The Man in My Basement

26

“Did you ever find out who your father was?” I asked.

S 27

“I’d rather not talk about that.”

R 28

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Walter Mosley

1

“Would you rather four days in the hole?”

2

Bennet was afraid of the dark by that time. He had ex-3

perienced something down in the darkness that scared 4

him. I knew he wouldn’t refuse my questions. I had dom-5

inated him with the fear of isolation.

6

At that time I felt that my actions were justified.

7

“I don’t know who my father was. Except that he really 8

was from Turkey and that he was murdered after making 9

my mother pregnant.”

10

“How do you know that?”

11

“I hired a detective to search for him. He found that a 12

Tamal Hikmet was murdered in Harlem buying heroin 13

eight months before I was born. Tamal was a Turkish ille-14

gal. He was an addict and a playwright. No one could 15

have saved him. No one can save anyone, not even them-16

selves.”

17

“But maybe they can be redeemed,” I suggested. To my 18

knowledge that was the first time in my life that I had 19

ever used a derivative of the word redemption.

20

“What does that mean?”

21

“Maybe they can make amends for their crimes. Maybe 22

they can make a stand. Tell the world what is right.”

23

“You ever read Moby Dick, Charles?”

24

I had not and shook my head to say so.

25

“There’s a cook in that book,” my prisoner said. “A 26

cook who lectures to sharks about their nature. He tells 27 S

them that they could be angels if they just mastered their 28 R

appetites. He preached to them, but they didn’t under-242

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