was persistent. Even when I finished, it stayed hard.
24
I went back to bed with the intention of masturbating, 25
but my headache just got worse, and the thought of 26
Laura, as exciting as it was, also made me nauseous.
S 27
Finally I got dressed and went downstairs to the R 28
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Walter Mosley
1
kitchen. I wanted coffee, but the percolator was dirty and 2
the sink was full of greasy dishes. There were also dirty 3
dishes piled on the table and sink. I looked at the mess for 4
a while and decided that it was too much for me to do be-5
fore I had my morning coffee. And so I got my Dodge 6
from the garage and drove down to the Corners for coffee 7
and crumb cake at Hannah and Company.
8
9
10
“Morning, Mr. Blakey,” Tina Gramble said. She was Han-11
nah’s niece, a blond girl with tan skin. She was from a local 12
family and therefore accepted me as part of the commu-13
nity. Being a Negro, I was different. We would never be real 14
friends. But neither of us really wanted that, nor did we feel 15
left out of something. And so it was pleasant when we did 16
cross paths.
17
“Hey, Tina. Could I get some coffee and cake?”
18
“You look like you could use it,” she said, managing to 19
smile and look concerned at the same time.
20
“Thursday night is blackjack night at my house.”
21
“Hope you won.”
22
“Big.”
23
24
25
After my coffee I drove down to the old
dirt road that led to Canyon’s Field. It was the shortcut 27 S
that would take me most of the way to Wilson Ryder’s 28 R
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The Man in My Basement
construction site. The Ryder family had lived in the Har-1
