The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle

by Leslie Connor

  Suddenly, Annalissetta Yang is beside me. She yanks the tissue out from under my left ear. Her hands are curled but they are quick. She lifts the headphone and says, “Hop off, Mason. It’s my turn to use the Dragon. I’m on the schedule.”

  I bang my knees on the underside of the desk. I’m trying to get out of her way. I know that I am not on the schedule. I stand up. She moves right in. She rolls her Crocodile over my foot. She says, “Oh, sorry. Sorry, Mason.” I think she means that.

  Ms. Blinny sees me getting up from the Dragon. She says, “Oh, come talk to me now. Wait. Did you remember to close out your profile, Mason?”

  Annalissetta says, “Just did it for him.” She is all settled in.

  Ms. Blinny double-checks that. She says, “Okay. But Mason, try to remember to close out for yourself. And Annalissetta, maybe next time you could give Mason a little more time to wrap up.” Then she points to the lava lamp. She says, “Oh! Cool! Giant mushroom, you guys. Don’t miss it.”

  I watch the red mushroom. Slow rise. It splits in two. Makes hot orange halves. Then I go around the bookcase. Sit down at Ms. Blinny’s desk. We talk about how things are going. She asks about home. I say, “Home is good.” I’m thinking about the root cellar. I tell her Calvin Chumsky and I have a project. But I do not tell what. I don’t give up the root cellar. Not even to Ms. Blinny.

  She looks at the top of my head. She says, “Hmm. Have you been painting something?” Big-teeth smile.

  I say, “Yes.” I smile back.

  She says, “Awesome! You’ve got a good buddy in Calvin, don’t you?”

  I say, “Yep.” I tell her Calvin doesn’t mind the things about me. Not the sweat. And the not-reading stuff. He doesn’t mind the way it is at the crumbledown. I say, “He is good at explaining. He looks up everything. Does it on that tablet of his.”

  She says, “Yes. I’ve noticed that! Calvin is quick on that tablet. And you know what else I’m hearing?” She makes the giant smile. Right at me. She says, “He’s got a good friend in you too, Mason.”

  Then she asks if Lieutenant Baird has been by. I tell her yes but no. Then I explain about seeing him at the edge of the road on that perfectly good Sunday morning. My bad timing. Ms. Blinny tilts her head and says, “O . . . kay. Hmm.” Drums her fingers on her chin. I wonder if she is thinking what I am thinking. If he hasn’t come lately, he will come soon. Just like he said.

  I sit up all of a sudden. I say, “Ms. Blinny. Could you help? I have got to print something off that Dragon.”

  She says, “Sure we can! Right after Annalissetta finishes up.”

  I think this: Good. I will have something for that notebook. Something for the lieutenant.

  chapter 34

  THE LIEUTENANT

  Tell you what. If you think on something you can bring it right to you. Not always. But sometimes. And it might be something you don’t even want. From the window of the bus Calvin and I can see cruiser number 003. White with blue stripes. Parked at the crumbledown. So can Matt and Lance and Corey. And everyone.

  Then the whole bus gets quiet. Except for Lance. He says, “Oooo. The cops are at Butt-face’s house again.”

  I slump in the seat next to Calvin. I whisper. I tell him, “There won’t be chasing today. No apple throwing. Not with the lieutenant there.”

  Calvin whispers back. He says, “I’ll try not to be too disappointed.”

  I say, “Bad thing though. You cannot stay while I talk to him. So, can you make it on your own?”

  He says, “It’s like you said. They won’t chase me. Not today. I’ll wait on the porch in the mouse chair. When the coast is clear, I’ll sneak down behind. I’ll make sure no one sees me. You can meet me later.”

  I nod. I say, “I know where.”

  Then I sit in the kitchen with the black-and-white notebook in front of me. Orange pencil sticking out of a fold. And in that same fold I put my papers from the Dragon. Grandma looks at those. Just quick. Curious. Then she starts to clean. This is her thing to do while the lieutenant is here. She slides all her canisters forward. The toaster too. National Public Radio is off. She drags a damp rag along the back of the kitchen countertop.

  The door has been shut on Shayleen. But I have seen before that she cracks it. Puts her eye or ear to the slot. Eavesdropping is what that is. Uncle Drum leans on the wall near the door. Mug of afternoon coffee in his hand. Lieutenant Baird has one too. Paper cup. Both of them eye those Dragon papers.

  The lieutenant says, “So, what is this here, Mason? You’re typing some of it now?”

  I say, “Yeah.”

