you here. It’s just that there’s been so much on my mind, 12
and I feel so comfortable with you that I kind of sink into 13
it, if you know what I mean.”
14
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
15
But her nipples were tightening again, and I was feeling 16
the beginnings of another erection.
17
“Let’s go to bed,” I said. I could have been an actor in 18
an old black-and-white movie. An airplane ace or inter-19
national journalist, world-weary and in need of quiet love.
20
She was in the movie too, and happy with her role. Arm 21
in arm we walked back to the bed, moving together like 22
choreographed dancers. Every kiss hit its mark and every 23
breath was on cue.
24
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13
Anniston Bennet stopped shouting sometime the next C 14
morning. After driving Narciss to her car, I went down to 15
the hatch and listened, but there wasn’t a murmur or 16
sound. At first I thought about going in and checking on 17
him, but then I decided that I should stick to my guns 18
and make him wait the full ninety-six hours. I figured 19
that he was still going to be mad no matter what, so I 20
might as well do something worth him being mad.
21
I spent almost all of the next three days away from the 22
house. The first night I hung out at Curry’s bar, lying 23
about my business and drinking up a storm. In the morn-24
ing I got up early and started worrying about the sergeant 25
that Bennet had slaughtered in North Vietnam.
26
But we aren’t in Vietnam, I said to myself.
S 27
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Walter Mosley
1
But he is a killer, I answered.
2
That morning I had made a date to go horseback riding 3
for the first time in my life. I’d met a young white couple 4
named Jodie and Byron. They were wealthy and invited 5
me to come riding with them. I said that I’d never ridden 6
before, but they promised that they’d show me how.
7
They had a girl they wanted me to meet. Extine was her 8
name. She took me, along with Jodie and Byron, on a trip 9
in woods around Southampton that I had never seen.
10
Every inch of those woods is etched in my memory by the 11
pain that saddle inflicted.
12
Jodie and Extine were cousins. Byron was Jodie’s hus-13
band. They lived in the Hamptons every summer and fall 14
and then spent the rest of the year between Aspen and 15
Maui. Their money came from their parents. Who knows 16
where it was before that?
17
Extine had big blond hair and big teeth that she pre-18
sented in a permanent smile.
19
Extine loved horses. She told me that she had ridden 20
every day of her life since the age of twelve.
21
“I love horses’ hair and teeth and eyes,” she told me two 22
minutes after we met. “When I was a girl I’d sneak out of 23
the house at night to sleep in the stables with my mare.”
24
“It’s great that you had something like that,” I said. “I 25
know a lot of people who never had something that they 26
loved so much.”
27 S
I was thinking about myself — about how I had wan-28 R
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The Man in My Basement
years without ever knowing which way I should have been 1
going.
2
“Boy just like a housefly,” Uncle Brent used to say. “So 3
busy buzzin’ he don’t see the wall till it smack him upside 4
the head.”
5
“You don’t think I’m crazy?” Extine asked with a sort of 6
wonderment in her voice.
7
“I guess you could say that you were crazy,” I said. “I 8
mean crazy basically means that you’re different from 9
everybody else, and since you know what you want and 10
most other people don’t have any idea, then they got to 11
call you crazy. But only because they’re jealous.”
12
Extine loved me after that. She was a big physical girl, 13
just like her mare. All she wanted was to gallop and romp 14
up and down the hot trails around the Hamptons.
15
She liked my company because I didn’t think there was 16
anything wrong with her obsession with horses. As a mat-17
ter of fact I liked her because everything about her came 18
down to horses. And a horse was an animal, like a deer.
19
Byron and Jodie took Extine and me to a cabin in woods 20
connected to a property that was either theirs or a friend’s.
21
It was a large place, and soon after dinner the big blond 22
horsewoman and I wandered off to a secluded part of the 23
residence.
24
That night we kissed a lot, but she didn’t want to have 25
sex. Extine was engaged to a guy named Sanderson who 26
wouldn’t mind if she kissed somebody, but he’d draw the S 27
line at intercourse.
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I didn’t care. My inner thighs were in deep pain. I was 2
sure that I was bleeding on the inside. I fell asleep midkiss 3
and didn’t wake up until noon the next day. My new 4
friends were all gone, leaving me miles away from any-5
where without a car. I spent most of the afternoon walk-6
ing down paths in an abandoned apple orchard, trying to 7
find a way down to the road.
8
It was a hot day and I had to remove my sweater and 9
top shirt. I was still in pain and limping, very thirsty too, 10
I remember, and slightly panicked that I might die out 11
there in the woods. The dirt of the path was bone-dry.
12
The blossoms of the apples had begun their transforma-13
tion to fruit. For a long time I hadn’t thought about my 14
prisoner, but on that desolate walk he came back to me.
15
A white man, maybe, who didn’t know one thing about 16
his past. Pure evil in the way of business. A thief and a 17
killer by his own admission. Why did he want to be 18
caged, anyway? He never really answered my question.
19
I thought that maybe I should disappear to Aspen or 20
Hawaii. Maybe I should let the white man go and take his 21
money and vanish.
22
I made it to a back road and finally got a ride to Curry’s.
23
There I sat and drank until closing time. When they 24
kicked me out, I slept in my car and rose with the sun 25
stabbing my eyes.
26
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He could have been dead for all that I knew. But the deal 1
was ninety-six hours, and I cracked the hatch on the second.
2
The air in there was musty. I snapped on the light, and An-3
niston Bennet rose to his feet. He was bare chested but wore 4