full-grown men in that ridiculous situation. But if you 26
were there, you’d have felt how deadly serious we were.
27 S
“I don’t know,” he said at last.
28 R
“You don’t know what?”
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“I don’t know the answers, not the real answers. My 1
mother’s name was Maria Knosos, and she was unmar-2
ried. My father’s name was Tamal. The birth certificate 3
only had his first name. His nationality was Turkish. My 4
name became Tamal Knosos because my mother died be-5
fore she could give me a name. She had come to New 6
York from Greece and met this man, Tamal, somewhere.
7
He was already gone by the time I was born. I was neither 8
Greek nor Turkish but an orphan in America. When I 9
grew up I named myself. I didn’t know a thing about ei-10
ther parent or their cultures. I was here and I meant to 11
thrive. I created a whole history based on the name Ben-12
net. The ancestors I chose came over on a boat before the 13
American Revolution. They had died out mostly, except 14
for Anniston, except for me.”
15
I was looking closely at my prisoner. At his bald head 16
and impossible eyes.
17
“Contact lenses,” he said and then leaned forward, put-18
ting his fingers against his left eye. When he leaned back 19
he had in his hand a big lens, whites and all, of a blue eye.
20
The black eye that looked back at me from the left socket 21
could well have been Greek or Turkish.
22
“I had my scalp done by an electrologist,” he said. “In 23
the kind of work I do, there’s no promise that you will 24
have a razor ready to shave the black locks.”
25
“You’re passing as a blue blood,” I said. “But you’re 26
really nothing. You don’t even know if your father was S 27
Turkish. He could have been Arab or even African.”
R 28
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Walter Mosley
1
“My name is Anniston Bennet,” my prisoner said with 2
conviction.
3
“It’s your turn,” I replied.
4
“I don’t want to play this game anymore,” he said.
5
“If you don’t play my game, I don’t play yours,” I said 6
simply. The power I felt was stronger than any alcohol.
7
Bennet replaced his blue eye and shook his head.
8
“You don’t want to fuck with me, Charlie.” He was an-9
other man again.
10
“Oh no?” I walked out of the basement and up to the 11
house. In the pantry I had two loaves of white bread and 12
three cans of Borden’s condensed milk waiting for just this 13
moment. These I carried back down into the hole. I shoved 14
the food under the gate, smashing the bread in the process, 15
and then threw a can opener through a cell diamond.
16
I went back to the hatch and snapped off the light. I 17
called down, “See you in four days, Tamal.”
18
He yelled something unintelligible as I slammed down 19
the door to the cellar. He was still shouting as I secured 20
the locks to the basement. But you could barely hear his 21
shouts just five feet away from the hatch. It was a well-22
built stone cellar and the door was insulated, almost 23
soundproof as it turned out.
24
I went up to the house listening for his shouts but heard 25
nothing. At about noon I figured that he stopped, so I 26
went back down to the cellar door. He was still shouting, 27 S
loud and deep for such a small man.
28 R
I almost broke then. I almost threw the door open and 196
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The Man in My Basement
set him free. I could have saved face by saying that I just 1
wanted to throw a scare into him. I could have freed him 2
and sent him packing. I knew that that was the wisest 3
course to follow, but something else had taken me over.
4
Perverse pride left Tamal/Anniston in his hole.
5
Ever since the first day he stood at my front door, I felt 6
that Bennet held the upper hand. He was self-assured and 7
a man of the world and rich and white. I was permanently 8
unemployed and broke. Putting him in that cell and serv-9
ing him was like tying Joe Frazier’s right hand behind his 10
back and then picking a fight with him.
11
The only way I could beat Bennet was to break him, to 12
show him that I was boss of my house. To show him that 13
I meant what I said and that I would not break down. Af-14
ter all, he agreed to my rules. He had said okay. What did 15
he expect? He told me that he wanted to be punished, 16
that he wanted me as his warden. I had warned him.
17
18
19
I was late getting out of the house and late to Tiger 20
Tanaka’s, the Japanese restaurant. Narciss was waiting pa-21
tiently in the display window at a table for two.
22
“Hey,” I said as I walked up. “Sorry I’m late. I had some 23
business with Mr. Dent that I couldn’t break off.”
24
“That’s okay.” She smiled, looking down at first, and 25
then in an act of will, she looked up for me to see her 26
pleasure. “I was just thinking about the notes in your S 27
aunts’ diaries. You know, I don’t think that you should sell R 28
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Walter Mosley
1
them either. So much of them is about everyday life in the 2
black community out here, and there are names, names of 3
your relatives back more than two hundred years.”
4
“They got the guys that brought over those masks in 5
there?”
6
Narciss beamed. “Not their names but there is a refer-7
ence to three Africans that came over on a Spanish ship 8
before the Revolution. I don’t think these ladies knew 9
about the masks. Now, either they didn’t know of their re-10
lation to the three African sailors or somehow your fam-11
ily inherited the masks from another clan.”
12
She was wearing a dark-blue dress that came to 13
midthigh when she sat. It was a sharp number — new, I 14
believed. I sat down, put my hands across the table, and 15
touched her elbows with my fingers.
16
“I was thinking,” she continued. “I mean, I haven’t 17
really pushed ahead with the sales yet. I was thinking that 18
maybe you would like to start a museum.”
19
“Museum?”
20
“Yes. An African American museum of the life out here.
21
We could use my upstairs. I could charge admission. You 22
wouldn’t make as much as you would if you sold the 23
pieces, but you could keep them and share them too.”
24
“It’s nice to see you, Miss Gully.”
25
She struggled not to look away.
26
“What did you want to talk about?” she asked.
27 S
Her skin enchanted me again. The subtle variations of 28 R
color gave depth to her.
“Oh, I don’t know.” Again words came out of my 198
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The Man in My Basement
mouth as if they were uttered by some stranger. “I felt bad 1