by Joyce Magnin
Daddy shook his head. “Luna, I don’t agree, but I can’t stop them either. Maybe that Uncle Charles can help down the road, but for now—”
The next thing I knew, Ruby Day had climbed into the backseat and Sapphire climbed in after her. She slammed the door shut.
I ran toward the car. “Ruby Day. No.” I pulled on the door but it was locked.
Delores put her arm around me. “I don’t believe it. She got in the car.”
Frederick got in the driver’s seat, and I heard the engine start. My heart raced along with it.
I took Delores’s hand and pulled her toward the Plymouth. “Lay down,” I said. “Like this.” I stretched out as close as I could to the back wheels of Sapphire’s car.
Daddy banged on Frederick’s window. “Don’t back up. My daughter’s there.”
“What are you doing?” I heard Frederick holler.
I shut my eyes tight and held Delores’s hand. Then I heard the car door open and a second later Sapphire stood over me like some shadowy monster. The dark clouds drifted behind her.
“Get up from there this instant,” Sapphire said.
“I will not,” I said. “Frederick can run over me if he wants, but I’m not giving up.”
Polly Dog skittered by and lay down at my feet. She whimpered and then looked at me with her bright eyes.
“Well, if that’s what you want,” Sapphire said.
I heard her click back to the car door and a second later the car door closed.
“Luna, what are you doing?” Daddy called.
“Don’t you get it, Justus?” Mama said. “She’s laying down her life. For her friend.”
Mama lay down next to Delores and held her hand. Then the twins and Jasper lay down on the ground. Then Mr. Haskell, and before I could say Jack Robinson the football team and Coach Trawler had joined the chain along with everyone else who was there. Even Clovis Hunkle, the boy Coach pulled out of Mason’s funeral, lay down in the street.
“I’m doing it for Mason,” Clovis said. “I … I’m sorry I made fun of Miss Ruby Day.”
“We can’t let you take Ruby Day,” I hollered.
“That’s right,” Daddy said. He squeezed next to Mama and me. “I’m proud of you, Luna, for caring so much about Ruby Day. I’m sorry I doubted you. I’m sorry I doubted your strength.” I squeezed Daddy’s hand.
I closed my eyes tight to keep tears from spilling. When I opened them I saw Aunt Sapphire standing over me once again. A great dark cloud passed right behind her.
“You win. For now,” Aunt Sapphire said. “But I’ll be keeping my eye on you.”
“Go ahead,” Mama said. “Luna and Ruby Day will be just fine. We’re all watching.”
Thanksgiving arrived a couple of weeks after the Aunt Sapphire incident. Mama, of course, invited Ruby Day and me over for Thanksgiving Day dinner. Delores and Daddy had settled their squabble, and she and Carl made plans to become engaged when Delores turned seventeen, in spite of Daddy’s protests.
As a result, the table that year was fuller than it had ever been. Mama made the traditional foods—turkey with stuffing, and mashed potatoes that were so creamy and tasty I could have eaten them for days. Delores’s favorite was dessert, but she was so sweet on Carl she hardly ate anything. Ruby Day especially liked yams with marshmallows. And Daddy, of course, stood at the head of the table and carved the bird.
“Before Daddy asks the blessing,” I said, “I got something to say.”
“What is it, Luna?” Mama asked.
“You all know how I always wanted to be a teacher. Well now I know what kind of teacher. I’m going to become one of them special teachers that teach kids with … kids like Ruby Day.”
Mama took a deep breath. “Why, Luna, I think that’s wonderful.”
“Thank you, Mama. I don’t know how exactly, but maybe I can help. Maybe I can help people understand that folks like Ruby Day aren’t feebleminded or retarded or any of the other silly words people make up.”
Daddy pointed his finger at me. “Luna, I couldn’t be more proud of you then I am right now. And you were right. You can do anything you set your mind and heart on.”
After the blessing—which was longer than usual—hands went wild around the table as the food was served. Ruby Day’s eyes lit up like Christmas tree bulbs when she got her first taste of Mama’s homemade cranberry sauce.
“I have a question, Ruby Day,” I said between bites. “I’ve been meaning to ask you but keep forgetting. How come you named your son Mason, if that was the name of that terrible hospital?”
Ruby Day swallowed. She smiled for a minute like she was remembering something, or trying to recall something important.
“I remember,” she said. She swallowed another bite of yams. “The sign in the picture gave me the idea, Luna.”
Mama put her fork on her plate. “I think I understand. Ruby Day, did you decide to name him Mason after the hospital because it was a way to make a bad place good?”
Ruby Day smiled so wide the yams squeezed through her teeth.
“How’d you get so smart, Mama?” I asked.
“She married me,” Daddy said.
“You can’t take all the credit, Justus.”
Jasper raised his milk glass. “I miss Mason.”
“He’s here,” Ruby Day said. She pushed her chair back, stood up, and dashed out the front door.
“Where’s she going?” Delores asked. “Shouldn’t someone go after her?”
“Give her a minute,” Mama said.
