The Man in My Basement

The Man in My Basement

TV habit. I’d watch the news now and then, but that was 1

mainly to keep up with Clarance. Most nights I spent alone, 2

except when I had a girlfriend. But the last girlfriend I had 3

was Laura Wright. That had ended some months before.

4

It was mostly just me in the big house. The rooms were 5

large, with big bay windows everywhere. When I was 6

alone I’d wander around in my underwear, talking to my-7

self or reading about outer space. Those were the best mo-8

ments I had. With the evening spread out in front of me, 9

maybe with some music playing and a few shots of bour-10

bon, I had all the time I needed to think.

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I couldn’t think when I was around people. In company 12

I was always talking, always telling a joke or laughing at 13

one. My uncle Brent used to say that my mouth was my 14

biggest problem. “Boy,” he’d say while sitting in the re-15

clining chair in the den, “if you could just learn to be quiet 16

for a minute, you might hear something worthwhile.”

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My mother said that I was supposed to love Uncle 18

Brent, but he was hard on children. Brent came to live 19

with us after he had what my mother called a case of nerves.

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There wasn’t much wrong with him that I could see, but 21

after his attack he came to live in our house. He kept the 22

garden in the spring and summer and sat in the old chair 23

in what used to be my father’s library. But my father was 24

dead by then and Uncle Brent called the library his den.

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Brent loved to tell me what was wrong with me. I 26

talked too much, I didn’t study enough, I didn’t respect S 27

authority, and I was way too dark for the genteel colored R 28

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Walter Mosley

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community of Forest Cove. That was down in South Car-2

olina, where Brent was born. Brent himself was a deep-3

brown color, with thick lips that were always turned 4

down as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. The only hint 5

he gave of being sick was that it took him a long time to 6

get out of his chair.

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So when my mother was out and he’d let loose with one 8

of his insults, I’d say, “Fuck you, old man,” and walk 9

slowly away while he struggled to get up and after me.

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