"If he doesn't stay, it's all your fault!" Cass yells.

"It's not!" I scream back. "I'm the good kid. You're the bad one who gets in trouble every other day. He's probably tired of dealing with it."

"Shut up!" he says, his eyes wide with fury, and I feel angry satisfaction that I managed to push his buttons. "At least I'm strong enough to stand up for myself. Everybody has to take care of you because you're such a loser!" Hearing this makes me angrier than I can remember being in a long time.

The front door opens while Cass is saying this, and Uncle Bucky makes it to our room in time to see me punch my brother in the stomach and to see him retaliate and kick me to the floor.

"HEY!" I've never heard Uncle Bucky raise his voice, ever. He does now. He jumps between us and pulls us apart easily. He has Cass with his metal arm and me with his regular one, but it might as well be metal too because he's so strong.

He glares down at both of us. "You do NOT fight like that, trying to hurt each other. If you're frustrated, you talk, or you wrestle and let off steam. If you can't solve it, you tell me or your mom. I'm disappointed in both of you. I went to do repairs on the boat for less than half an hour, and this is what I come back to?"

Cass and I glare at each other. "I'm not going to tell you to apologize, because obviously, it wouldn't be sincere," Uncle Bucky continues. "Cass, I want you to stay in here. AJ, you and I are going to go have a talk in the other room." He leads me out, shaking his head. I look back and stare daggers at my brother.

Uncle Bucky takes me to my mom's room, because our house isn't that big, and it's the only place we can talk without being heard. "Sit," he says, motioning to the bed, and he sits opposite me on my mom's chaise lounge.

I've never seen Uncle Bucky upset like this before. I'm not afraid the way you would be of somebody you didn't trust, but I'm scared in the way you get scared when you bite off more than you can chew and have to pay the consequences. I'm also scared that what my brother said was true—that Uncle Bucky won't want to stick around, and it will be all my fault.

"What happened, AJ?" he asks, his voice back to being soft and slow. "It's not like you to fight at all, let alone throw the first punch."

I stare down at my fingers in my lap. I'm not used to the feeling of punching someone; my fist hurts, and I figure my brother hurts worse. My anger is starting to cool into a queasy feeling, and I don't want to tell Uncle Bucky what we were talking about—because it's about him.

"Out with it," he says. "We can sit here as long as it takes."
I don't look up. "He said—some stuff that got to me."

"What stuff?"

"He, um, said that you probably don't want to stick around with us and that if you left and didn't come back, it would be my fault."

"—." Uncle Bucky doesn't curse much, but he definitely says a word my mom wouldn't approve of.

"What did you say back?" He's got me. I was hoping he would just assume the fight started then. I don't want to admit what I said to Cass.

"I—um, said he's a bad kid and that's why you would probably leave us." I whisper the last part.

"—." Uncle Bucky swears again. "Why in the world were the two of you even talking about this?"

"Cass said you and mom have been together a while now and that we shouldn't expect it to last much longer. I told him he was wrong, and he got mad and said you probably don't want to stay because I'm a loser."

Uncle Bucky buries his face in his hands. "In all of this arguing about my plans, it didn't occur to either of you to just ask me about it?"

I shake my head. "I—um, figured Cass was right, because he usually is about stuff like this."

"He's a kid, AJ, and so are you." Uncle Bucky lifts my chin and forces me to look at him. "I have no intention of leaving. Even though I can't be here all the time right now, every time I get to visit, I want to be here more. You're stuck with me, kid."

"I'm sorry I punched Cass," I say softly, feeling pretty foolish at this point.

"You should be," he answers, "and this afternoon, the two of you are going to clean the boat together and reflect on it." It's not a fun job, but I figure we deserve it. Besides, if Uncle Bucky gives us a punishment, he will probably get mom to go easy.

"Okay," I acquiesce softly. I don't like fighting, and I definitely don't like being in trouble. I just want to fix it.

"AJ," he says, standing up, "I understand why those things he said upset you. But they're not true. You're not a loser any more than your brother is a bad kid. And I'm not going anywhere."

I nod, still kind of miserable, and he reaches over and gives me a hug. "I love you," he says softly, "so much." He just holds me for a little bit, and when he finally lets go, I feel a lot better.

"Stay here while I talk to your brother," he says.

"Okay, Dad," I answer. It feels right to say it, and he smiles at me as he leaves the room.

"It's all my fault. I know it's my fault. I should have stopped it because I'm the older brother." I'm almost crying by the time Uncle Bucky comes back to my room, and my voice comes out high-pitched and panicky.

"Hey, hey, it's okay." Uncle Bucky sits down beside me and immediately pulls me close the way he did on the boat. The mercy in his embrace feels better than good. I get my breathing back under control, and he doesn't say anything else for a while, just rubs my back to calm me down and holds me.

"You're not the only one who messed up," he finally says softly. "AJ is responsible for the nasty things he said to you and for punching you. He doesn't get to be a jerk just because you're older."

"I gotta take care of him," I answer.

"And sometimes that means letting him get in trouble if he deserves it," Uncle Bucky says with a firm pat to my back. "He's your mom's responsibility and mine. It's great that you want to protect him, but you're both kids. You can let the adults handle some things, yeah?"

"I'll try," I answer.

"I get that you've had a lot of responsibility since your dad died," Uncle Bucky says, "but you can let go a little bit—and let me handle some things. I'm not going anywhere, no matter what that brain of yours is making you think."

"I shouldn't have told AJ I thought you might leave," I say, as I realize that was my first mistake.

"That's right," Uncle Bucky agrees. "If you have those kinds of thoughts, you bring them to me, and we'll talk."

"I just don't want you to go," I say, putting my arms around him and finally returning his hug.

"I don't want to go, so we're even," he says, half smiling.

After a while, I get up the courage to ask. "What's our punishment?"

"The boat," he answers. "You're going to clean it this afternoon, and if it goes well, I'll consider keeping this between the three of us."

I nod. It's fair. And probably not as bad as what my mama would have come up with. "Yessir," I say. "We'll do a good job. We're really sorry."

"Just don't do it again," he says with soft firmness, pulling back enough to look into my face. "If you need help with your brother, ask. You're not alone, and I'm not leaving you or your mom." I nod. I'm going to try hard to get it through my head.

—

When we get out to the boat, it turns out AJ and I are not the only ones cleaning. He's cleaning right along with us—our uncle who's turning into our dad. If I'm honest, he does the hardest parts. AJ and I are on our best behavior, but Uncle Bucky makes us laugh pretty quick. Soon, my brother and I are working together, and it feels good.

The boat takes a couple of hours. By the time the sun is getting low in the sky, we're sweaty and finished, but I kind of don't think it felt much like a punishment. I like the way the boat looks, all nice and clean, and I'm thinking it was actually pretty fun to work with Uncle Bucky and AJ.

"Good job," Uncle Bucky says. "Now, you guys ready to apologize?"

I've kind of forgotten we haven't. "I'm sorry, AJ," I say right away.

"Me, too," he kind of mumbles. Neither one of us is mad any more, and thinking about fighting just makes us feel kind of foolish.

"Good," says our uncle, and he puts an arm around both of us. "Your mom is going to love how good the boat looks."

Realization dawns on me, and I look up at him. "Brownie points. You decided on this as our punishment to get brownie points from mom, didn't you? She's always talking about how she doesn't have enough time to clean the boat."

Uncle Bucky just grins. "Nothing wrong with killing two birds with one stone."