6
“Fine,” I said, looking over my shoulder.
7
“You need a ride?”
8
“No.”
9
“What you doin’ out here?” he asked. “Meetin’ some-10
body?”
11
“Can we get going, driver?” the woman next to 12
Clarance asked, barely restraining her impatience.
13
“Must be the next train,” I said vaguely.
14
“Next train’s tomorrow,” Clarance informed me.
15
“Oh.”
16
“Driver,” a man in the backseat said.
17
“What?” Clarance’s tone was sharp.
18
In the darkness, on the platform next to the station 19
sign, I saw the silhouette of a small man.
20
“We need to get home,” the passenger was saying.
21
“Well if you can’t wait a minute while I find out how 22
my friend is, then you could walk.” That brought silence.
23
“You go on, Clarance,” I said. “I got my car. I can drive 24
home.”
25
“I tried to call you,” Clarance said.
26
“I been thinkin’,” I replied.
S 27
“You wanna get together?”
R 28
3rd Pass Pages
ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 116
Walter Mosley
1
“I’ll call you next week,” I said.
2
Clarance looked at me a moment. There was concern 3
in his face. He was a good man, and we had been friends 4
as long as either one of us could remember. But there was 5
no way to talk to me. He shrugged.