  He says, “Well, I’m glad to see this.” He picks up the papers. He reads pretty fast. But it seems long. I wait. I swallow. I dry my face on the shoulder of my shirt. He says, “Okay. Okay. It’s a little rough. Not quite what I’m looking for.”

  I think I know what he means. It is not enough about Benny. It is my story. I have not gotten to all of it yet. I don’t think he’d be interested in the Dragon. So I don’t tell about how that is where the typing is done.

  He says, “But this is more than you’ve given me before. In writing. This shows that you can do it.” He is a little loud about saying that.

  Funny thing I am thinking here. All my talking comes out for the Dragon. The lieutenant is opposite. He interrupts, is what he does. Then my talking comes to a halt.

  He says, “Well, this is good. Very good.” He pulls out his phone and takes pictures of my pages. He looks at me. “You liked Benny and his dads, huh?”

  I say, “I liked them a ton. I still do.”

  He says, “You did some chores there. Built some things together?”

  I say, “Lots of times. I painted trim. Helped build the rock wall. I always liked helping with—”

  The lieutenant interrupts. Again. He says, “Mason. Do you know that you can still help Andy and Franklin?”

  Makes my chest warm when I hear it. I say, “I can?”

  The lieutenant is nodding.

  I say, “You mean work there? Like on the rock wall again?”

  The nod turns to a headshake. No. He says, “What they need is a different kind of help. They really need to know what happened to their boy, Mason.”

  And there goes the warm thing in my chest. Gone. And I feel stupid for not knowing this. The lieutenant wants help with his puzzle. The puzzle of how Benny died. I catch Grandma making thin minnow eyes at the lieutenant. I don’t think she likes the way he said that to me. She balls the dishrag under one set of finger bones. Uncle Drum stares into his mug.

  The lieutenant says, “Now, I know you say you found Benny at the bottom of the ladder. But what about just before that? You have something more to tell me about that. I know you do.”

  I take a paper towel. Blot my face. The towel sticks. I let it. Underneath that towel I start to see ugly green. I think this: There is not more. I was eating my supper. The Kilmartins called to see if I knew where Benny was. I said I would check the tree fort. I ran back through the orchard and found him. I have said it all before. I can’t do it again. I don’t want to see Benny the way I saw him. His neck. Don’t want to remember how it was to try to make him breathe. I know I did it wrong. No air going in. You shut your lips over. Breathe. It is supposed to work. But I know it was too late. I held Benny in my arms. Could feel it. His life was gone.

  I drag the paper towel down my face. Just slow. I see pools of murky green. I wad the wet paper towel in my hands.

  I think about what I told Ms. Blinny. Long time ago. I said, “I want to help the lieutenant. It seems like there is something I am supposed to say that will put his puzzle together. Like magic words that write themselves in glitter spills. Something. Something to make him stop coming to me.”

  She was drawing a swirl in the sand garden on her desk when I said that. She stopped still. Looked at me. Serious face on Ms. Blinny. She said, “Hey, Mason, I’m going to tell you something really important, okay?” Her eyes on my eyes. “Don’t ever invent some
thing for the lieutenant just because you think it’ll make the questions stop. Only tell the truth. Okay? Promise me.”

  And I did promise her.

  Now Lieutenant Baird says, “Do you like to play jokes, Mason? Do you like to laugh?”

  I breathe. I say, “Well, you did ask me that before. Same thing now. I’m not that good at making up jokes. But I do like to laugh. Yeah.” Then I think this: Does anybody not like to laugh?

  Now Uncle Drum speaks into the kitchen air. Just quiet. He says, “Mason is right. We’ve been here before with all of this. You have seen his pages. The writing. I don’t think he has anything more to tell you, Lieutenant.”

  Lieutenant Baird rises. Chair legs scuff the floor. He taps a finger on the notebook. He says, “Keep writing, Mason. I like that. Go ahead and type it out. Keep it all about your friend Benny. Good job.”

  Uncle Drum steps to one side to let him out the door. Grandma sets the dishrag in the sink. I wipe the paper towel ball along my neck. I look at Uncle Drum. The green stuff thins down to just kind of washy.

  He says, “You did fine. You always do.”

  chapter 35

  ONE STUCK WINDOW

  Shayleen bursts out of my old room. She says, “Whoa! Thank god that cop is finally gone!”

  For once I agree with Shayleen.

  “I so need to pee!” She groans. “And I so need some fresh air! Man, close that door for too long and it gets stuffy.” She fans her face. “Hey, Mason, that window is stuck shut again.”

  I say, “Yeah. Most of our windows are.”

  She makes bug eyes at me. She says, “Well? Can you open it? Puh-leeze?”

