The Man in My Basement

14

“How could that be?” I felt indignant even though I 15

knew that I was guilty. “If they had proof, then why didn’t 16

they have me arrested?”

17

“Mr. Mathias told me that they had discussed it and the 18

bank felt it wouldn’t serve their interests to prosecute.” I 19

knew that she was reporting what she heard because the 20

words she was using were not hers.

21

“Why not?”

22

“Because it wasn’t a lot of money and almost every col-23

ored person in the Harbor has money in the bank. If the 24

bank prosecuted you over a couple’a hundred dollars, the 25

customers might get upset and take their money to East 26

Hampton.” Lainie peered into my eyes as she spoke. I S 27

don’t know if she saw my guilt there or not.

R 28

29

3rd Pass Pages

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Walter Mosley

1

I was guilty. Every time I pocketed a few dollars, I ex-2

pected to return it. But it wasn’t like the money I used to 3

steal out of my uncle Brent’s wallet. I took that money be-4

cause I hated him. I hated the way he smelled and the way 5

he talked about my father. I took it because my father’s 6

family had come directly from Africa, but Brent said that 7

my father really didn’t know our roots. He said that we 8

were like all other American blacks, that we came from 9

“slave-caliber Negroes who were defeated in war and sold 10

into slavery because they didn’t have the guts to die in 11

battle.” He said that there was no such thing as free 12

Africans who had “chosen to come over and sell their 13

labor in indentured servitude” and that American Negro 14

citizens never existed before 1865, as my father claimed.

15

I kept Brent’s money. He used to complain to my 16

mother, but I’d just tell her that it must be his illness 17

affecting his brain. I don’t know what she thought about 18

it all. She didn’t like Brent’s mouth either, but he was fam-19

ily and my mother was the sweetest woman in the world.

20

“Well,” I said to Lainie. “I didn’t steal anything and 21

now people at the bank are telling everybody that I’m a 22

thief and I can’t get a job. And you didn’t even tell me.

23

Didn’t warn me or anything.”

24