactly that drove me 19
from the cellar that morning. I have what I always thought 20
was a normal-size penis. I’ve never measured or anything, 21
but it has the feel of average. The women I’ve known were 22
never surprised, one way or the other, when my erection 23
was finally exposed to them. And even when they whis-24
pered sweet compliments, it had to do with how hard it 25
got rather than how deep it went. Some men, I knew, 26
were better endowed. Bethany had told me that it was 27 S
just this fact that kept her attached to Clarance for so 28 R
long. There were stories about Clarance’s sexual prowess,
3rd Pass Pages
ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 163
The Man in My Basement
but I had seen him in the boys’ gym and he didn’t hold a 1
candle to Anniston Bennet.
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I’d never felt embarrassed or inferior before that morn-3
ing. And it wasn’t just Bennet’s anatomy but also his ease 4
at being naked. As a child I learned to be ashamed of ex-5
posing my genitals or buttocks. Some dresses that women 6
wear today make me avert my eyes.
