And now I have to go. I’ll come down tomorrow and ask 10
you some more.”
11
“Whatever you say, Warden.” Bennet smiled.
12
“You want a book?”
13
“If I may,” he said.
14
I passed him a paperback that I brought in my pocket.
15
Hothouse by Brian Aldiss. It was a book set millions of 16
years in the future, where plants had ascended to be the 17
dominant species on Earth. Maybe I gave it to him be-18
cause it was one of my favorites. I don’t know.
19
20
21
I sat up at the head of my bed and communed with my 22
ancestors. I didn’t know a damn thing about them except 23
that my family had kept and then forgotten them in the 24
basement for hundreds of years. They were the only thing 25
in my life of value right then — a hope that I came from 26
somewhere important.
S 27
R 28
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1
I was looking at the ivory faces and thinking about my-2
self as an embezzler and a murderer. Brent had always 3
called me a malingerer. Maybe I was that too.
4
Early in the morning, about 3:00 or so, I pulled out an 5
old spring binder that I had used in college. I started writ-6
ing ideas for questions. By the time the sun came up, my 7
tin trash can was filled with the failures I had penned.
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
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21
22
23
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25
26
27 S
28 R
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Breakfast for the prisoner was shredded wheat and skim C 14
milk with no sugar and no fruit. I went in having resolved 15
to deliver the food and leave.
16
I put the tray down and he said, “So what are we going 17
to talk about today, Warden?”
18
“Is Anniston Bennet your real name?” I asked without 19
thinking. But as soon as I asked, I was happy. It was only 20
one question. I had to ask three before having to answer 21
one of his.
22
I was so intent on the silly rules of the game that I al-23
most missed Bennet’s reaction. His head twisted to the 24
right an inch or so and the skin around his eyes momen-25
tarily tightened into a network of fine wrinkles.
26
“Yes,” he said.
S 27
But I knew better. The problem was that I had to ask R 28
another question to dig the truth out.
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“Was it your birth name?”
2
“No.”
3
“What was that name?”
4
“Tamal Knosos.” He stared blue comets at me. No fur-5
ther information was forthcoming.
6
“It’s your turn,” I said.
7
“I’m thinking,” he responded lamely.
8
“If you don’t have anything to ask, then you forfeit and 9
it’s my turn again.”
10
“Are you a child?” He sneered and frowned. I might 11
have felt victorious at causing him to lash out like that, 12
but there was a force behind his condemnation that un-13
settled me.
14
“No,” I said. “And that was a question. So now you tell 15
me where that name came from, why it was changed, and 16
by whom.”
17
I counted the inquiries on the same three fingers he had 18
used the day before.
19
Tamal Knosos considered me for a long time. It took all 20
of my concentration not to break away from his gaze. I 21
knew somehow that if he stared me down, I would never 22
regain the advantage.
23
Looking back on that morning, I can see how it might 24
seem foolish, childish really, the game we played. Two 25
full-grown men in that ridiculous situation. But if you 26
were there, you’d have felt how deadly serious we were.
27 S
“I don’t know,” he said at last.
28 R
“You don’t know what?”
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“I don’t know the answers, not the real answers. My 1
mother’s name was Maria Knosos, and she was unmar-2
ried. My father’s name was Tamal. The birth certificate 3
only had his first name. His nationality was Turkish. My 4
name became Tamal Knosos because my mother died be-5
fore she could give me a name. She had come to New 6
York from Greece and met this man, Tamal, somewhere.
7
He was already gone by the time I was born. I was neither 8
Greek nor Turkish but an orphan in America. When I 9
grew up I named myself. I didn’t know a thing about ei-10
ther parent or their cultures. I was here and I meant to 11
thrive. I created a whole history based on the name Ben-12
net. The ancestors I chose came over on a boat before the 13
American Revolution. They had died out mostly, except 14
for Anniston, except for me.”
15
I was looking closely at my prisoner. At his bald head 16
and impossible eyes.
