presence, I believed, of a kind of mastermind, a Moriarty 6
or Iago. A man who had been across the line of lies that 7
defined good and evil for most normal folks. I mean, we 8
all say at some time or other that politicians are crooks or 9
that the rich are the best thieves. But no one seems to 10
really know how they cheat and steal. It always comes as a 11
surprise when some politician has taken money. As a mat-12
ter of fact, it’s hard to see sometimes when a crime has 13
been committed even when it’s been proven and docu-14
mented. But Mr. Bennet could explain the arcane prac-15
tices of the rich and powerful, and he was willing.
16
“So you spend your time making up schemes,” I 17
prompted. “Figuring out where to reclaim something no-18
body has found yet.”
19
“No. Most resources are already known. There’s uranium 20
in some third-world countries. Other natural deposits or 21
labor that’s dirt cheap. The usual question is the cost of ex-22
traction. How much do I have to put in compared to what 23
I can pull out? No. I don’t have to find lost treasure. The 24
companies come to me as a kind of consultant when they 25
want to get in on the ground floor or, more often, when 26
they want to keep a good thing.” Bennet clasped his hands 27 S
under his chin as if he were preparing to pray.
28 R
“It’s a complex world, the one in which we live,” he said.
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“The elements of power — greed, public opinion, applied 1
wealth, hunger, the natural distrust between groups, and 2
the quirks of politics and current events — must be dealt 3
with in such a way that you and your tribe are able to end 4
up on top. Sometimes it’s simple. A million dollars in a 5
military bag or toward both sides in a political campaign 6
can yield hundreds of millions. You never have to worry 7
about your commitment to a side or ideology. Your ideol-8
ogy is always the same. It’s amazing,” he said, looking up 9
at me in wonder, “how a girl-child of eighteen can get a 10
senator or prince to the conference table.”
11
“Do you kill people too?” I asked. God bless whiskey, I 12
say. Four shots and I knew no fear.
13
His look was both stern and startled. His left eye quiv-14
ered; his shoulders hunched slightly.
15
“Life,” he said, “has little to do with progress. More of-16
ten than not men make the decisions that lead to their 17
own deaths. They delegate, hate, stay when all the signs 18
say go. Mostly they’re unwilling to make a deal. And 19
they’re almost all forgotten. No better remembered than a 20
cockroach who succumbs to a poison that you set down 21
under the pantry six months before.
22
“Did you kill the Kurds in Iraq? Was Roosevelt guilty of 23
the gassing of the Jews because he refused to bomb the 24
camps or the rails leading to them? What about God at 25
the River Jordan using Moses as his word?”
26
It was a good enough answer for me. Even leaning S 27
toward drunk, I didn’t want the details.
R 28
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1
“Yeah,” I said. “I guess we all have some blood on our 2
hands. If America does something, then the people do it 3
too. That’s why they call us Americans.”
4
It was a lame attempt to end what my question had 5
started. I believed every word that Anniston Bennet had 6
said, and I didn’t want to hear any more. He smiled, under-7
standing my discomfort.
8
“Could you bring me down some detergent?” he asked.
9
“I’d like to wash out my uniforms. They’re starting to 10
smell.”
11
I went up to the house and brought back a cupful of 12
soap flakes. I also brought a flatish and wide aluminum 13
bowl that slid neatly under the locked cage door. He 14
thanked me and I left quickly.
15
The moon was out that night, and I watched it for a 16
long time. Well, I didn’t watch as much as I looked. Be-17
cause my mind was not on the moon but back in the 18
basement, hearing things that were something like an-19
cient secrets that had been revealed coincidentally in my 20
presence.
21
22
23
24
25
26
27 S
28 R
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1
2
3
4
18
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Up in my room, I studied the passport masks on the C 14
windowsill. I had them standing on their chins with their 15
heads propped up against the glass. One’s mouth formed 16
an O, making him seem like he was singing. The two oth-17
ers were tight-lipped, maybe humming the music for their 18
brother’s song.
