Read Online The Man in My Basement by Walter Mosley - Free Book Online Page B

Ricky?”
    “My mom got back home from her sister’s last night.”
    “Yeah? Tell her hello for me,” I said. Ricky’s mother had always been kind to me.
    “Yeah, okay. But listen. Bethany wanna come over tonight, you hear what I’m sayin’? She got a roommate and I got my moms.”
    “Doesn’t she have a room?” When I sat up, a spasm went through my intestines. For a moment I thought I was going to vomit right there on my money.
    “Yeah, man, but the kinda lovin’ she spoons out is too loud for a small apartment.” I could hear the greed in Ricky’s voice. “Let us stay with you tonight? You know—the same deal you used to make with Clarance.”
    I saw a hawk through the window. She was stiff-winged and wheeling round.
    A huntress,
I thought,
honing in on her prey.
    The thought chilled me, and I forgot for a moment or two about Ricky on the other end of the line.
    “You could keep the fifty you owe me,” he said.
    “I got your fifty right here in my wallet, man.”
    “Where you get that?”
    I rose to my feet, holding the bag of money in my right hand.
    “Yeah, you two could stay,” I said. “I’ll even make you dinner.”
     
* * *
     
    I spent the day taking care of business. I went to the bank in Southampton and gave them four payments on the mortgage, in cash. I paid ahead on the rest of my utilities too. I bought groceries that would last a month or more. That included six quarts of cheap bourbon—I didn’t want to waste any more money on cognac. I also bought paint, paintbrushes, tools, and every kind of cleaning liquid, brush, and rag. I bought three pairs of jeans, a pair of Timberjack work boots, four checkered flannel shirts, and a new toothbrush. I renewed my subscription to the
New York Times,
partially because I thought Bennet would want to read it, and bought four CDs of Thelonious Sphere Monk, whose music was the only thing in the world that Brent and I both loved.
    I went to the used bookstore in the Harbor and bought fifteen sci-fi hardbacks. Mostly Philip K. Dick and Brian Aldiss. I was digging in for the long haul. This was mainly due to the fear that I’d waste all the money Bennet gave me before I had taken care of business.
    Brent used to say that money went through my fingers like water down the drain. He wasn’t wrong. The first thing I did when Bennet left was to go out and buy a pure gold ring that I had seen in an antique store in East Hampton. It was a slender thing with a pale green stone for a setting. It was from India, Mrs. Canelli said. It was a woman’s ring and too small for me, but I wanted it anyway. And once I had the money, I couldn’t help myself.
    My mother gave me my allowance every Saturday morning, and I’d spend the rest of the day shopping for candy and gifts for her.
    “Don’t spend everything, baby,” she’d tell me. But her eyes were alight whenever I’d bring out a bottle of perfume or some glass trinket.
     
     
    By the time Ricky and Bethany arrived, I was making dinner. Hot and sweet Italian sausages fried with whole cloves of garlic and then simmered in red wine and tomato sauce. The water for the vermicelli had just come to a boil when Ricky and Bethany came in. She was a few inches taller and almost twice the size of Ricky, but Bethany wasn’t fat. She had a big chest and powerful legs, but the stomach was flat. Her face was wide and the color of dark amber. She had big teeth, an embarrassing laugh, and eyes that glittered when they saw you.
    “Hey, Charles,” she called. They had let themselves in the front door. “That smells delicious. You got some for us?”
    “I didn’t know if you guys had time to eat. From what Ricky said I thought you were real tired and had to go to bed.”
    “Uh-uh,” she denied. “We came to see you and eat some sausages too.”
    She put her arms around me and gave me a kiss that made me hug her back.
    “Let’s eat!” Ricky declared. And for a while I had some company and no thoughts in my