about how we got off the phone the other night. I like 2
you and I was hoping that we didn’t have to stop talking 3
before we had a chance to be friends.”
4
Narciss smiled and sighed. She touched her long fingers 5
against my forearm, and the waitress, a blond teenager, 6
came up to take our order.
7
I ate raw fish for the first time in my life. Yellowtail and 8
tuna, and smoky and sweet-tasting sea urchin on a mint 9
leaf. I paid for the meal and then took Narciss on a long 10
drive out to Montauk. I kissed her the first time on the 11
beach. We had been walking for more than an hour. She 12
had done almost all the talking — mostly about the mu-13
seum she wanted me to contribute toward — but there 14
were details about her mother and father and her activist /
15
lawyer sister, Rochelle, who lived in D.C. and had three 16
children by as many men.
17
“She’d be a welfare mother if she wasn’t a lawyer,” she 18
said at one point.
19
I was thinking that Rochelle didn’t sound any different 20
from many men that I had known. Men who bounced 21
from woman to woman, creating babies as they went.
22
Clarance was like that. There were at least three women 23
who he admitted having children by. He was proud of his 24
virility.
25
I was thinking about Rochelle’s masculine approach, 26
but I didn’t care. Instead I stopped there on the sandy S 27
beach and kissed Rochelle’s girly sister.
R 28
Narciss didn’t resist. She had been waiting for it. Her 199
3rd Pass Pages
ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 200
Walter Mosley
1
left arm snaked up around my neck while her right hand 2
gripped my biceps. Her tongue was quick to find mine.
3
We stood there in each other’s arms until my legs began 4
to ache. That was about 5:30. I broke away long enough 5
to suggest that we drive back to my house. We made it to 6
the car, but it was almost 7:00 before I turned the ignition 7
key and started back toward home.
8
All that time we had only been kissing. Lips and necks.
9
Her dress was sleeveless, so sometimes I kissed her arms.
10
She leaned over me now and again, resting her forearm on 11
my erection, but that was as close as we came to sex until 12
we got back to my place.
13
The drive back was more than an hour. She filled up 14
the minutes talking about my aunts’ diaries and what im-15
portance they held.
16
“It’s what real history is made of,” Narciss said. She was 17
reclining comfortably in her seat. The window was open 18
and the wind blew across her face. “Recipes and funerals, 19
petty disputes and detailed explanations of social gaffes.
20
There’s some talk about race but not as much as you’d ex-21
pect. Your aunt Theodora was very religious, but Penel-22
ope and Jane-Anne hardly ever mentioned the Bible or 23
the Lord. Just the leaves of the diaries under a glass case 24
could be the room of a museum.”
25
“I’ll think about it,” I said, reaching over to rest my 26
hand on the upper thigh of her left leg.
27 S
She shuddered, but I didn’t know if it was from the an-28 R
ticipation of sex or the chance she had to become a curator.
200
3rd Pass Pages
ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 201
1
2
3
4
24
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
“Put your arms up over your head,” I said to Narciss C 14
Gully.
15
We were both naked and lying on my mother’s bed. She 16
hesitated but then complied. I bound her wrists together 17
with my left hand and proceeded to take her nipple in my 18
mouth.
19
Her breasts were small, but the nipples were quite large.
20
Though darker, they had the same multicoloring as the 21
rest of her skin. The nipples were very hard against my 22
tongue. I worked my hand down between her legs and 23
flicked my finger against the moist flesh under the mound 24
of hair.
25
“Oh God!” she hissed. “Oh no.”
26
I continued to tease and nibble until her hissing turned S 27
into a shout.
R 28
201
3rd Pass Pages
ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 202
Walter Mosley
1
“Oh God, oh no. Stop! Please. Too much.”
2
“You want me to stop?” I asked while still licking her 3
nipple.
4
“Please.”
5
“First I’ll count to five,” I said.
6
“Oh.”
7
“One . . .”
8
Narciss raised her head between her extended arms to 9
look down at what my hand was doing.
10
“. . . two . . .”
11
She grinned and then grimaced . . .
12
“. . . three . . .”
13
. . . and then slammed her head back on the mattress.
14
“. . . four . . .”
15
“I love you,” she whispered.
16
“What?”
17
“Please. I can’t take it.”
18
“Five.”
19
I released her and moved my teasing hand away. I stood 20
above her and she turned over on her stomach, inviting 21
me to lie down on her back.
22
23
24
“Do you hear something, Charles?”
25
I had just awakened in the dark room. Narciss was 26
standing at the window, cupping her ear toward the 27 S
pane.
28 R
I got up and went to her. It pleased me that she was still 202
3rd Pass Pages
ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 203
The Man in My Basement
naked. I put my arm around her slender waist and she 1
draped her arm on my shoulder.
2
“Listen,” she said.
3
In the silence of night, you could barely make it out.
4
No more than a murmur, it was only audible due to the 5
proximity of my mother’s window.
6
“It’s that man again,” I said.
7
“What man?”
8
“The man who lives out in these woods some summers.
9
It’s a hobo or something. Now and then someone calls the 10
police, but they never find him. He’s crazy, and some-11
times when he drinks too much wine, he gets pretty loud.
12
He keeps his distance though. You have to listen closely 13
just to hear it at all.”
14
“Have you seen him?”
15
“No, never.”
16
“Then how do you know all of that?”
17
“I’ve found his camps and empty bottles of cheap wine.
18
Some people have seen him too, but not me.” My lies 19
were becoming too large. I knew I should let it go, but I 20
couldn’t. “We called him the Padre when I was younger, 21
because some folks said that he was preaching to the trees.
22
He seems harmless enough.”
23
I kissed Narciss and she forgot about Anniston Bennet’s 24
shouts and my lies.
25
Narciss needed to talk. She was very nervous about sur-26
rendering so completely to a man she hardly knew and S 27
told me so.
R 28
203
3rd Pass Pages
ManInMyBasemnt_HCtext3P.qxd 10/24/03 8:16 PM Page 204