19
Maybe they were black slavers, I thought, and maybe An-20
niston Bennet’s ancestor owned the ship that they navigated.
21
I realized that I wasn’t afraid or upset for the first time 22
in many years. And even though I had had a lot to drink, 23
I wasn’t tired or even tipsy anymore. The talk with Ben-24
net exhilarated me. I didn’t even remember at that time 25
what he’d said. I just knew that it was important, that I 26
was privy to a way of thinking that wasn’t taught in S 27
schools or at the dinner table. In some crazy way it was R 28
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1
what I liked about the wild. There were no moral laws or 2
rules governing the lives of wolves and bears. Those crea-3
tures lived only by the instinct of survival. What Bennet 4
said about the world was the same thing, only with the 5
added ingredient of sly thought. Looking out of my win-6
dow, I wanted to howl at the moon.
7
8
9
The night moved along, but I did not tire. Snatches of 10
phrases kept returning from my discussion with Bennet.
11
Knowledge and ownership, a hundred times the return on 12
an investment. But most of all I was taken by his confi-13
dence and certainty. He knew how the world worked. Not 14
like Clarance or the construction boss Wilson Ryder. They 15
just repeated what they
read in books or what they wanted 16
to believe. I believed that Bennet knew the truth that lay 17
under the newspaper stories and the hypocrisy of politics.
18
He made me question what was, when for a whole lifetime 19
up till that moment, I accepted the world’s excuses.
20
21
22
Wandering the house and thinking about my prisoner, I 23
was still awake at 2:00 in the morning. Not only awake 24
but excited. All of my fears about being tricked and sent to 25
prison — all of my worry about how odd Bennet was —
26
dissipated with the thrill of a new way of seeing the world.
27 S
I tried to lie down, but sleep wouldn’t come. Finally I 28 R
decided to call Narciss. Not her, actually, but the answer-154
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ing machine at her store. I wanted to go out with her, to 1
discuss passport masks and notions of power.
2
She answered on the first ring. “Hello?”
3
“Narciss?”
4
“Mr. Blakey? Is something wrong?”
5
“I’m sorry, Narciss. I thought that you wouldn’t hear 6
the shop phone. I was going to leave a message on your 7
machine.”
8
“It’s okay,” she said in a voice more sultry than usual. “I 9
don’t sleep very much. The doctor says it’s my metabo-10
lism. I take naps during the day and work most nights.”
11
“On your book?”
12
“On anything. I read and quilt and watch bad TV.”
13
“Huh. I sleep most nights through. But tonight I was 14
just up.”
15
“What’s wrong?”
16
“Nothing.”
17
“Then why did you call?”
18
I wasn’t prepared to set up a date with a real person.
19
Not with Narciss at any rate.
20
“Did you ever study evil at college?” I asked instead.
21
The question surprised me. “I mean, what people in the 22
past thought made a man evil, bad?”
23
“No,” she said with a note of wonder in her voice. “No, 24
we never studied that. And now that you mention it, it 25
seems that it should have been at least a seminar if not a 26
whole branch of study.”
S 27
“That’s the thing, right?” I said. “I mean, here we got R 28
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1
evil all over the place: in our history books and fiction and 2
on movies and TV. We just fought a war against a sup-3
posedly evil man, but then if you ask what evil is, every-4
body has a different answer.”
5
“I suppose they cover it in divinity school,” Narciss 6
said, “but that would be religious, and you’re really asking 7
about something else. The idea of evil. Why do you ask?”
8
Because I have the devil living in my basement — that’s 9
what came to my mind.
10
“I don’t know,” I said. “I was just sitting up thinking 11
about it and I thought about you and archaeology and 12
thought maybe you would know. I went to college for 13
three years and I never heard anything about it.”
14
“What college did you go to?”
15
“Long Island City College. I studied political science 16
mainly.”
17
“Why’d you stop going?”
18
“I don’t know. I really don’t. My grades weren’t so good 19
and I couldn’t remember anything. Nothing. The last se-20
mester of my sophomore year I was going to fail a course 21
in ancient political thought. Some of those guys talked 22
about evil. But that was a long time ago. You’d think that 23
there’d be a modern study of it.”
