Episode 56: Scene Four
Mason shielded his eyes from the sun with his hand as they darted back and forth up the long, busy thoroughfare of Midway's main street. For ten minutes he had searched for Cliff and turned up empty.
The way Cliff had up and ran out of the Arboretum left Mason with a rather unsettled feeling, which he wasn't accustomed to. Mason always liked to think that everything in his world was nice and organized. This event had caused noticable trauma to his "organization."
His eyes finally locked onto a rather tall object positioned just to the side of the street a couple of blocks ahead of him. After squinting in an attempt to discern a couple of features to make the object recognizable, he began walking swiftly towards it. There was no doubt about it; it was Cliff.
"Cliff! What do you think you're doing? Cliff!" Mason called out in irritation, upset by the fact that he'd been looking all over and Cliff had been only a few blocks away the entire time.
Cliff only remained staring at the street. His face had taken on a long, gray look. His eyes were sunken and red-rimmed, which made it obvious that he had been crying.
Mason snapped his fingers in front of Cliff's eyes. When he received no response, he grumbled impatiently. "Can't you hear me talking to you? Hello?"
Again, no response.
"Okay, fine. If you don't want to talk to me, that's okay. But I'll tell you this: staring at the street and crying isn't going to make her come back."
"Leave me alone." The words came quickly, sharply, and effectively. The sound of them made Mason take a few steps away from his friend.
"Fine, I will. But Cliff, man, you've gotta get help. Maybe you can go talk to Dr. Woodman or the guidance counselor or someone who can help you deal with this. Coming back to the place where it happened is only going to make it worse."
For the first time, Cliff's eyes left the street. They locked onto Mason's, a hard, steely look embedded in them. "If you want to psycho-analyze people's behavior, then go to school and become a psychiatrist, but I don't need you telling me how things are going to have an impact on me."
Mason blinked rapidly. "If you're going to insult me-"
"I'm not insulting you, I'm giving you the facts," Cliff interrupted crisply. "If you were in my situation, I'm sure you'd want to work things out on your own, so if you don't mind..."
"Cliff, don't do this to yourself. The carnival's begun and there's all kinds of things we can do. We can even compete in that sailing competition you've been obsessing over for the past couple of months," Mason put a supportive hand on Cliff's shoulder. "You know you want to, Cliff."
Cliff let his shoulder slip out from under Mason's hand. "How could I possibly think about having fun when a girl's dead because of my sister and me? Come on, Mason, I thought you knew better!"
"All I know is that you need to get off of the self-pity wagon and tighten up. If you want to grieve, that's fine, but this isn't the way to do it!" Mason suddenly found himself snapping, his suppressed impatience finally reaching its boiling point.
"Don't you tell me how to grieve!" Cliff shot back angrily. "You don't know anything about anything, so why don't you just leave me alone!"
"Fine, I will," Mason raised his hands to show that he was backing off, "but if you think that you're ever going to get anywhere by moping around the street where Kim died, then you are dead wrong, man. You're just letting yourself drown in your own selfishness."
"Selfishness? How can you call me selfish when I did everything possible to keep her alive?"
"Easy, you've still done nothing but think about yourself. Why did you go to the hospital in the first place, Cliff?"
"Because I was concerned."
"Ehhhh," Mason made a buzzing sound through his nose, "wrong answer. No, you did it because you were afraid of having to deal with the guilt. On top of that, you were afraid it would make you look bad."
"Excuse me?!"
"I know you. I know how you tick. You may be able to fool everyone else, but there are two people in this world you're not fooling: me and yourself. This whole concerned act is only there to mask your own insecurities and all of that junk."
"You really missed your calling, Mason. You should have been an actor. Isn't that what occupation melodrama falls under?"
"I call it as I see it. So if you want to continue to avoid the real problem, be my guest, but don't come crying to me when you end up with some serious issues later on. Peace," Mason held up a peace sign as he began walking away from Cliff.
Cliff turned back to the street, stunned by Mason's harsh, but truthful words. Deep down he realized that he was going to have to deal with his own isues at some point, but he felt much better pretending that it was a problem connected with someone else besides himself. It was much more comforting that way, and much safer.