3
“I still don’t get it,” I said, downing my glass in frustra-4
tion and refilling it with the gratitude of a full bottle.
5
“What does my basement have to do with all that? What 6
do I have to do with it?”
7
“Everything about us is random,” Bennet said. “Maybe 8
the universe has laws, but they aren’t concerned about 9
you or me or the people we touch. We’re just mistakes 10
who got up and walked off. The only things that are cer-11
tain are death and the will to survive . . .”
12
He was a tiny man talking as if he were a giant. But he 13
was convincing too.
14
“. . . We make our own victories and our own mis-15
takes,” he said, and for a moment there was a sad little 16
chink in his armor of certainty. “There is no justice unless 17
the judged agree. Without understanding and repentance 18
there can only be revenge.” He reached over to the stair 19
next to me and refilled both our glasses.
20
“What are you talking about, Mr. Bennet? What kind 21
of crime and justice and revenge do you mean?”
22
“The worst,” he said. “You think of the worst crime you 23
can imagine and then make it worse. And then you will 24
have a glimmer of what I have done.”
25
The whiskey was having an effect on both of us. My vi-26
sion was skewed and the tone in his voice tended toward S 27
humanity.
R 28
3rd Pass Pages
ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 122
Walter Mosley
1
“I don’t need to know this,” I said. “I don’t need to be a 2
part of it.”
3
“But I paid you.”
4
“To rent my basement, not to start a private prison.
5
Damn, man. I don’t know you. The police could come 6
down here and find you all locked up. They could get me 7
on kidnapping and who knows what else? No. No.”
8
