Reported Speech and Complicated sentence

I presume you are talking about the matrix clause, 'I said', only? Yes, that is fine. 'Say/says' appears in 'historical/narrative/journalistic present'.

Mister MicawberI presume you are talking about the matrix clause, 'I said', only?

Sorry, no, the first question concerns the entire sentence. I thought there may be a clearer way to say it.

Mister Micawber'Say/says' appears in 'historical/narrative/journalistic present'.

Interesting. I understand that the historic pres

-- I think the historical present is common enough in some genres of light fiction.

-- As for the original clause ('Matt heard from his mom, who heard it from Chris, that Geoff is taking Nick on a trip because they don't know how long Nick has to live'): with those 2 changes, I guess it's about the best that can be done with that.

Mister Micawber('Matt heard from his mom, who heard it from Chris, that Geoff is taking Nick on a trip because they don't know how long Nick has to live'):

Why have you made the first 'heard' intransitive' while the second transitive?

Thanks for picking up the incorrect capitalization. I forget what needs to be capitalized sometimes.

I inserted 'it' to loosen that clause up from the sequence, so that the reader doesn't get so dizzy in the journey from Matt to Nick.

Mister MicawberI inserted 'it' to loosen that clause up from the sequence, so that the reader doesn't get so dizzy in the journey from Matt to Nick.

Clever idea. Thanks.