22
I made it to a back road and finally got a ride to Curry’s.
23
There I sat and drank until closing time. When they 24
kicked me out, I slept in my car and rose with the sun 25
stabbing my eyes.
26
27 S
¦
¦
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28 R
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ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 213
The Man in My Basement
He could have been dead for all that I knew. But the deal 1
was ninety-six hours, and I cracked the hatch on the second.
2
The air in there was musty. I snapped on the light, and An-3
niston Bennet rose to his feet. He was bare chested but wore 4
his bright-blue bottoms. Thick black hairs sprouted from 5
his jaw, and there were gray bags under his eyes.
6
“Morning, Mr. Bennet,” I said. “You ready to get outta 7
here?”
8
His eyes, I noticed, were black, not blue. The absence 9
of his contact lenses seemed to be saying something that I 10
wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
11
“I screamed for a whole day after you dropped that 12
door,” he said. “I kept it up like a chant. Must be pretty 13
soundproof. After that didn’t work I sharpened that can 14
opener you left on the floor outside the cage. Then I 15
made a slingshot out of the elastic in my other pair of 16
pants. I was going to wait until you walked in and then I 17
was going to shoot you dead.”
18
I felt a drop of sweat as it went down past my left ear.
19
“But then I had to wait too long for you to come back, 20
and the blood lust drained away.” He sat in his red chair.
21
“It’s dark in here, you know. Black, actually, and the air 22
gets thick when you don’t open the door.”
23
He passed the fingertips of both hands lightly over his 24
eyebrows, then looked up at me. “You made me think 25
about the things I came here to pay for. You made me 26
