chapter 59

THE TRUTH FROM THE DRAGON

The bus takes the loop through town. It is quiet. Not so many kids riding. That is partly because this is the Friday running right into Columbus Day weekend. Some families cut out early. Not the Drinkers. They will leave this afternoon. Anyway, I have my seat to myself. I sit up high. I’m keeping up with Merrimack. Watching for all my checkpoints. But tell you what else I do. I think.

What I decide is this: I need to stop being now and then about all the things I am now and then about. I need to do things right. Better. In my head I make a checklist. Hope I can remember it all. This morning, I need to get to the Dragon. And I need Ms. Blinny’s help.

In the SWOOF I find Annalissetta Yang. She is standing near to the Dragon. About to sit down. That is not a good start. Not for me.

I tell Ms. Blinny, “I need something. Real bad.” I say, “I need to print from the Dragon again. I can’t wait through the long weekend. Columbus.”

I think she knows I need something for the lieutenant. She says, “Oh. Okay. I have two afternoon meetings. Hmm . . . let’s see when we could do that?” She looks at the clock. She looks at a list on her desk. Then she looks at Annalissetta Yang.

Annalissetta smiles with her tiny teeth. She says, “You want my turn, Mason? Want the Dragon now?”

I say, “If you could give it to me. Please.”

She says, “Sure. That’s okay with me.”

Ms. Blinny says, “Annalissetta, you are very kind.”

Annalissetta says, “Not a problem!”

I tell her that I owe her a favor.

Annalissetta says, “I will hold you to it, Mason.” She turns her Crocodile around. Away from the Dragon desk. She goes to the soft couch. She gets busy with a book.

I whisper. I tell Ms. Blinny what the lieutenant told me. How he thinks bad of me.

She is quiet about it. She says, “We’re going to find what you need.” She scrolls through all the things I have fed to the Dragon. There is a lot of writing here for a kid like me. Surprised to see it. I wipe my face with the pink bandana from Shayleen. I watch over Ms. Blinny’s shoulder. Try to read. The letters blur. They fatten up. Go splotchy.

I tell Ms. Blinny, “I am looking for something that was about the last time I saw Benny. It is about me jumping down from the tree house.”

She scrolls some more. She says, “Oh, here! Here!” Then she reads it. She does not skim. She is careful. She stops. Looks at me. She says, “One second.” She reads it all again. She breathes out. She says, “Ohh . . .”

I wait for her. Then I say, “Does it make sense? Mostly?” I ask because I know the Dragon is tricky. I am not the best at using it.

She says, “Mason, I think this is very, very good.” She says, “One thing is certain. Lieutenant Baird needs to see this. There is so much of your story here. More than I think you have ever been able to tell him.” She is getting tears in her eyes. Not sure why. She says, “I wish I had—known that you see colors in this way.” She points at the screen.

I say, “You mean that part about the pink cloud puffing out of Benny’s mouth?”

She says, “Yes.”

I say, “I don’t tell about it. I figured out that nobody really gets that.”

She says, “Yes! Because it is uncommon but it is real. Real for you! It is called synesthesia.” She makes bright eyes like I should like that a whole lot, that synesthesia. She says, “I had a student in another school who told me all the even numbers are yellow and the odd ones are blue. Some people say they can smell a color. Or hear one.”

I say, “Whoa!” I wait. But then I tell her, “With me it is the feeling. Inside of me. Like coming from in my heart. I see mud green for bad. Like for pressure. And not knowing the answers. It’s pink for the good. Like for being happy.”

She says, “Wow! Amazing!” She puts her hand on her heart.

I think on it some. Then I shake my head. I tell Ms. Blinny, “But can you delete it?” I point to the Dragon screen. “I don’t want to bother with that part for the lieutenant. I don’t want him to read about the pink cloud puffing out of Benny’s mouth.”

She sits tall in her chair. She says, “I will if you really want me to. But I would much rather you leave everything just like it is. This is clean and straightforward.”

I say, “But the lieutenant thinks that’s a bunch of baloney. I’ve told him all of it before. But he stops me at that part. He interrupts.”

She says, “Well. I think if he reads it here, just like this, he might understand all the truths of your story.” She says, “I say we print it.”

I wonder. I worry. But Ms. Blinny is usually right. So we do that.

I get home on Friday afternoon. I put that printout from the Dragon right into the notebook. With the orange pencil.

Then I run down to the Drinker house. It’s the beginning of Columbus Day weekend. I have a job to do. A great one.