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“Did you always have a metal arm?” Cass asked, glancing over from a picture he was intently colouring.
Bucky’s heart skipped a beat. He swallowed thickly before answering.
“Uh, no.”
He refocussed his attention on the book in front of him.
“What happened to your real one?” The kid asked again, not looking away from his picture.
“You really wanna know?” Bucky asked, placing the book on the table.
Cass looked up, nodding.
“You sure?” Bucky lowered his voice, conspiratorially.
Cass grinned nodding even more.
“Shark attack,” Bucky whispered, raising his eyebrows.
“Wow,” Cass breathed, “really?”
Bucky snorted a laugh, unable to stay serious a moment longer.
“Yeah, kid,” he chuckled, “sure.”
Cass scrunched his face up, huffing, and went back to colouring in his picture.
Bucky grinned and continued reading.
“Uncle Buck, how did you lose your real arm?” AJ asked, surreptitiously licking bright blue bubble-gum ice cream from where it had melted on to his hand.
They were walking along the waterfront, the sun setting over the water and casting long shadows across the quay.
Bucky coughed and took another bite of his ice cream – mint chocolate chip – before answering.
“It’s not a very fun story, you sure you want to know?”
AJ gave him a half smile and shrugged.
“I was working the docks and a machine ripped it off and threw it into the sea,” Bucky told him.
AJ looked horrified.
“Mh-hm, there was blood everywhere, two guys fainted , everyone had to stop working to try and find where it had gone,” Bucky nodded solemnly.
“Wow,” AJ said, “Where did it end up?”
“No one knows,” Bucky said, “they could never find it.”
He stared at AJ, eyes wide.
“ Wow ,” AJ sighed, stopped walking and looked out across the bay, as if he could find Bucky’s arm in the gently lapping water.
Bucky snorted, taking another bite of his ice cream.
“What?” AJ asked, indignant.
“Man, I’m messing with you,” Bucky laughed.
AJ frowned then grinned, throwing his hands in the air. Ice cream dripped wildly onto the ground.
“ Uncle BuUuck! Don’t do that!” He said, running to catch up with Bucky.
Bucky and Sam sat, squished together, on the couch with the boys, blankets piled on top of them. A huge bowl of popcorn rested on their knees and the boys would dip in occasionally as they watched the movie, usually at the scary parts.
As the credits rolled, AJ sat up, stretching and holding back a yawn.
“Uncle Buck, seriously,” he said, frowning, “what happened to your arm?”
“AJ,” Sam admonished.
“No, it’s ok, you want to know the truth?” Bucky asked.
“Uh-huh,” AJ said.
“Yeah, please,” Cass nodded eagerly.
“Well, when I was a little boy,” Bucky began, Sam snorted and relaxed back against the couch, sipping his beer, “a circus tiger went wild and jumped into the crowd and bit it off!”
“Woah,” Cass said, rubbing his eyes.
“That's not true, there aren’t any tigers in the circus,” AJ narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.
“There were in 1928,” Bucky answered.
“Is that really what happened?” AJ asked, eyeing the metal arm accusatorily.
“Would I lie to you?” Bucky asked.
“Uh, yeah,” AJ huffed.
“Guess you’ll never know,” Bucky grinned and took a sip of his beer.
“Right, enough pestering Uncle Bucky,” Sam said, clapping his hands together, “go get ready for bed, it’s already way past both your bedtimes.”
The boys grumbled but did as they were told, marching upstairs and dragging the blankets behind them.
“You ever gonna tell them the truth?” Sam asked Bucky, still leaning against him on the couch.
Bucky shrugged.
“Maybe, but isn’t this way more fun?”
“You ask him,” AJ hissed, nudging his friend with his elbow.
“No, you do it,”
“No, he always makes something up when I ask,”
“Why won’t he just do the same now,”
“Well, you’re the one who wants to know,” AJ said too loud and his friend quickly shushed him.
