12
Everyone in the Harbor must have known about my thefts.
13
From the bank I went to Nelson’s Hardware, where I 14
bought three combination padlocks and heavy hinges to 15
hold them. Ricky was sitting on a public bench on Main 16
Street, drinking orange juice from a carton. I pretended 17
not to notice him from across the street.
18
“Hey, Charles,” he called.
19
I looked up, feigning surprise, and then crossed over to 20
him.
21
“Hey, Cat,” I said. “I thought you were working for 22
Wilson Ryder?”
23
“Took the day off,” he said. “Clarance said he saw you 24
at the train station in the middle of the night.”
25
“Yeah. I met some girl and she said she wanted to come 26
back out to see me, said she’d be on that train but damned S 27
if she was.” I lied smoothly and without a skip.
R 28
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“Who is she?”
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“Abby Peters,” I said, pulling the name out of thin air.
3
“White girl?”
4
I said nothing then. If he wanted to wonder about 5
something, I thought it would be best to have him think-6
ing about a girl who didn’t exist.
7
“Clarance said that you looked upset,” Ricky said.
8
“Upset?”
9
“Well actually he said crazy. He said that you had a 10
crazy look in your eye.” Ricky cocked his head to the side 11
in order to see up into my eyes. He was searching for in-12
sanity.
13
“How are you, Cat?”
14
He made a painful face. “Bethany dropped me.”
15
“When?”
16
“Almost two months but I still miss her.” The honest 17
hurt in his voice and eyes told me that he had no suspi-18
cions about who Bethany was with now. “It hurts way 19
down. You know, that girl could get somethin’ cookin’ in 20
me. I was thinkin’ about startin’ some kinda serious busi-21
ness, about makin’ a life for myself, for us. You know?”
22
“You always got life, Cat. Or else you don’t have it.
23
There is nothing else.” It sounded right when I said it.
24
Now it’s just a meaningless line of words.
25
“Are you crazy, Charles?”
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I laughed and said, “Just tired, Ricky. Tired of every 27 S
day.”
28 R
“What you mean?”
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“I want something else, I guess. Something different.”
1
“Like what? A vacation?”
2
“Maybe a journey,” I said. The words were coming 3
from my lips, but I wasn’t thinking about them.
4
“What’s the difference?” Ricky asked.
5
“A vacation’s over after two weeks. You go out on a 6
journey and you might not ever come back.”
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14 C
That evening I took three suits from the hall closet. I 15
hadn’t worn a suit since I worked for the bank. There was 16
a brown one, a deep green, and a blue so dark that I 17
bought it thinking it was black. They were all cleaned and 18
pressed. Before he got sick my father had repaneled all the 19
closets with cedar, so no moths had gotten to them. I 20
rummaged around for some dress shirts and ties. They 21
were my father’s, but we were the same size. His suits fit 22
me too. They seemed to have more character than my 23
straight-cuffed wear. His pants were roomier in the thighs.
24
His socks were argyle. He had bigger shoulders than me, 25
so the jackets were loose but stylish. There were a dozen 26
of his suits in my mother’s closet. And they covered the 27 S
rainbow.
28 R
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The Man in My Basement
a butcher in Southampton his whole life until he died. I 1
guess he just liked them.
2
3
4
I brought Bennet a Big Mac and fries at about 9:00. He 5
wanted to talk to me, but I didn’t bite. I just shoved his 6
food in and carried the dirty dishes back to the house.
7
8
9
The next day, after feeding the prisoner, I put on a white 10
gabardine that my father wore and a dark-blue dress shirt 11
and cream-colored tie. Tennis shoes were all I had to go 12
with the ensemble, but they looked good in the full-13
length mirror. I noticed something different about me, 14
but I wasn’t sure what it was. It might have been the hip-15
ster clothes, but maybe it was something else.
16
Giving up that mystery, I drove off to see Narciss Gully.
17
She wasn’t expecting me. The door to her shop was 18
locked. But after a long while, she came from somewhere 19
and peered through the linen curtains.
20
Seeing me, she was startled. I don’t know if it was the 21
suit or the surprise appearance, but she opened the door 22
and said, “Mr. Blakey? What are you doing here?”
23
“Thought I’d check up on my business.” The words 24
didn’t sound like me and the voice was queer. I didn’t 25
know why I had come out to Bridgehampton, to the little 26
converted cottage that Narciss used as her shop and home.
S 27
You had to step down to enter the house. The front room R 28
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was large and there were quilts everywhere — hanging from 2
the walls, spread out on chairs, folded in stacks in the cor-3
ner. The designs were rude on the whole and the cloth was 4
old, stained, and often yellowing. The dominant color was 5
white, and that made the room nearly glisten. Narciss wore 6
a black skirt that came down to midcalf. It clung to her slen-7
der figure and stood out against the whiteness of the room.
8
Her skin, with its subtle variations, seemed like a black-and-9
brown flame that had been stylized in a painting.
10
“I was working out back,” she said as an excuse or 11
maybe as a reason to be left alone.
12
“I thought this shop was your work?”
13
“It is — in a way. I’m writing a book too, about the Ne-14
gro quilts of the northeastern states. I hope that it will be 15
a historical document as well as a craft and collecting re-16
source. Harvard University Press wants to publish it.” She 17
rubbed her long fingers against the side of her face and 18
looked down at the floor.
19
“That sounds nice,” I said. “How long you been work-20
ing on it?”
21
“Years,” she said, smiling an apology.
22
“Good work needs time,” my mother said often and I 23