A LITTLE BOY cannot tie his shoes. He tries and he tries and he tries. He tries at school when everyone is watching, at home when no one is. All the other 7-year-olds can do it, the boy cries to his mother. It's easy for them.
The mother is determined. Inside a tiny, single-wide trailer one night, mother and son sit together. The boy was born with only one full arm. He tries to jam a lace against the nub below his left elbow while he uses the fingers on his right hand to work the laces into bows.