13
“Yeah,” Ricky said. “He’ll be down there tomorrow.
14
You should go ask ’im.”
15
“Yeah, maybe I will. Maybe so.”
16
“Maybe?” Clarance was shuffling the cards over and 17
over again, the way he always did when he was getting 18
high. “Maybe? Man, what you thinkin’? Like you some 19
kinda prince don’t have to work? They will take this house 20
from you, Charles. You gonna end up like old man Brad-21
ford — sleepin’ in somebody’s garage, eatin’ day-old bread, 22
and drinkin’ brand X.”
23
“Clara, baby,” I said, doing my impersonation of a half-24
hearted lounge lizard. “What’s all this tough love, darlin’?”
25
Clarance had height to carry all that weight. He stood 26
straight up and grabbed for me, but I pushed my chair 27 S
back and scrambled out of his reach.
28 R
3rd Pass Pages
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The Man in My Basement
“Goddammit, asshole!” he shouted. “I told you not to 1
call me that!”
2
“But, baby,” I pleaded with my hands clasped as if in 3
prayer. “Clara, you tellin’ me I ain’t worthy.”
4
I knew calling his name in the feminine for the second 5
time would end the card game. We used to tease Clarance 6
in grade school by calling him Clarabell and then just 7
Clara. He stood there shaking, looking as mean as he 8
could manage.
9
I laughed. And for a moment there was a chance that 10
we would fight. Not much of a chance, because Clarance 11
knew he couldn’t take me. But we were both just high 12
enough to act like fools.
13
Ricky put the bottle down and picked up his sweater.
14
When he stood, that was the signal for Clarance to turn 15
around and leave. Ricky shook his head at me and fol-16
lowed his cousin out the front door.
17
They’d left their piles of change on the table where we 18
