Chapter 7 - The Pattern Was Older Than the Fall
The retaining wall behind the Bennett house was just under seven feet at its highest point.
Ryan stood beneath it the next morning.
He had avoided the backyard since coming home.
The cedar box lay broken in the garage.
He found it beneath old sports equipment.
One hinge had been torn off.
Three of Laura’s photographs were missing.
Ryan carried the box inside.
Mason stared at it.
“Where did you find that?”
“Garage.”
Mason’s expression answered something Ryan had not asked.
“You thought it was gone?”
Mason nodded.
Ryan sat across from him.
“Did this have something to do with your fall?”
After a long silence, Mason said, “Chloe took it.”
“Why?”
“She wanted one of Mom’s pictures for a joke.”
Ryan kept his voice even.
“What joke?”
“She said she was going to put Vanessa’s face over Mom’s.”
Ryan closed his eyes briefly.
“What happened next?”
“I tried to get it back.”
“On the wall?”
Mason nodded.
“Chloe ran up there.”
“Did she push you?”
Mason began crying before he answered.
“I don’t know.”
That mattered.
Ryan did not force certainty where Mason did not have it.
“What do you remember?”
“She pulled the box. I pulled it back. Vanessa came outside and yelled at me.”
“What did she say?”
Mason rubbed his cheek against his shoulder because he still could not use his hands.
“She said, ‘Stop making everything about your dead mother.’”
Ryan looked away.
Mason continued.
“Then Chloe pulled hard.”
“And you fell.”
“Yes.”
“Did Vanessa see it?”
“Yes.”
Ryan’s voice cracked.
“What happened when you woke up?”
“She said Chloe never touched me.”
Ryan stared at him.
“She said if I told anybody something different, Evan would take Chloe away, you’d blame me, and…”
Mason stopped.
“And what?”
“You might stay overseas.”
May you like
The broken cedar box was no longer just a keepsake.
It was the beginning of a timeline.