  “Don’t use that tone on Mason. He doesn’t deserve it,” Grandma says. But Shayleen is gone—into the bathroom. I am off to jimmy that window. The sooner she’s happy, the sooner I get outside. I want to catch up with Calvin.

  I stop to look around my old room. Shayleen has transformed it. In a bad way. Stuff everywhere. No place to set your feet down. The TV shopping channel is blabbering about some fill-a-gree necklaces. Eighteen-carrot gold, whatever that means. I mumble back. “How about some eighteen-turnip gold? Some eighteen-rutabaga gold.”

  Then I kick aside some brown packing papers. Step over a cardboard box. And another. My foot lands on a sheet of bubble wrap. Pop! Pop-pop! Bubbles. What is it about bubbles? And clear stuff? Wasn’t there something important going on that had to do with bubbles?

  This is what happens. Lieutenant Baird comes and my brain runs blank. I lose time. I scoot two boxes along the floor so I can get to that window. I look out and see the lieutenant’s cruiser. Number 003. Rolling out onto Swaggertown Road. I think this: Good. He won’t be back until the end of apple season. Bet you that.

  I try the window. Shayleen is right. It sure is stuck. I turn my face to one side and grip the sash. I jiggle it. Rock it. Grunt at it. While I am doing that I see that unopened box. The one with Shayleen’s plastic-saucer salad chiller in it. What a stupid thing that is. The picture shows it. Nothing but a huge plastic bowl. Who needs it?

  Ha!

  The window shoots up with a bang. Then it sticks there. I reach right down for the box with the salad thing in it. Scoop that up. Push it right out the window.

  Done.

  Just before Shayleen sees.

  I walk toward her as she comes back in the room. I point my thumb behind me and I tell her, “Got it. Got that window open.” Then I point at the TV screen. Flick my finger at it. I say, “Look at that. Some eighteen-carrot fill-a-gree neck chains. Look, Shayleen.”

  She looks. I slide by. I’m out of there.

  chapter 36

  CAPPING THE SHAFT

  Calvin reaches both arms around the salad chiller bowl. Out of the box. He tells me, “Mason! This is perfect! It’s the cap for the shaft!”

  I say, “I knew it! Wasn’t even looking for it. But then there it was.”

  Calvin says, “The Universe is amazing. It knows what we want. And sometimes . . . just sometimes . . . it hands it right over like a gift.”

  I think this: I’m not sure about the Universe. Because. Well. Some things are gone. Bing. Bang. Boom. So then what is there to say about the stuff the universe takes away? I try to think. What is the opposite of a gift?

  Well. We have this salad chiller bowl, and I guess Calvin is right. It is a pretty great gift. Calvin looks it over. So wide. It seems near as big as him. But everything is near as big as Calvin. Except for all the things that are just plain bigger.

  Thinking of the bowl as a gift makes my heart rest easy. I do feel bad for stealing off Shayleen. Seems wrong on the one hand. But tell you what. She won’t know it’s gone. I dry my face on my shirt. Then my hands on my pants.

  Calvin asks me, “How did it go? With the lieutenant?” He asks this like he wishes he didn’t have to ask it.

  I say, “Same as every time.” I ask Calvin, “You know why he comes?”

  Calvin shows a little mouth twitch. He says, “Well, you kind of told me before. It’s about Benny.”

  I say, “Yeah. The lieutenant has questions. For the investigation. He thinks I can help him because I was there. Like, before. And then after.” I wait. Then I say, “And Benny was my best friend. Guess you know that from the poems. And me talking about him. The lieutenant wants me to write it down. Hard for me. I feel like I told him everything. As best I can. I might do better if he didn’t interrupt.”

  Calvin says, “Being interrupted is the worst.”

  I say, “Yeah it is! I don’t know what more to say about it anyway. So at least now I can tell it to the Dragon and the Dragon doesn’t interrupt.” Calvin nods. But we don’t say more about Benny. No more about the lieutenant.

  We spy out the root cellar door. Coast is clear. We go up top and try that salad chiller bowl out. We set it upside down over the top of the tube. Doesn’t sit so straight. Slips to a tilt. No matter what. Calvin thinks we need adhesive. I find some in the shed. Two tubes. Both wrinkled up. Split open and bone dry. I tell Calvin, “Bishell’s Hardware will have it. I can pay for it. I have some dog-sitting money from Mrs. Drinker. And more coming after Columbus Day.”

