pushed down the urge to stand up and walk away.
6
“Did you ever take money from your drawer?” she 7
asked.
8
And suddenly it all came back to me like the plot of a 9
novel that I had read so long ago I didn’t even remember 10
the name of the book. But it wasn’t that long ago and it 11
was my own life that I was remembering.
12
It wasn’t really very much at all. I was a bank teller. I 13
counted money, gave change, made debits and credits. I 14
did passbooks, Christmas clubs, checking accounts, and 15
sometimes payroll. Anything else went to another win-16
dow. I wore a jacket and slacks every day with a tie. You 17
didn’t have to wear the tie on Fridays, but I did anyway. I 18
was good at my job. Always on time, friendly with even 19
the rude customers, I was good at math too.
20
But one day I was going to meet my then-girlfriend 21
China Browne for dinner. It was a Tuesday and I wasn’t 22
due for my paycheck until the end of the week. My ac-23
count was empty because I had just paid for an electric 24
food processor and China wanted to be taken out.
25
So I borrowed twenty dollars from the bank. I made up 26
my mind to pay a dollar interest when I got my paycheck.
27 S
And it really wasn’t any big sum. If they asked me about 28 R
it, I could just say that I must have made a mistake. Peo-28
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The Man in My Basement
ple make mistakes in banks all the time. Mr. Gurgel, the 1
senior loan officer, once missed a zero and the bank was 2
out ninety thousand dollars for a week.
3
Of course Friday came and went. China and I went 4
down to New York that weekend, so I put off returning 5
the twenty until I got paid again. But by that time two 6
more weeks had passed, and I figured if nobody noticed, 7
then why should I worry? Probably if I had left it at that, 8
everything would have been okay. But there were five or 9
six other times when I needed money. It was never more 10
than fifty dollars.
11
“No,” I said.
12
“Well that’s what they thought,” she said. “The presi-13
dent said that they had proof.”
