the dark. In the dark they all came back to me. The dead 22
people and the fools. The women who gave themselves 23
for money and the men who gave themselves for women.
24
The old men who couldn’t even get it up anymore who 25
gave themselves for power. And me like a sheepdog keep-26
ing them in line, leading them to slaughter because it was S 27
what I was asked to do.
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Walter Mosley
1
I smelled blood in the darkness. I heard the silence of 2
death. And then a light would come and you would walk 3
down the stairs asking if the ones I killed were black men 4
just as if death had a race. I began to like you. Even 5
though you turned on me and beat me with the darkness 6
and silly questions.
7
When the confessions were all through, I knew there 8
was no more to say. You left just a few minutes ago. I will 9
take the Sleeper after this one last letter (the rest I’ve writ-10
ten over the past two weeks).
11
I want to die telling you something, Charles. I want to 12
pass something on, but I can’t think of a thing. Now that 13
death is coming the bubble is gone, the itch in my heart 14
has subsided and there’s nothing left to think.
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The only words I have to pass on are the ones to a story 16
I never told you.
17
I once had to kill a man (a white man) — my boss.
18
The man who brought me into reclamations after I was 19
finished with government work. His name was Stewart 20
Tellman and he was from Greenwich too. He taught me 21
everything that I tried to tell you. I learned from him and 22
we did good business. But one day his grandson was 23
killed by a falling beam at a construction site. A hy-24
draulic lift went out of control.
25
Stew had the man working the lift murdered. Then he 26
started making crazy decisions on the job. He took chances 27 S
and left clues of our coming. He spent hours sitting in 28 R
the dark like you made me do for days.
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The Man in My Basement
I went to his home one night while his wife was away 1
visiting their daughter. I came in a window and shot him 2
in the head. He was napping. His head was down on a 3
mahogany desk in the study. I shot him and it wasn’t 4
murder. He had killed himself as far as I was concerned.
5
I sat with him all night watching his blood congeal and 6
his skin tighten. I knew then (seventeen years ago) that 7
one day I would have to die like that. I decided to do it 8
myself rather than leave it for someone else.
9
But I couldn’t have done it without you, Charles. You 10
gave me the time to say good-bye. The rest of your 11
money is in a false bottom of my book trunk.
12
13
Tamal
14
15
The next few hours were the hardest I ever knew. The 16
man in my basement was dead. A corpse that I could 17
never explain. I sat with him all day and into the next 18
night. When it was late I went out into the graveyard and 19
dug a hole between my great-great-grandfather William P.
20
Dodd and my aunt Theodora. I dug all night long, won-21
dering if Miss Littleneck was hiding in the bushes, spying 22
on my crime.
23
I covered the hole with two doors that I took off the 24
hinges of the two toilets in my house. The next night I dug 25
some more. The hole was as deep as I am tall before I 26
dragged the board-stiff corpse from my basement. I rolled S 27
him in and covered him over. There was no ceremony.
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Walter Mosley
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The following day I dismantled the cell. Over the next 2
few weeks I used a blowtorch and an electric saw to cut 3
the metal into pieces, which I deposited, along with the 4
dismantled toilet, in dump sites around the island. I 5
burned his trunk and books and clothes.
6
All that was left of him were those letters and about 7
forty tapes of his confessions.
8
He was right; I never sent his letters. I buried them with 9
his tapes in the basement where he died.
10
I started my museum. Now, with Narciss, I collect 11
pieces of black history from the area where I live. Narciss 12
and I don’t go out anymore. I told her that I’m not 13
monogamous but I’d still like to be friends. After a while 14
she came around.
15
I make my money from admission fees and from the 16
historically black colleges that send up graduate students 17
and professors now and then to study my collection. Nar-18
ciss is good at applying for grants, so we usually have 19
enough to pay our salaries.
20
Chastity Littleneck died and I was the only one other 21
than Irene and the minister at the funeral. The whole 22
time I kept thinking that it was Anniston Bennet’s funeral 23
I was attending. It was sad, but I didn’t cry.
24
Irene died four weeks later. She left me her house in a 25
new will. It was that one pecan pie and a walk in the 26
graveyard. Bennet was wrong but he would never know 27 S
it. Some people live according to love and being loved —
28 R
if only a little.
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The Man in My Basement
I rent the Littleneck house to rich people in the sum-1
mer. And I still live up in my childhood room, playing 2
cards on Thursdays (closing the museum early) and doing 3
very little to make life grand.
4
Extine went away at the end of the season. If she ever 5
came back she didn’t call me. Bethany married Ricky.
6
Clarance was his best man.
7
I don’t think I’ll ever get married. I still haven’t found 8
love, and whenever I think about children, I remember 9
that there once was a boy who was sold to a dog.
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about the author
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WALTER MOSLEY is the author of the ac-9
claimed Easy Rawlins series of mysteries; the 10
novels Blue Light, RL’s Dream, and Fearless 11
Jones; and two collections of stories featuring 12
Socrates Fortlow, Always Outnumbered, Always 13
Outgunned, for which he received the Anisfield-14 C
15
Wolf Book Award, and Walkin’ the Dog. He was 16
born in Los Angeles and lives in New York.
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27 S
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3rd Pass Pages
Document Outline
PART ONE
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10