Anna was getting a little bored. They had been in this place for what seemed like all day. There was so much to look at that it was overwhelming. Well, it hadn't been at first, but now that it was dinnertime and her tummy was growling, Anna thought the Spirit of St. Louis might take off from where it was suspended from the ceiling or that the Apollo 11 command module thingy might decide to pop back into space, and then they'd have to dig themselves out of what was left of the building before they could find something to eat. When Tommy requested that they stop at the Captain America exhibit, Anna almost complained, but her dad seemed so excited that she decided she wanted to see it too. Besides, all the kids at school loved Cap and she wanted to see why. Once they were inside the exhibit, though, Anna got bored all over again. The mannequins looked cool in their costumes, but there was too much writing, and she wasn't that good with the big words yet.
"You hungry, honey?" Anna's mom asked her.
"Yeah, and tired. But I was wondering... what's this Captain America guy got to do with space?" she asked.
Her mom smiled. "You know what? I have no clue. But your dad and Tommy love him. It won't take long to go through this, and then we can eat. I'm hungry too."
Anna sighed and glanced around looking for her brother, but she recognized one of her favorite words on a display and headed over to it. Another guy was standing in front of the display.
"Bucky Barnes," Anna said.
"What?" said the man.
"That guy is Bucky Barnes," she repeated, pointing at the photo. "I don't know much about him, but I like his name. I have a stuffed deer at home that I call Bucky."
The man said nothing, and Anna turned her attention from the display to him. He was wearing a jacket and had both hands stuck in the pockets like he was cold or something. He had on a baseball cap, and his hair was long and sort of raggedy looking, but he seemed nice. She thought his eyes looked sad. She touched his arm and motioned at Bucky Barnes.
"You know that guy?" she asked.
He did not stop looking at the photo. "He's been dead a long time, kid. I don't know him."
"Well, I guess it's okay to be sad about him, mister. He was a good guy."
His sad eyes gazed down at her. "How do you know that?"
Anna laughed. "He's in the Captain America exhibit! Everyone knows Captain America's a good guy! So if he hung out with Captain America, he must have been one of the good guys too!"
The man didn't respond, but he lowered his head while she watched him. She realized that she had seen him somewhere before and scratched her head, trying to remember. That was when her dad came up behind her. "You found Bucky, Anna!" he exclaimed, catching her up in his arms. "He was always my favorite."
"Why, Daddy?"
"Without Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers would have been nothing. Every guy needs a best friend, someone to go to war with, and that's what Bucky was for Cap." Anna's dad put her down again, and she stood between him and the man with the sad eyes.
"See?" Anna said to the man. "Told you he was a good guy." She peered up into his face, squinting and wondering why museums were always so dark. "Hey," she said. "You kinda look like him. Actually, you look a lot like him, doesn't he, Daddy!" She grabbed for her dad's hand, but he was trying to get Tommy on the correct side of the cord protecting the mannequins.
"Are you him?" she asked the man.
His lips moved, but no sound came out at first. Then he whispered, "I wish I could be."
"Anna, we gotta go!" called her mom.
"Goodbye, mister!" Anna said, but there was no one there.
