'Yes.'
'Why?' she said.
'Because he didn't scare me,' I said. 'At least not that he could tell.'
'So?'
'So he was supposed to, I mean, it's why he came over. The guys wanted me with them, and I wouldn't do it, so they bring in big bad Leo, and I still won't do it.'
'But,' Jeannie said, 'I should think if you weren't scared of him, he'd less want to fight you, you know?'
'Guy like Leo, there's a reason he hangs around with younger guys,' I said. 'Maybe the guys his age don't think he's such a big deal.'
'Like the guys at the construction company?' Jeannie said.
'Maybe,' I said. 'Maybe he needs to be a tough guy and they won't treat him like one.'
'That doesn't make any sense to me,' Jeannie said. 'Is it because I'm a girl?'
She looked at Aurelio.
'Does that make any sense to you, Aurelio?' she said.
He shook his head slowly.
'No, but I know a lot of boys need to be macho,' he said.
'Are you like that?' Jeannie asked me.
'I suppose,' I said. 'Some.'
'But you don't pick on people,' Jeannie said.
'No,' I said. 'It doesn't make me feel brave.'
'Is that what it's about?' Jeannie said. 'Feeling brave?'
'Maybe,' I said. 'But you can only feel brave if you face up to something that you need to be brave about, you know?'
'Like with my father?'
'Yes.'
'And like trying to protect Aurelio,' she said.
'Yes.'
Jeannie shook her head.
'You are not like any other boy I know,' she said.
'I was brought up a little different, I guess.'
'Because you didn't have a mother?' Jeannie said.
'I don't know. I never had a mother; I don't know what that would be like. But being brought up by my father and my uncles, the way they treated me.'
'Which is how?' Jeannie said.
'Like I wasn't a kid,' I said. 'Like I was a person.'
