moved back to watch me, I kissed the blankets on her bed.
11
After we had made love, I held tight.
12
“Charles,” she said. “Hold me.”
13
The hugging went on into the morning. It led to many 14
more bouts of passion. I was making up for a starvation 15
diet, broken in a fit of fear.
16
The next day I asked Bethany to take me back to my car.
17
“When will I see you?” she asked.
18
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ll call you when all of this is over.”
19
“All of what?”
20
“I don’t know what, okay? I don’t know.”
21
She drove me without asking anything else. At the car 22
she said, “Charles?” and hesitated. “Charles, I want to see 23
you again.”
24
“Me too,” I said.
25
I left her feeling no shred of the love we’d shared the 26
night before.
27 S
28 R
3rd Pass Pages
ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 111
1
2
3
4
13
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
After that night with Bethany, the days passed quickly.
C 14
I spent most of the time reading sci-fi novels, but I un-15
packed the rest of Bennet’s boxes too. There I found three 16