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Uncle Tom hauled a canoe off the truck roof while Dad carried the paddles and a cooler. I carried the life jackets, which smelled like sunscreen and old lake water.

On the way back, we stopped at a diner called The Rusty Spoon. We were still damp. My hair was drying in weird crunchy waves. The waitress didn’t even ask—she just brought three hot chocolates and a stack of napkins.

This dynamic teaches young readers an important lesson about family roles: different people serve different purposes in our lives, and comparison is often an unfair metric for love.