The Man in My Basement

3rd Pass Pages

ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 197

The Man in My Basement

set him free. I could have saved face by saying that I just 1

wanted to throw a scare into him. I could have freed him 2

and sent him packing. I knew that that was the wisest 3

course to follow, but something else had taken me over.

4

Perverse pride left Tamal/Anniston in his hole.

5

Ever since the first day he stood at my front door, I felt 6

that Bennet held the upper hand. He was self-assured and 7

a man of the world and rich and white. I was permanently 8

unemployed and broke. Putting him in that cell and serv-9

ing him was like tying Joe Frazier’s right hand behind his 10

back and then picking a fight with him.

11

The only way I could beat Bennet was to break him, to 12

show him that I was boss of my house. To show him that 13

I meant what I said and that I would not break down. Af-14

ter all, he agreed to my rules. He had said okay. What did 15

he expect? He told me that he wanted to be punished, 16

that he wanted me as his warden. I had warned him.

17

18

19

I was late getting out of the house and late to Tiger 20

Tanaka’s, the Japanese restaurant. Narciss was waiting pa-21

tiently in the display window at a table for two.

22

“Hey,” I said as I walked up. “Sorry I’m late. I had some 23

business with Mr. Dent that I couldn’t break off.”

24

“That’s okay.” She smiled, looking down at first, and 25

then in an act of will, she looked up for me to see her 26

pleasure. “I was just thinking about the notes in your S 27

aunts’ diaries. You know, I don’t think that you should sell R 28

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Walter Mosley

1

them either. So much of them is about everyday life in the 2

black community out here, and there are names, names of 3

your relatives back more than two hundred years.”

4

“They got the guys that brought over those masks in 5

there?”

6

Narciss beamed. “Not their names but there is a refer-7

ence to three Africans that came over on a Spanish ship 8

before the Revolution. I don’t think these ladies knew 9