S 27
“Okay. One-thirty tomorrow.”
R 28
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“See ya then.”
2
“Okay. Bye.”
3
4
5
“Good morning, Mr. Bennet,” I said at 6:45.
6
I snapped on the light and he jerked up from his mat-7
tress on the floor.
8
“Good morning.”
9
I shoved the cold cereal and fruit under the door and 10
sat on the trunk.
11
“Here’s the deal,” I said.
12
Bennet sat in his red chair and ran his hand down 13
across his face until he was clasping his throat.
14
“Go on,” he said.
15
“Everything is a privilege. Food is a privilege and so is 16
water and light and the books to read. If you want me to 17
be the warden of your life, then that’s just what I’ll be.”
18
“How do I earn these privileges?” Bennet asked. He was 19
very serious.
20
“I will ask you questions. And you will answer them. If 21
you refuse or I don’t like your answers, then a privilege 22
will be taken away. If I don’t like your attitude, I will sus-23
pend privileges. If you lie, the same thing.”
24
“But how will you know if I’m lying?”
25
“You will have to prove it to me.”
26
For some reason that answer made Bennet flinch.
27 S
“And what are my rights?” he asked.
28 R
“You have only one right in here,” I said. “At any time 180
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you can ask to be released. And then, ninety-six hours af-1
ter that request, I will open the door and you can go.”
2
“Don’t forget your money.”
3
“I don’t care about the money. All I care about is my 4
rules in my jail.”
5
“And why the ninety-six-hour delay?”
6
“Because you’re not going to be the boss here. This is 7
my house. If you want to play some stupid game, you 8
have to play by my rules. And believe me, if you say to-9
morrow that you want out, I will turn out the light and 10
leave you down here with nothing but a mug of water for 11
four days.”
12
I believe that that was the first time I saw the true An-13
niston Bennet. All artifice was gone from his face. His 14
brow knitted and his fingers did a jittery little dance.
15
“And if I don’t answer your questions to your satisfac-16
tion?” he asked.
17
“Same thing,” I said. “Solitary confinement. No light.
18
Bread and water. For four days.”
19
“What is this, Charles? Do you think you can break 20
me?”
21
“This is my home,” I said. “My home, my rules.”
22
“How long do I have to think about this?”
23
“Right now. Right now. Either you say that you agree 24
or I pull your ass outta there and drive you to the train 25
station in those pajamas.”
26
Underneath the glowering eyes a smile came to Annis-S 27
ton Bennet’s lips.
R 28
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“I will agree on one condition,” he said.
2
“What’s that?”
3
“Even though I might not exercise the option, I reserve 4
the right to ask you one question for every three you ask 5
of me. And you give me your word that you will answer 6
as honestly as you can.”
7
“Deal,” I said.
8
“And if I answer the question you ask of me, that is, if 9
you believe my answer, then I won’t be punished because 10
your question was inadequate. Also you have to ask spe-11
cific questions and not something like Tell me everything 12
about this or that. ”
13
“Okay,” I said. I had already thought about the types of 14
questions that would be fair. I agreed with his reserva-15
tions. I believed that if I couldn’t ask the question, then I 16
didn’t deserve an answer. “Okay. I’ll be specific and I will 17
say why I don’t believe something.”
18
Anniston Bennet nodded his agreement. He was deadly 19
serious. I can’t even begin to explain how I felt.
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27 S
28 R
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1
2
3
4
5
PART THREE
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
C 14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
S 27
R 28
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1
2
3
4
22
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
“Why are you here?” I had brought him panfried scrod C 14
and boiled potatoes for dinner — that and a small pitcher 15
of chilled Irish Breakfast tea.
16
“I don’t understand.”
17
It was the first jab and counter in our contest.
18
“Why do you want to be here in this cell in my base-19
ment? Why do you feel you should be in jail?”
20
Bennet had been sitting in his red plastic chair. He 21
stood, held his hands out, and splayed his fingers. One 22
hand was held high; the other was at waist level. They 23
were like an ancient image of twin suns.
24
“Because, Charles. I am criminal.” The suns turned to 25
fists. “I have broken every commandment and dozens of 26
laws and ordinances.”
S 27
“What laws have —”
R 28
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“It’s my turn,” he said.
2
“I only asked you one question.”
3
“Why am I here?” he said, holding up a solitary thumb.
4
“Why do I want to be here?” The forefinger. “And why do 5
I feel I should be in jail?”
6
His count was correct, and I wanted to play by the rules.
7
“Did you embezzle money from Harbor Savings?” he 8
asked.
9
My first impulse was to say no. I almost did. Then I 10
wanted to say yes, but I couldn’t get the word out of my 11
mouth. I sat there, gritting my teeth. Bennet’s only emo-12
tion was bland patience.
13
It dawned on me that I had gotten into a game that I 14
could lose. If I played by the rules we’d set out that morn-15
ing, I was open to questions that made me just as vulner-16
able as Bennet. If I answered truthfully, he would have 17
something on me.
18
And I couldn’t be sure if what he told me was the truth.
19
“Yes,” I said anyway. “Yes, I took money from the 20
drawer. I guess you could call it embezzlement.”
21
Anniston Bennet smiled.
22
“Have you ever murdered anybody?” I asked, expecting 23
to wipe the smirk off his face.
24
“No,” he replied, still showing his small teeth.
25
I stood up, knocking the standing book trunk flat on 26
the floor behind me. “That’s it!” I shouted. “Four days’
27 S
solitary!”
28 R
He leaped to his feet also.
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“That’s not fair!” he cried, a bit playfully.
1
“Yes it is. You lied. I already know that you murdered 2
that soldier in North Vietnam. Either you lied then or 3
you are now.”
