The Man in My Basement
naked. I put my arm around her slender waist and she 1
draped her arm on my shoulder.
2
“Listen,” she said.
3
In the silence of night, you could barely make it out.
4
No more than a murmur, it was only audible due to the 5
proximity of my mother’s window.
6
“It’s that man again,” I said.
7
“What man?”
8
“The man who lives out in these woods some summers.
9
It’s a hobo or something. Now and then someone calls the 10
police, but they never find him. He’s crazy, and some-11
times when he drinks too much wine, he gets pretty loud.
12
He keeps his distance though. You have to listen closely 13
just to hear it at all.”
14
“Have you seen him?”
15
“No, never.”
16
“Then how do you know all of that?”
17
“I’ve found his camps and empty bottles of cheap wine.
18
Some people have seen him too, but not me.” My lies 19
were becoming too large. I knew I should let it go, but I 20
couldn’t. “We called him the Padre when I was younger, 21
because some folks said that he was preaching to the trees.
22
He seems harmless enough.”
23
I kissed Narciss and she forgot about Anniston Bennet’s 24
shouts and my lies.
25
Narciss needed to talk. She was very nervous about sur-26
rendering so completely to a man she hardly knew and S 27
told me so.
R 28
3rd Pass Pages
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Walter Mosley