Bucky smiled to himself from behind his book, listening to the boys’ conversation from the bench on the porch. They hadn’t yet figured out that he could hear them no matter how quiet they thought they were being.
AJ shoved his friend through the doorway and he stumbled on to the porch.
“Uh, Mr Barnes, sir,” he said, wringing his hands together, “I was just wondering, uhm, how you lost your arm?”
Bucky looked at him over the top of his book, narrowing his eyes.
“Were you?” He asked, mock serious.
“Yeah,” the boy nodded enthusiastically, then sombered up, “but, uh, if you don’t wanna tell us, that’s ok too.”
“Well, you seem like a good kid, I’ll tell you what happened,”
“Yes!” the boy hissed.
AJ pumped his fist in the air and sat eagerly next to Bucky on the bench.
“So?” He asked, swinging his legs excitedly.
“I was born with only one arm,” Bucky shrugged, turning back to his book.
“ Urgh,” AJ groaned, frustrated, “that for sure isn’t the truth.”
“Really? How’d you know?” Bucky tried to hold back a smile.
“Cause you were in the army, they wouldn’t let you join with only one arm,” AJ huffed.
“It was the forties,” Bucky snorted, “the army was taking anyone they could get.”
“Fine, don’t tell us,” AJ shrugged, grabbing his friend’s arm, “come on, let’s go down the docks.”
“Uh, thanks, Mr Bucky, sir,” his friend said as he stumbled after AJ.
The barbeque was in full swing, music bouncing from large speakers, steak and hotdogs and corn on the cob grilling away, more food sitting along the buffet than Bucky thought it was possible to eat.
Bucky had spent most of the afternoon playing with the kids. They had devised a game where he tossed them on to an inflatable in the water and they tried to bounce each other as high as they could off the other side.
“Man, you’re spoiling them,” Sam had said at one point, watching Cass fly through the air, land on the inflatable and bounce a little girl into the water.
Bucky shrugged. It was nice to do something non-violent with the metal arm for a change.
“They’re enjoying themselves,” he said, picking up the next kid and throwing him on to the inflatable. He never missed, and he threw them as gently as possible.
Sam had stood and watched a few more kids soar through the air before laughing and returning to the adult conversation at the grill.
“Rather you than me,” he said as he left.
By the time the sun began to set, most of the kids had gone home with their families. Bucky had offered to help clean up but Sarah had shooed him and Sam away. They had swam out to the inflatable, ostensibly to pack it up, but instead had sat back, enjoying the last rays of the sun and the colours the sky was turning.
Bucky heard splashing behind them and turned to see AJ and Cass swimming out to join them. Bucky stretched his metal hand out and pulled them up, one by one, on to the inflatable beside him and Sam.
They sat silently for a moment.
“Uncle Bucky,” Cass piped up, “what really happened to your arm? Like, really truly?”
Bucky glanced down at him.
“Fell off a train,” he said softly.
“Really?” AJ asked quizzically.
Bucky nodded.
“All the way down a mountain gorge and then the Russians found me and gave me a shiny new metal arm,” he waved his left hand at them.
AJ frowned.
“Are you ever gonna tell us the truth?” Cass sighed.
“Yeah,” AJ joined in, “that’s the least believable story yet.”
Bucky raised his eyebrows and grinned.
“Oh, really?” He said, eyeing Sam who grinned mischievously back. “In that case,”
The two men bounced hard against the inflatable, sending the boys flying through the air and into the water.
“Hey!” AJ yelled, motioning for Cass to join him. “No fair!”
The boys shoved the inflatable as hard as they could and knocked both Sam and Bucky into the water as well. They emerged from the water spluttering and laughing.
“Oh,” Sam said, wiping his hand over his face, “I see how it is. Just wait til I get you, you’re gonna regret that!”
The boys screamed with laughter and began swimming away from them as fast as they could.
Bucky glanced at Sam, grinning and they both gave chase.