17
“Contact lenses,” he said and then leaned forward, put-18
ting his fingers against his left eye. When he leaned back 19
he had in his hand a big lens, whites and all, of a blue eye.
20
The black eye that looked back at me from the left socket 21
could well have been Greek or Turkish.
22
“I had my scalp done by an electrologist,” he said. “In 23
the kind of work I do, there’s no promise that you will 24
have a razor ready to shave the black locks.”
25
“You’re passing as a blue blood,” I said. “But you’re 26
really nothing. You don’t even know if your father was S 27
Turkish. He could have been Arab or even African.”
R 28
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“My name is Anniston Bennet,” my prisoner said with 2
/>
conviction.
3
“It’s your turn,” I replied.
4
“I don’t want to play this game anymore,” he said.
5
“If you don’t play my game, I don’t play yours,” I said 6
simply. The power I felt was stronger than any alcohol.
7
Bennet replaced his blue eye and shook his head.
8
“You don’t want to fuck with me, Charlie.” He was an-9
other man again.
10
“Oh no?” I walked out of the basement and up to the 11
house. In the pantry I had two loaves of white bread and 12
three cans of Borden’s condensed milk waiting for just this 13
moment. These I carried back down into the hole. I shoved 14
the food under the gate, smashing the bread in the process, 15
and then threw a can opener through a cell diamond.
16
I went back to the hatch and snapped off the light. I 17
called down, “See you in four days, Tamal.”
18
He yelled something unintelligible as I slammed down 19
the door to the cellar. He was still shouting as I secured 20
the locks to the basement. But you could barely hear his 21
shouts just five feet away from the hatch. It was a well-22
built stone cellar and the door was insulated, almost 23
soundproof as it turned out.
24
I went up to the house listening for his shouts but heard 25
nothing. At about noon I figured that he stopped, so I 26
went back down to the cellar door. He was still shouting, 27 S
loud and deep for such a small man.
28 R
I almost broke then. I almost threw the door open and 196
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set him free. I could have saved face by saying that I just 1
wanted to throw a scare into him. I could have freed him 2
and sent him packing. I knew that that was the wisest 3
course to follow, but something else had taken me over.
4
Perverse pride left Tamal/Anniston in his hole.
5
Ever since the first day he stood at my front door, I felt 6
that Bennet held the upper hand. He was self-assured and 7
a man of the world and rich and white. I was permanently 8
unemployed and broke. Putting him in that cell and serv-9
ing him was like tying Joe Frazier’s right hand behind his 10
back and then picking a fight with him.
11
The only way I could beat Bennet was to break him, to 12
show him that I was boss of my house. To show him that 13
I meant what I said and that I would not break down. Af-14
ter all, he agreed to my rules. He had said okay. What did 15
he expect? He told me that he wanted to be punished, 16
that he wanted me as his warden. I had warned him.
17
18
19
I was late getting out of the house and late to Tiger 20
Tanaka’s, the Japanese restaurant. Narciss was waiting pa-21
tiently in the display window at a table for two.
22
“Hey,” I said as I walked up. “Sorry I’m late. I had some 23
business with Mr. Dent that I couldn’t break off.”
24
“That’s okay.” She smiled, looking down at first, and 25
then in an act of will, she looked up for me to see her 26
pleasure. “I was just thinking about the notes in your S 27
aunts’ diaries. You know, I don’t think that you should sell R 28
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1
them either. So much of them is about everyday life in the 2
black community out here, and there are names, names of 3
your relatives back more than two hundred years.”
4
“They got the guys that brought over those masks in 5
there?”
6
Narciss beamed. “Not their names but there is a refer-7
ence to three Africans that came over on a Spanish ship 8
before the Revolution. I don’t think these ladies knew 9
about the masks. Now, either they didn’t know of their re-10
lation to the three African sailors or somehow your fam-11
ily inherited the masks from another clan.”