4
“I did not lie on either count,” Bennet complained. “I 5
never said that I murdered that soldier. I said that I killed 6
him, shot him actually. But I was ordered to do so by a le-7
gal representative of the government. I no more murdered 8
that soldier than an executioner murders a condemned 9
man.”
10
“You said that you broke every commandment,” I ar-11
gued. But I realized before I finished that the command-12
ment says Thou shalt not kill; it does not say murder.
13
“Are you a lawyer, Mr. Bennet?” I asked.
14
“No. I have no formal training as a lawyer and neither 15
have I taken or passed the bar in any state or nation.”
16
“What did you steal?”
17
“Only one thing,” he said. “It was years ago, in the sev-18
enties in a villa outside of Rio de Janeiro. A painting that 19
was just there leaning up against the wall in a poorly lit 20
hallway that no one went into much. It was in a rich 21
man’s house. I was newly out of Asia and looking for a 22
shipping connection outside the U.S. that would be will-23
ing to move what some saw as contraband. The man who 24
owned the house also owned a dozen ships. Not big ships 25
but big enough for my purposes. But it wasn’t working 26
out. The man either wanted too much or was scared and S 27
asked for too much, so I would have to abandon my ef-R 28
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1
forts. I stayed a day or two too long. His daughter hated 2
him. She would come up to my room every night and 3
make love to me and tell me how much she hated him.
4
She was the one who showed me the painting.
5
“It was a nude, a foot high and nine inches wide. She 6
was peach colored and leaning over a blue chair. Picasso.
7
Just threw it in my suitcase while Embado’s daughter was 8
sleeping in my bed. She slept late that day, and I managed 9
to leave without waking her.”
10
I allowed the idea to seep in. It wasn’t the painting or 11
Brazil or a beautiful young woman coming to him for sex 12
in her own father’s home. It wasn’t any one of those things 13
but all of them together. Thinking about his access to 14
power and wealth, about his almost innocent lack of 15
morals, set off an empty feeling in my chest.
16
I looked into his blue eyes while I thought of how to 17
phrase my next question.
18
He saw what was going on in my eyes and said, “My 19
turn.”
20
21
“Have you ever killed anybody?”
22
I wanted to get up and leave right then, to run away 23
from Bennet — and everything else. I thought that I 24
could free him and then I’d drive to New York. From 25
there I could make it down to Atlanta, change my name, 26
get a job unloading boxes.
27 S
But there was something about the peach-colored nude 28 R
and the naked woman in the bed — something about me 188
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The Man in My Basement
spending an entire lifetime up in my room reading comic 1
books and masturbating while there was a real world out-2
side that I was too scared to acknowledge. These things 3
held me. Bennet’s question was the deepest contact that I 4
had ever had with another human being.
5
Brent was dying. He was almost dead already. The hos-6
pice nurse came in every morning to see about him. She 7
changed his diapers and washed him. She fed him break-8
fast and then a volunteer would come later in the day to 9
feed him dinner. The meals were the same, just a can of 10
vitamin-enriched milk-shake–like stuff. Chocolate for 11
dinner and banana in the morning. The nurse said that I 12
should look in on him at night, but I never did — letting 13
him sleep, I said to myself.
14
By then he couldn’t even talk. He’d open his eyes when 15
I’d come into the room though. He looked at me with 16
longing eyes. Sometimes he’d hold out a feeble hand.
17
Before he was that far gone, Brent asked me to sit down 18
next to his bed one morning. I had just brought in his 19
breakfast and was getting ready to leave.
20
“Charles.”
21
His voice was weak. I pretended not to hear him.
22
“Charles, please sit down for a minute.”
23
I did as he asked. He took my hand.
24
&n
bsp; “What?”
25
“I just wanted to say that I was sorry, boy. I just wanted 26
to say that I know I treated you bad all these years. Called S 27
you names. Told you you were no good. I can see now R 28
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1
that all that time what you needed was a father. That’s 2
why you were so bad. You were just mad and I never saw 3
why. Can you forgive me?”
4
Tears came into my eyes. Tears of rage. The idea that 5
Brent would mention my father, that he would dare to 6
even suggest that he could have taken my father’s place, 7
made me hate him more than I ever had. I let go of his 8
hand so as not to crack his fingers. He saw the tears and 9
smiled. I believe that he thought I was forgiving him, that 10
those tears were his absolution.
11
I wanted to deny it. I wanted to holler him into dust. I 12
was so angry that I didn’t trust my actions, so I left the 13
room. I never spoke to Brent again. I didn’t touch him 14
again. I couldn’t. The nurse was always telling me that a 15
kind word or a gentle touch would be the best medicine.
16
But I couldn’t touch him. I couldn’t think of one kind 17
thing to say. His smell made my stomach turn. I would 18
have liked to jab knives into his eyes.
19
I didn’t touch or talk to him; I didn’t go into his room 20
at night. Every day he got weaker and I thought to myself, 21
Good, I hope he dies soon. I hope he dies tonight while I’m in 22
my bed thinking about the Playboy magazines that I stole 23
from under his bed.
24
One morning the nurse found him on the floor next to 25
the door. He must have been trying to get out. Maybe he 26
was trying to get to me. I heard something in the night, 27 S
but I really thought that it was squirrels in the gutters, not 28 R
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my uncle scrabbling on the oak floor trying to escape 1
from death.
2
The police asked me if I had heard anything. Everyone 3
knew how much I hated Brent. But nothing came of it.
4
He died of cancer. They couldn’t arrest me for not being 5
friendly, for rubbing my urgent erection on the mattress 6
while thinking about impossibly endowed Tammy Lee 7
Naidor, the Playmate of the month.
8
“No,” I said to Bennet. “No, I’ve never killed anyone.
9