“I don’t know, Clarance. I guess I’m wondering why I’m 15
out here doin’ what I do. You know, there’s nothing to it.”
16
“What you mean?”
17
“It’s like I’ve been asleep my whole life,” I said. “And 18
even now it feels like I’m still asleep, or almost out. I wake 19
up for a minute and then three days go by and I wake up 20
again.”
21
“You mean you been up in your bed all this time?”
22
“Naw, man. Not sleeping — sleepwalking. I wake up 23
and I’m in a store buying pot roast. Or somebody’s talk-24
ing to me, I mean I’m in the middle of a conversation, 25
and I don’t even know what the person just said. I don’t 26
even know what we’re talking about or how I even got S 27
there. You know?”
R 28
3rd Pass Pages
ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 166
Walter Mosley
1
I could tell that Clarance was concerned because he 2
stopped eating.
3
“Like you black out?” he asked.
4
“No. If I think about it, I remember, but it’s hard to 5
concentrate. It’s like nothing is important enough to 6
think about.”
7
What I was saying to Clarance had always been true for 8
me — my whole life. Not a single day went by that I 9
wasn’t lost in daydreams. Teachers talking at you, my 10
mother or father telling me what was right or wrong. The 11
reason I didn’t watch TV was because I couldn’t sit still for 12
a movie or sitcom. Halfway through a war film I still 13
wasn’t sure which side was which. I could read books, fun 14
books, and I could follow an animal through the woods 15
for hours. A blaze in the fireplace could keep my atten-16
tion for a whole night. But anybody telling me anything 17
was just a waste of good breath, as my uncle Brent used 18
to say.
19
“Maybe you drinkin’ too much,” Clarance said.
20
“Maybe.”
21
“You want a job, Charles?”