12
She was wearing a dark-blue dress that came to 13
midthigh when she sat. It was a sharp number — new, I 14
believed. I sat down, put my hands across the table, and 15
touched her elbows with my fingers.
16
“I was thinking,” she continued. “I mean, I haven’t 17
really pushed ahead with the sales yet. I was thinking that 18
maybe you would like to start a museum.”
19
“Museum?”
20
“Yes. An African American museum of the life out here.
21
We could use my upstairs. I could charge admission. You 22
wouldn’t make as much as you would if you sold the 23
pieces, but you could keep them and share them too.”
24
“It’s nice to see you, Miss Gully.”
25
She struggled not to look away.
26
“What did you want to talk about?” she asked.
27 S
Her skin enchanted me again. The subtle variations of 28 R
color gave depth to her.
“Oh, I don’t know.” Again words came out of my 198
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mouth as if they were uttered by some stranger. “I felt bad 1
about how we got off the phone the other night. I like 2
you and I was hoping that we didn’t have to stop talking 3
before we had a chance to be friends.”
4
Narciss smiled and sighed. She touched her long fingers 5
against my forearm, and the waitress, a blond teenager, 6
came up to take our order.
7
I ate raw fish for the first time in my life. Yellowtail and 8
tuna, and smoky and sweet-tasting sea urchin on a mint 9
leaf. I paid for the meal and then took Narciss on a long 10
drive out to Montauk. I kissed her the first time on the 11
beach. We had been walking for more than an hour. She 12
had done almost all the talking — mostly about the mu-13
seum she wanted me to contribute toward — but there 14
were details about her mother and father and her activist /
15
lawyer sister, Rochelle, who lived in D.C. and had three 16
children by as many men.
17
“She’d be a welfare mother if she wasn’t a lawyer,” she 18
said at one point.
19
I was thinking that Rochelle didn’t sound any different 20
from many men that I had known. Men who bounced 21
from woman to woman, creating babies as they went.
22
Clarance was like that. There were at least three women 23
who he admitted having children by. He was proud of his 24
virility.
25
> I was thinking about Rochelle’s masculine approach, 26
but I didn’t care. Instead I stopped there on the sandy S 27
beach and kissed Rochelle’s girly sister.
R 28
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left arm snaked up around my neck while her right hand 2
gripped my biceps. Her tongue was quick to find mine.
3
We stood there in each other’s arms until my legs began 4
to ache. That was about 5:30. I broke away long enough 5
to suggest that we drive back to my house. We made it to 6
the car, but it was almost 7:00 before I turned the ignition 7
key and started back toward home.
8
All that time we had only been kissing. Lips and necks.
9
Her dress was sleeveless, so sometimes I kissed her arms.
10
She leaned over me now and again, resting her forearm on 11
my erection, but that was as close as we came to sex until 12
we got back to my place.
13
The drive back was more than an hour. She filled up 14
the minutes talking about my aunts’ diaries and what im-15
portance they held.
16
“It’s what real history is made of,” Narciss said. She was 17
reclining comfortably in her seat. The window was open 18
and the wind blew across her face. “Recipes and funerals, 19
petty disputes and detailed explanations of social gaffes.
20
There’s some talk about race but not as much as you’d ex-21
pect. Your aunt Theodora was very religious, but Penel-22
ope and Jane-Anne hardly ever mentioned the Bible or 23
the Lord. Just the leaves of the diaries under a glass case 24
could be the room of a museum.”
25
“I’ll think about it,” I said, reaching over to rest my 26
hand on the upper thigh of her left leg.
27 S
She shuddered, but I didn’t know if it was from the an-28 R
ticipation of sex or the chance she had to become a curator.
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13
“Put your arms up over your head,” I said to Narciss C 14
Gully.
15
We were both naked and lying on my mother’s bed. She 16
hesitated but then complied. I bound her wrists together 17
with my left hand and proceeded to take her nipple in my 18
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