The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle

In the garage, Mason is alone. He climbs up the ladder quickly to get the bag of dog food down. Soon after, Matt, Lance, and Corey come in looking for sports equipment. Matt seems nervous about Mason being up on the ladder. Mason grabs the bag of dog food, but as he reaches in, he feels a sting, like something bit him. He pulls his hand back and his fingers are bleeding. He grabs for the dog food again, and something falls from the shelf as he pulls. Matt is freaking out, screaming, but Mason is distracted by his bloody fingers and a hole in the dog food bag. Mrs. Drinker hears the commotion and comes out.

Mason picks up a handsaw from the floor of the garage. His handsaw. Matt is pale and shouting. Lance looks down at the ground. Corey McSpirit is crying, leaving the garage. Mason realizes that everyone knows what is happening but him: “Just one thought comes: This handsaw must have got into the Drinker’s garage by way of nothing good” (294). 

Suddenly, Mrs. Drinker is sobbing. She keeps saying, “No.” Matt tries to stop her from crying, but she won’t. Then, police sirens come. They pull into the driveway. Corey walks up to them: “I see what he says. So clear. So slow. Corey says. ‘They. Told. Me. They. Did. It’” (296). Suddenly, Mason is blurry and sobbing. He feels arms around him, holding him. A familiar voice comforts him. He realizes it is Lt. Baird. He apologizes. Mason is sick, and Lt. Baird holds him as he throws up. Mason is insistent, certain. He wails like a wild animal. He says, “Nobody! Nobody meant to kill Benny Kilmartin!” (297). 

The Drinkers leave for a week. Each day since then, the lieutenant has come to talk to the Buttles. He brought Mason a new handsaw. Lt. Baird and the newspaper say that the families are not cooperating. They are building a wall of lawyers around their boys, to protect them. Lt. Baird says to Uncle Drum, “Good families will help their children accept responsibility” (299). Mason watches Moonie while the Drinkers settle in a new town. He doesn’t want to think about losing Moonie. Calvin and Mason plan to befriend Corey if he comes back to school. He is being cooperative, and Mason feels bad for Corey, imagining him holding in that secret for so long. Mason takes care of the puke spot he left in the Drinker’s garage, and then he takes Moonie apple picking.  

Grandma instructs Mason to pick apples and for everyone to come to the table for a family meeting. She gives them all peelers, and they start filling a pan. Grandma tells everyone they need to change how they do things around the house: “We’ve had hard times. Those kept coming for a while there. We were a bit knocked down. But now we have just gotten ourselves out from under an enormous weight” (304). Grandma tells the family she is starting to bake again and watch one girl after school. She tells Drum to get a steady job with more regular hours. She tells Shayleen to stop shopping and to start selling pies and other items. Shayleen worries about Mason kicking her out, and Mason insists she is family now, as strange as that is.

Later, Drum and Mason walk in the orchard. Mason asks why Drum took in Shayleen. Drum tells Mason the day Amy, Mason’s mom, was hit by a car, she asked for a ride home from Drum. He was annoyed she hadn’t properly fixed her car, and he said no. When he saw Shayleen crying in the diner, he saw it as a chance to be kind and to right a wrong. 

Drum and Mason smell apples and cinnamon coming from the house. Mason runs to feed Moonie and close him up for the night, but the house is so empty and sad, Mason feels guilty. He lets Moonie follow him up the hill. He brings him inside. Mason explains to them, “This good dog… well… he did nothing wrong” (311). Grandma and Drum agree to let Moonie stay until his family comes back for him. 

Andy Kilmartin comes over with boards to repair the porch. When he sees Mason, he hugs him and starts crying. He apologizes: “I forgot who you are, Mason. Franklin too. We are sorry. We got lost in our pain” (314). Mason forgives Andy, and he and Drum and Andy start to repair the porch. They talk about Moonie and good dogs. At the end of the morning, the new porch is done. 

Moonie wakes Mason up in the middle of the night. Someone is home at the Drinker house. Mason waits until dawn, then walks with Moonie to the door. He knows he must give Moonie back. He sees Mrs. Drinker in the driveway. She is doing something strange—she is putting dog food, and a dog bed on the porch. Mason comes out, and Moonie runs to see his mom. Mrs. Drinker is crying. She tells Mason that her family is having struggles, and she thinks Moonie would be happier with Mason. She says that Moonie loves him best, and she and Matt agree. She says, “I think this dog loved you from the day you sailed into the cellar. He must have thought, that boy is spectacular!” (319). Mason comforts Mrs. Drinker, and he says he hopes it will get better soon. Eventually, Mrs. Drinker drives away. Moonie is now part of the Buttle family forever. 

Grandma bakes apple crisp again, and people come over to help clear the ruin of the root cellar. Lt. Baird comes, and the Chumskys, and the Kilmartins. They dig the dirt and admire the aurochs and the pieces of the dead man they find on a long board. It is good work, and Calvin enjoys watching. He can’t help, but he can walk now. They all eat apple crisp in the orchard, even Shayleen. Mason is happy: “What I feel is this: the loving memory of Benny. Benny who told me beams of sunlight will take you up to heaven” (323). 

It is the end of apple season. Mason thinks about sledding in the winter with Calvin and Corey, if he’ll come, and Annalissetta Yang. She is the after-school girl Grandma is caring for now. For now, Mason walks with Moonie in the orchard. He takes the last apple off the tree and throws it for Moonie to chase. He thinks, “I know what I love too. Family and friends. All the ones here and all the ones gone. I love my dog, and this orchard, and this crumbledown house” (326). For once, Mason thinks he is smart because he knows what he loves.