Free My Brilliant Idea (And How It Caused My Downfall) by Stuart David

have a laugh together.”
    He reaches across the table and rubs my hair, more or less ruining the perfect sweep I had going on. He sort of embarrasses and terrifies me at the same time, my uncle Ray.
    â€œMe and The Jackdaw!” he says. “What a team!”
    A few minutes later, the front door opens, and Uncle Ray puts a finger up to his lips. I hear Harry clumping along the hallway and then dumping his bag at the bottom of the stairs. He takes his coat off, and I hear that going up on the rack, and then he carries on into the kitchen. You can tell he isn’t expecting anyone to be here, and he jumps a bit when he sees us. He looks kind of startled, and when he realizes I’m here he turns round and walks back out again. We hear him stomping up the stairs and then going into his room.
    â€œMust be Tampon Time,” Uncle Ray says. “He didn’t look too happy to see
you,
either.”
    â€œWe fell out a couple of weeks ago,” I tell him. “Just a misunderstanding. I’ve come to sort it out.”
    â€œGood luck with that,” Uncle Ray says, and he takes his glass across to the sink and rinses it out. Then he puts another couple of pieces of bread into the still-smoking toaster. I get up from the table and push my chair in.
    â€œSee you later, Uncle Ray,” I say, and then I make my way up to Harry’s room and knock lightly on his door.

10
    My cousin Harry’s room is just like mine, a kid room. He still has a poster of a dragon above his bed, and over on the other wall he has a chart for this game he plays on the computer. He even still has a few toys lying about that he’s never bothered to throw out. Sad. His room really makes me want to fix up mine.
    While I stand at the door looking around at all this stuff, Harry sits at his desk glaring at me. He didn’t answer my knock on the door, so I just came in, but it’s clear he’s not too happy about it.
    â€œBeat it!” he tells me. “I haven’t got anything to say to you.”
    â€œMaybe I’ve got something to say to you, though,” I reply. “Maybe I’ve come to apologize.”
    â€œDid you bring my iPad?” he asks me, and I shake my head. “Beat it, then. I’m not interested.”
    I close the door and come a bit farther into the room. Harry turns away from me and hunches over the books that are lying open on his desk, pretending he’s getting to work on something. I go over and sit down on his kid bed.
    â€œI’ve brought you something to make up for the iPad,” I say. “I’m still trying to get that back, but I’ve brought you something better in the meantime.”
    That gets his attention. He abandons the books and spins his swivel chair, then looks over at me.
    â€œLet’s see it,” he says, and he wheels the chair halfway over toward me.
    I get up off the bed. “It’s not something you can see,” I tell him, turning my back to him and studying some of the sad debris he’s got on his shelves. “It’s an opportunity.”
    I hear the chair rolling back toward the desk again. “Forget it,” he says. “I’m not interested in your schemes, Dawson.”
    â€œCall me The Jackdaw,” I say.
    â€œHow about I call you The Jackass?” he replies.
    â€œOkay,” I say. “Dawson’s fine. Whatever.”
    â€œHow about I call you a cab?” Harry continues. “I want you out of here, Jackass. I’ll give you thirty seconds, then I’m shouting on mad Ray to give you a lift home. Opera all the way.”
    â€œThat’s quite a black eye he’s wearing,” I say, but Harry doesn’t reply. So I tell him I’m sorry about the iPad. For about the five hundredth time. “It was a misunderstanding,” I tell him. “That’s all.”
    He turns round with his face red. “I gave you a loan of my iPad and you sold it.