  So we leave that bowl sitting as best it sits. In the root cellar the light shines down the shaft. Might be a little bit better than before. Because of the curve of that bowl. Not sure. But Calvin Chumsky smiles up at it. Nice clear cap for his light shaft.

  chapter 37

  THE BIG PINK CLOUD

  I am set at the Dragon. I am full of something to say. I put my head down and start.

  Okay. Today I am thinking about light. Shafts of light. Because I got reminded about something. Something Benny Kilmartin said. A story he told. About that kind of weather when the clouds are dark. But then the sun puts stripes of itself down. Down from some holes in the clouds. Umm. It’s like. Beams. Sunbeams. Coming through. Yeah. So Benny said those are pathways. For people who die. The sunbeams are a way to get to heaven. So then I wonder if dead people have to lie below the shaft of light to get up there. Or do they climb. Like a ladder. So like maybe that is why a dead man would lie in a shaft. Like in the Caves of Lascaux. Dead man with a bird head. He could be waiting for the light to take him to heaven. And maybe Calvin will know that for sure. From his tablet.

  I stop a minute. I think this: My story is mixed. Some things are past things. Some are right now. It happens because one thing makes me think of the other. I guess that’s okay. Better than being stuck.

  I talk again:

  So there was the lieutenant again. Just the other day. At the crumbledown. Asking the questions. It is getting harder now. Months going by. Like my brain is not hanging on so tight to the way it all was. Sequence. So umm I wonder what if I went back to that part again. And what I mean is the last part. When I ran in for supper. Trouble is that is the part gets the lieutenant upset. From that first time I tried to tell him. Way back. There was the thing that made Benny laugh. So hard. And what it was is how I skipped the ladder. I jumped down
from the tree fort. Like too much of a jump. The kind of jump makes your arms go in a circle. Because you took too much air. And you need to do some flying right about then. Only. You are no bird. So then something in you knows you better roll. When you land. Roll your body. Roll out of trouble. That is how it was. I did that. Went rolling something wicked. My heels went right over my head. Two times. But I got right up on my feet. Standing again. Had apple blossom petals stuck all over me. Head to toe. And then I turned around. Saw Benny. Leaning out. Watching me. And he hollered to me. Mason. Are you all right? And I hollered, Yeah, I’m okay. And then Benny well he laughed. Enormous. And that laugh came out of his mouth in a huge pink cloud. Color of raspberries. Big puff in the orchard. And that is not the first time I saw some pink all around Benny Kilmartin. But it was the hugest. Hugest. Because pink is the color of laughing. Of joy. Of a friend.

  I stop talking. Grind my forehead into my potato fists. This is going pretty okay. I should keep at it. I tell the Dragon more:

  Umm. So. Trouble is. That is the part the lieutenant did not like. The pink. He does not think that is a true thing. Made him mad. At me. So I don’t tell that part to him anymore. Umm. Yeah. I skip about the pink cloud that came out of Benny’s mouth. And too bad. Because that was the most amazing of all the pink I have seen.

  So umm. A few times now the lieutenant asked me. All big and loud. Why did you jump, Mason? And the answer is because I was not smart. The jump was too far. Tried to say that to him. Tried to say what I hollered to Benny before I left. Which was: Don’t try it. But the lieutenant was talking over my words. He said, Wasn’t it because you knew something was wrong with that ladder? Isn’t that why you jumped? Then he wanted to know did I throw away a handsaw. That one I had. From my birthday. He wanted to know did I toss that somewhere. In the orchard. In a ditch. And well I was thinking why would I do that? I said I did not toss it. But might be I did lose it. Somehow. And then he said I bet you did. And that was another time when Uncle Drum said we talked enough. And then the lieutenant asked me if I wanted to know why Benny fell? And I said yes. I figured he knew the puzzle. But umm he said something else. He said there was a weak rung on that ladder. And it broke. And he says I probably knew that. But I didn’t. I was pretty sure I built that ladder right. Apple ladder. Pretty tall one. Eight steps. Two nails in each side of those. I bought the wood and nails brand-new. At Bishell’s Hardware. And I got on it when it was done. Before Benny. To check it. Because I am way bigger. So if it would hold me it would hold Benny. Easy. So. Umm. Maybe I would have known when something went wrong with that rung. But I was not much for using the ladder. Because I am pretty good at climbing trees and dropping myself down from the branches. The ladder was for Benny. So. Umm. Well. And then the lieutenant asked me that same thing again. How did you decide you needed to jump down? Instead of climbing down on that ladder. Mason. How? I said I didn’t need to jump. I just did. And then I said the same thing as before. Again. I said it was not smart. Jumping down like I did. That part of the tree is too high. I said nobody should try that. I tell the lieutenant that part every time. But he still keeps coming back to ask.