Baby Mason

Mason is fourteen months old. He is just learning to walk by holding on to the furniture. He is the youngest member of the Hayes family, being raised in a small Spring Garden apartment by Mara and Andre.

Most weekends he rides in the stroller while his parents tour houses they might one day live in. He alternately babbles, sleeps, and reaches for everything just slightly out of his reach. He does not know the grown-ups around him are looking for a home for him. He just knows there are a lot of new rooms lately, and some of them have good light.

He doesn’t know the house his family is about to find. But he’s going to grow up in it. The porch they’ll put a swing on. The bedroom that becomes his. The back garden where his mama will plant tomatoes one spring, just to see if she can. He won’t remember the silence of the two weeks before they said yes. He won’t remember how close they came to choosing somewhere else. He will only remember this place — the way every kid only remembers home.

“He will only remember this place — the way every kid only remembers home.”