But I wasn’t so sure if I should wait or run after her.
I pushed my chair back. Daddy grabbed my hand. “Wait, Luna Fish.”
April looked at me and smiled. “Do you think that cranky lady found the snake I put in her car?”
Daddy laughed so hard he nearly choked. Mama shook her head. “April, you didn’t.”
Ruby Day dashed back into the house carrying Mason’s picture right before April could confess.
“Where should I put it?” she asked.
Mama made a space on the crowded table between the mashed potatoes and the peas. “Right here, Ruby Day. Put Mason’s picture right here.”
“Is it all right to put a picture on the table?” Ruby Day asked.
“Ain’t no rule,” I said.
Daddy flipped on the hi-fi, and the notes of “Autumn Leaves” swirled and danced into the dining room.
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed reading about Luna and her family. Luna was very brave to move in with Ruby Day after Mason died. She was also smart and truly showed what it means to consider someone else more highly than herself. She was brave to stand up to Aunt Sapphire. Sadly, many years ago, people with developmental delays like Ruby Day were often sent to live in institutions far away from their families and the “normal” public. That was what Aunt Sapphire wanted for Ruby Day.
Sometimes residents were taught their colors or how to read, but most of the time, society considered people with educational disabilities a burden. People with mental disabilities were not educated or taught a trade so they would be able to live on their own or become active, productive members of society. Often the residents of these professional institutions were forced to take care of the buildings, to clean the bathrooms and scrub the floors. Sometimes they were tranquilized so they could be kept under control. People like Ruby Day were called “morons,” “idiots,” “imbeciles,” “retards,” or, as in Ruby Day’s case, “feebleminded”—these are terrible words that only harm God’s precious children.
I got the idea to write this story after watching a documentary about the history of mental retardation and seeing the vivid and sometimes terrifying images of people in these institutions. Sometimes the institutions were called “homes.” It broke my heart to see how human beings could be so misunderstood. I don’t think the people in charge of these homes were mean-spirited or nasty. They just didn’t know as much about educational delays as we know today. By the mid-197
0s most of these institutions were closed, and the resident students were moved into the general community.
I wanted to write about someone who overcame all these obstacles. Ruby Day had a job she enjoyed, hobbies—like her garden—and she lived a productive, happy life with friends and family who loved her. Fortunately, children with developmental delays today usually stay with their families. My friend Christa has a daughter with Down’s syndrome. Her name is Sarah. After she graduated from high school, Sarah went to live in a community with other adults just like her. Sarah has a job and an active social life. Her mom told me that sometimes she calls Sarah and Sarah doesn’t even have time to talk to her. She’s too busy working or talking with her friends.
Sometimes special-needs children go to different schools. If you look in the front of this book, you’ll see that it is dedicated to my young friend Anna Halter. Anna has autism and is considered severely mentally disabled. She lives with her mom and dad and sister, but she goes to a school specially designed to work with students with disabilities. At Anna’s school, she receives physical therapy to help improve the way her body moves. With help, Anna rides horses and learns to brush her teeth, set the table, and make her bed. She is also learning how to pay for things she might want to purchase. Anna goes home every day. She has not been shut away. She is being given opportunities to learn and grow to her potential. While I was writing Carrying Mason, Anna turned twenty, but she functions as an eighteen-month-old child. Anna will never be able to take care of herself or live in a community like Sarah, but she is home with her family where she is happiest.
At your school, you may have noticed some students get more help with their class work or might get called out from time to time to work with a special teacher. But that doesn’t make him or her strange or unlikable. And that’s a good thing. When we meet someone with an intellectual disability, we should see the person first, before the disability.
Blessings,
Joyce Magnin
About the Author
JOYCE MAGNIN loves stories, video games, cream soda, and Parcheesi, but not laundry or elevators. She is a frequent conference speaker, the mother of three amazing children, and has three grandsons and a parakeet who thinks she’s a chicken. Joyce lives in Pennsylvania.
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ZONDERKIDZ
Carrying Mason
Copyright © 2011 by Zonderkidz
Illustration: © 2011 by Gabhor Utomo
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.
EPub Edition © JULY 2011 ISBN: 978-0-310-72683-8
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Moccero, Joyce Magnin.
Carrying Mason / Joyce Magnin.
p. cm.
Summary: In rural Pennsylvania in 1958, when thirteen-year-old Luna’s best friend Mason dies, she decides to move in with his mentally disabled mother and care for her as Mason did.
ISBN 978-0-310-72681-4 (hardcover)
1. Conduct of life — Fiction. 2. People with mental disabilities — Fiction. 3. Country life — Pennsylvania — Fiction. 4. Family life — Pennsylvania — Fiction. 5. Pennsylvania — History — 20th century — Fiction. I. Title.
PZ7.M71277Car 2011
[Fic]—dc23
2011014462
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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version, KJV.
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Zonderkidz is a trademark of Zondervan.
Art direction: Kristine Nelson
Cover illustration: Amy June Bates
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