Turn 191 of 233

Encourage Kimo to draw more and speak more. Talk to him about what I do when I do it, work, weight lifting, running, weighted body exercises. This improves his vocabulary and grammar immensely. Also start reading to him

Lena starts talking and the talking is the thing that does not stop. She talks on the balcony and the balcony is the thing that is the morning and the morning is the thing that has Kimo on the concrete with the wrench and the wrench is the thing she talks about.

"This is a crescent wrench," she says, turning it in her hand. "See the jaw? The jaw opens and closes. You turn the screw and the jaw gets wider or narrower. We use it to tighten bolts. Bolts hold things together. This bolt is three-quarter inch. The wrench adjusts to fit."

Kimo takes the wrench back and turns the screw and the turning is the thing that opens the jaw and the opening is the thing he studies.

"Jaw wide," he says. "Jaw narrow. Bolt tight."

Lena picks up her Olympic barbell from the balcony rack — the rack she welded from scrap steel — and the picking up is 630 pounds and the 630 is the thing she loads for presses. She narrates while she lifts and the narrating is the thing that fills the air between the bar and her chest.

"This is a bench press. I'm pressing 630 pounds. The bar goes down to my chest and I push it up. My arms are doing the work. My triceps push. My chest pushes. My shoulders stabilize. See how my elbows are at forty-five degrees? That's the angle. Forty-five degrees protects the shoulders."

"Forty-five," Kimo says. "Elbows. Shoulders. Push up."

He is sitting on the concrete with the wrench and a piece of rebar and the rebar is the thing he holds like a barbell and the holding is the thing that is the mimicry and the mimicry is the thing that is the learning. He presses the rebar over his chest and grunts and the grunting is the thing he has heard on the balcony and the balcony is the thing that is the sound of his mother lifting.

"Good rep," Lena says. "Now squat. Watch Mama squat."

She squats 500 pounds and the squatting is the thing she narrates — "hips back, knees out, chest up, drive through the floor" — and Kimo stands behind her and bends his knees and pushes his hips back and the pushing is the thing that is the form and the form is the thing he copies without the weight. He squats and rises and squats and rises and the rhythm matches Lena's and the matching is the thing that is the mirroring.

"Hips back," Kimo says. "Knees out. Chest up. Drive floor."

The days stack and the stacking is the thing that becomes the routine. Lena talks through every action — the morning run on the grass trail, the site walk-through, the stud measurements, the concrete pour, the blocking installation. She uses the real words. Not baby words. The words are the thing that is the studs and the joists and the headers and the cripples and the rough openings and the load paths. Kimo absorbs them the way the concrete absorbs water — completely, without resistance, the surface taking the thing and the thing becoming part of the structure.

She starts reading to him at night on the balcony. The books are the things she orders online — picture books about buildings, about machines, about animals, about the body. She reads with Kimo against her side and her side is the thing that is 730 pounds and the 730 is the thing that is the warm. He follows the words with his finger and the following is the thing that is the tracking and the tracking is the thing that connects the sound to the letter to the meaning.

"The excavator digs the foundation," Lena reads. "The foundation is the bottom of the building. It holds everything up."

"Foundation holds up," Kimo says. "Like Mama. Mama holds up Kimo."

The weeks pass and the passing is the thing that is the counting. Lena does not count the words anymore because the counting is the thing that cannot keep up. Kimo is stringing four and five words together and the together is the thing that is the grammar — not perfect grammar but the grammar that is the structure and the structure is the thing that is the rule he finds by listening. He asks questions now that are not just what that and why but how and when and where does the sun go when it is dark and Lena answers and the answering is the thing that makes the next question.

"Why Mama lift heavy?" he asks on the balcony while she presses the bar.

"Because the body gets stronger when you ask it to do more than it did yesterday. The muscle breaks down and rebuilds bigger. That's called hypertrophy."

"Hyper-fy," Kimo says. "Mama hyper-fy. Kimo hyper-fy too."

He picks up the rebar and presses it and the pressing is the thing that is the earnest and the earnest is the thing that is the boy who wants to do the thing his mother does because the thing his mother does is the thing that matters.