24
“Are you ever planning to go back?”
25
“To school? No.”
26
“Why not?”
27 S
“It doesn’t mean anything to me. I mean, let’s say I 28 R
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bachelor’s degree. What then? They don’t have political 1
scientists in the want ads —”
2
“But they have jobs for college graduates.”
3
I stopped myself before I could say any more. I realized 4
that I was about to start talking like I always did. I was go-5
ing to make fun of school and jobs and careers. That’s 6
what I always did when somebody tried to give me ad-7
vice.
8
“I got other plans,” I said. “School didn’t do it for me 9
and so now I have to find another way.”
10
“What way?”
11
“Reclamations,” I said. And then before she could ask 12
another question — “It’s a form of international finance.
13
I’ve been studying with a guy named Dent. He’s been, ah, 14
tutoring me, kind of. That’s one of the reasons I go down 15
to New York. I meet with Mr. Dent every week or so.”
16
“Is he a teacher?” she asked.
17
I could tell by the tone in her voice that she believed 18
me. But that’s not what shocked me. I was stunned that 19
the lie, as it came out of my mouth, became truth. The 20
most important part of what I said was true. I was Ben-21
net’s student. That’s why I was wandering the house, be-22
cause I was learning.
23
“Yes,” I said to Narciss’s question. It seemed like hours 24
since she asked it. “And no. I mean, it’s not like school.
25
We just happened into each other at Curry’s bar a while 26
back. He explained to me that he worked for multi-S 27
national corporations, helping them to acquire wealth all R 28
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1
over the world. I was interested and he said that not that 2
many people showed real interest in what he did. He 3
agreed to teach me, to tell me what he knows.”
4
“It doesn’t sound good,” she said. “It sounds like what 5
all those American businesses do when they go to other 6
countries and exploit labor or just steal. They say that 7
Nigeria is one of the richest African countries, but most 8
of the people there live in poverty. They say that’s because 9
of the oil companies.”
10
“That might be, Narciss,” I said in earnest. “But stand-11
ing on the outside quoting Engels and Marx isn’t going to 12
help. Sayin’ that’s not fair won’t do anything either. What 13
I want is to find out, to get in there and see for myself. Be-14
cause you know they aren’t going to stop doing what 15
they’re doing just because we whisper something against 16
them at night on the phone. I mean, I put gas in my tank, 17
don’t I? That’s what voting is to big business, you know.
18
It’s not a secret ballot; it’s a purchase. If you buy from 19
him, that’s your vote of confidence.”
20
I was making it up as I went, but it sounded right. It 21
sounded true. Snatches of classroom dialogues and dime 22
novels, even some things my uncle Brent had said, came 23
together in a lie that was fast becoming my life.
24
“Being true doesn’t make something right, you know,”
25
Narciss argued. “Some things are wrong. Just because you 26
know how to get some slave labor doesn’t make it okay.”
27 S
“I know that,” I said, more as a musical beat than any 28 R
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people are still dying, then how can you say that you did 1
better than me?”
2
“I don’t know,” she said after a short pause. “But I don’t 3
want to talk about it anymore. I . . . I have to go.”
4
“Okay. I’m sorry if I bothered you.”
5
“No, you didn’t. Good-bye.”
6
“Bye.”
7
At one time I would have been near despair at that kind 8
of ending to a phone call. So few women ever seemed to 9
show an interest in me that if I had one on the line I never 10
wanted to let go. But that morning I wasn’t worried about 11
anything. I had discovered my calling. Or at least I had 12
found a door.
13
It was like a fairy tale my mother used to read to me —
14
The Brownie’s Gift. A child was walking in the woods 15
looking for his cat, Bootsie, who had run away. The boy 16
searched and called and was very very sad when he came 17
upon an iron door in a tree. There was a tiny slit in the 18
door through which the boy could see a small elfin crea-19
ture — called a brownie — who was locked up and every 20
bit as sad as the child. They made an alliance, boy and elf, 21
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