The Honest Truth

Mark is on a bus departing Seattle. A six-year-old girl named Shelby pops her head over the seat in front of Mark and starts asking questions. She soon moves to the seat next to Mark, who does his best to end the conversation. He busies himself in a notebook and composes a haiku. When Shelby asks about his writing, Mark finally caves and talks to her in earnest. He learns that Shelby is visiting her dad’s new house for the first time since her parents’ divorce, and she will refuse to speak to her dad the whole weekend. Thinking of his hurting parents back home, Mark encourages Shelby to set aside the anger toward her father. Mark asks to take a picture of her, and she agrees if she can take Mark’s picture too. When Shelby asks why he takes pictures, Mark describes how time is fleeting, “But when you take a picture, that one moment isn’t gone. You caught it. It’s yours. And you get to keep it” (82). Shelby asks where Mark is going, and he truthfully responds that he’s going to climb a mountain.