“Hello.”
4
“Mr. Blakey. Anniston Bennet.”
5
“Oh, Mr. Bennet. I didn’t expect to hear from you un-6
til at least tomorrow.”
7
“I call into my messages every six hours unless I’m 8
somewhere where I can’t get to a phone. You’re interested 9
in renting me your basement?”
10
“We can talk about it.”
11
I thought I heard the hiss of a sharp intake of breath.
12
Maybe it was the bad connection, but I got the feeling 13
that Mr. Bennet was not a patient man.
14
“I don’t have time to come out there again, Mr. Blakey.”
15
“Well, I don’t know what to tell you then.”
16
We were silent for a few beats while the chatter of the 17
static went merrily along. At one point I thought the con-18
nection might have broken off.
19
“I can come out there on Friday,” Bennet said in a re-20
strained tone. Another conversation interfered with us 21
over the lines. It was some foreign tongue, sounded Ara-22
bic but I’m not too good with languages.
23
“What time?” I asked over the new conversation.
24
“Four. Four in the afternoon.”
25
“I’ll see you at four then.”
26
“Four,” Anniston Bennet said one more time, and the S 27
connection was broken.
R 28
3rd Pass Pages
ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 50
Walter Mosley
1
There I sat, listening to phone static from some foreign 2
land, happy even though I had just made the first step 3
toward giving up my solitude. I tried to imagine the little 4
white man coming into my kitchen while I was standing 5
there in my drawers with a hangover.
