He used to be Kenny. People at the group home would say iKenny's a little slow, but he's a real good worker. Aren't you, Kenny?/i And he'd say, yes. And they'd put him on the crew bus that took workers to dairy farms or casinos to clean. When he got his pay, he'd take it to Mr. Lowe and Mr. Lowe would give some of it back to him, the rest was for the home, for "his keep".
In the Army, he was Kenneth. It took him a while to remember that when the Sergeant would bark, iwhat's your name, soldier?/i The Sergeant would repeat the question over and over until he got the right answer. Kenneth.
He was assigned kitchen duty mostly. Even when he was shipped overseas to the combat area. Cook was good to him and when the other guys ragged him too much, Cook would tell them to can it. He'd say iif you lazy bastards worked as hard as Kenny, I wouldn't have all the trouble I do/i. It was dusty and hot in the field, but when he got his pay from the Army he didn't have to bring it to anybody else. It was all his.
He didn't remember how he got hurt. One minute he was riding in the back of a truck with the other guys; the next he was on the ground, looking up and he couldn't move. Then he woke up in a hospital and people kept telling him he was lucky to be alive.
He really didn't want to go back to the field. He was happy when they said they were sending him to rehab. They took real good care of him. They said he could be part of "The Program" and that he'd have a new name, like Batman was Bruce Wayne. Aaron Cross, that was his name. He said it over and over to himself so he'd answer when they called him.
There were so many blood tests, so many pills to take. They made him take written tests which scared him because he knew he was slow and he was afraid they'd say he couldn't stay there.
He'd always had trouble with shoes. At the home he wore sneakers. If the laces broke and he had to put in new ones, he'd make sure he took the shoes someplace where he'd be alone. He could put the laces in, Ihe could do it/i , but he had to concentrate to make sure the laces were in the right holes.
And when he tied his shoes, he'd make two big bows and wrap them around each other, the way somebody in the home taught him to do. Sometimes the knot would get very small and very tight and he couldn't undo it. Then he'd have to slip his foot in the shoe all the time until the lace broke.
In the Army he practiced and practiced lacing the boots they gave him. The trouble was he couldn't get his foot in the boot without pulling out the laces near the top. If he watched his hands and took his time as he crisscrossed the laces to put them back in he could usually get it right the first time.
He didn't have to worry about that when he first went to rehab. He was inside all the time in the beginning. One morning, after his bones had mended and the bandages had come off, one very early morning (the sun hadn't come up yet), the lights snapped on in his room and a trainer came in and dumped a pile of clothes on the floor. "Get up, Cross. You have five minutes to dress. We're going to run. You ready to run?"
"Yes, sir," he said, as he grabbed at the the clothes. The trainers weren't army; nobody in the program wore uniforms, but he still always said "sir".
"I didn't hear you, Cross. I said, are you ready to run?"
"YES, SIR"
The trainer kept shooting questions at him while he dressed. iName the parts of a M16A4 rifle, Cross/i, what are the Army's Core Values, Cross?/i iare you ready to run, Cross?/i He kept getting interrupted as he answered. In less than three minutes he was suited up and ready to go.
It wasn't until Aaron was into his second mile that he realized that he laced his boots without really looking at them, hadn't given a thought to how to do it. He smiled to himself and kept on running.