Free Mason by Thomas Pendleton Page A

there tonight. Then you could pet the animals.”
    Mason kept shaking his head. He swallowed his ice cream and put the spoon down. “Aunt Molly is making fried chicken, and she rented a movie for me. And she said it was a special night, so I have to be home for dinner. Dinner and a movie, she said. Her fried chicken isn’t as good as Mama’s, but it’s good.”
    â€œDo you remember your mother?”
    â€œS’pose.”
    â€œI bet you miss her,” Rene said.
    â€œShe went away,” Mason said sadly. “Everyone goes away. Gene told me so. Like Mama and Daddy and Lightning. One day Aunt Molly will go away too. And Gene. But that’ll be okay, I think. I think it’ll be okay if Gene goes away.”
    He looked at her with concern, as if he thoughthe’d just said something really terrible and expected Rene to be angry with him.
    â€œI think so too,” she said. “I think Gene going away would be just fine.”
    â€œI shouldn’t-a said that. He’s family. Family’s all you got.”
    â€œHe’s mean to you though, isn’t he?”
    â€œI never learn,” Mason mumbled, dropping his head. “Dumb as a doorknob.”
    â€œNo you’re not,” Rene said. She reached across the table and touched his arm. “He has no right to say that to you. None. He’s just doing it to be mean.”
    â€œGene wouldn’t do that.”
    â€œMason, I know he’s your brother…”
    â€œFamily’s all you got.”
    â€œâ€¦but you can’t let him bully you like that. Okay? When he’s doing that, you have to tell him to stop, or you have to leave the room. He has no right to call you dumb or to hurt you. None. If he does, you stand up to him and you tell him to stop it.”
    Easier said than done, Rene knew. Gene wasn’t some lame high-school bully. Damn that aunt of his for not doing anything. She had to know what was going on under her own roof. How could she not stop Gene’s cruelty, unless she was as afraid of the boy as everyone else was?
    They sat quietly for a bit. Rene kept her eyes on Mason. He looked confused and uncomfortable. He fidgeted with his napkin and shot quick glances out the window.
    â€œI don’t like being by myself,” he said quickly. “Gene says that if I don’t learn, I’m going to be all alone, and I don’t want to be all alone. It’s like being in a box with no light. It’s scary. No one to talk to or play with.” He lowered his head and plopped the spoon in his bowl. “I wish the ice cream wasn’t melted.”
    Rene laughed a bit and covered her mouth with a hand. Mason’s sudden subject change took her off guard. There he was, talking about his fear of being alone, and then he laments something so simple as a scoop of melting ice cream.
    She lifted her coffee cup for a sip and then paused. A dull ache rose in her belly when she realized he hadn’t changed the subject at all. People leaving. Ice cream liquefying. It was all the same to him. She put down her coffee mug.
    â€œYou won’t be alone,” Rene said. “One of these days, you’re going to have a lot of friends. And you’ll always have me.”
    â€œS’pose.”
    â€œMason, you will.”
    And though she suspected it was a lie, it seemed tocheer him. Mason dipped his head—a quick nod—and a small smile touched the edges of his mouth. She continued, “And Frank’s Grill will always have strawberry ice cream, so I think you’re going to be just fine.”
    â€œIt’s good,” Mason said, looking into his dish with its pool of pink liquid.
    â€œYes, it is,” Rene replied.
    Â 
    Three hours later, Gene stood at the urinal in the bathroom at Frank’s. Hunter stood next to him, tapping on the wall.
    â€œWe have a problem.” Gene looked at his hands, felt certain he saw blood there, just