Chapter 7 - Mason
Andrew brought Mason to my house two days later.
Not because Imogen approved.
Because Mason asked.
Andrew called first.
“Is this okay?”
“Yes.”
“Five minutes if that’s all.”
Sawyer hid behind my leg initially.
Mason stood at the door holding a plastic bag.
Inside:
Sawyer’s missing dinosaur figures.
“I brought these.”
Sawyer looked.
“You packed?”
Mason shook his head violently.
“No.”
“Did you want my room?”
Mason looked at Andrew.
Andrew said:
“Tell truth.”
Mason swallowed.
“Mom said I was supposed to have it.”
“Did you want it?”
“Maybe.”
Sawyer’s face fell.
Mason rushed:
“But not if you don’t.”
There.
Children can want something without endorsing how adults obtain it.
Mason continued:
“Hotel room sucks.”
Fair.
“Mom said evaluator lady needs to see I have real room or Dad wins.”
Andrew closed his eyes.
Mason said:
“She said if I act like guest, they make me live with Dad.”
Andrew crouched.
“Mason.”
“What?”
“You living with me more would not mean Mom disappears.”
“She says it starts that way.”
There.
Imogen’s fear passed downward.
Same pattern.
Mason had been told his bedroom appearance might determine whether he lost his mother.
No wonder he allowed Sawyer’s things to disappear.
He thought his own family depended on it.
Sawyer asked:
“Did you know she hit me?”
“No.”
Mason looked horrified.
“She hit?”
“Yes.”
Mason began crying.
“I was downstairs.”
That matched.
He had been in background during source after arriving? Wait source says cousin remains quietly in background during boxes. Could be he came upstairs just after slap? But source says "Cousin remains quietly in background" from 5-7.5; he could have been there. Need reconcile: He saw aftermath, perhaps not slap? But prompt says he's there during initial scene? Character stage indicates maybe yes. We must honor. Let's have Mason say he saw slap but froze. He can't say no. Correct.
Revise: Mason had seen. He says:
"I saw. I didn't know she'd do it. I didn't help."
Need guilt. Let's do.
Mason looked at floor.
“I saw.”
Sawyer said nothing.
“I was by door.”
“Why didn’t you help?”
Mason started crying.
“I got scared.”
Andrew put a hand on his shoulder.
No excuse.
A seven-year-old froze while his mother hit another child.
That was not complicity in the adult sense.
Still something he had to process.
Sawyer held Dino.
Then:
“Did you laugh?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
Not forgiveness.
A fact.
Mason gave him the bag.
Sawyer took it.
The boys sat six feet apart and lined dinosaurs along the floor.
Five minutes became forty.
Adults stayed nearby.
No one told them to hug.
No one said:
cousins forever.
Their relationship had been damaged.
Not necessarily destroyed.
May you like
That distinction mattered.
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