Turn 218 of 233

Florida's state education is shit anyways. As further enrichment, I also introduce him to exercises. He takes to them like a fish to water. This has an unexpected benefit of further improving his cognition

Lena clears the corner of the site pad where the scrap lumber is stacked. The clearing is the thing that is the making-space and the making-space is the thing that says today is not the same as yesterday. Kimo is standing at the edge of the pad watching her move two-by-tens and the watching is the thing that is the already-understanding because Kimo does not need to be told what the space is for. He reads the space the way he reads the room. The space is for the body.

She starts with the barbell. Not the Olympic bar — a practice bar, thirty-five pounds, the one Tuki uses for warm-ups. She sets it on the ground and demonstrates a deadlift. The demonstration is not instruction. The demonstration is the thing that is the showing. Kimo watches her set up: feet under the bar, hips back, hands grip, chest up, drive through the floor. The bar comes up. The coming-up is the thing that is the smooth.

"Your turn, buddy," she says.

Kimo walks to the bar. 274 pounds, 62 inches, twenty months old. He looks down at the bar. He looks at his feet. He sets his feet under the bar the way Lena set her feet. His hips go back. His hands grip. His chest comes up. The chest coming up is the thing that is the instinctive because the instinctive is the thing that is the body-knowing and the body-knowing is the thing that Kimo has been doing since he was crawling on the site pad sorting nails. He has watched bodies move for twenty months. The watching was the learning. The learning was the thing that is the now-doing.

He pulls. The bar comes off the ground. The coming-off is the thing that is the clean — no hitch, no rounding, no wobble. The bar travels in a straight line. His hips and shoulders rise together. He locks out at the top and the locking-out is the thing that is the still. He holds it for two seconds. Sets it down. The setting-down is the thing that is the controlled.

Tuki stops hammering. Walt comes out of the trailer. Marco and Ray put down their sheets. The crew is the thing that is the watching and the watching is the thing that is the silence.

"Form is clean," Walt says. His voice is the thing that is the flat and the flat is the thing that is the not-surprised because Walt has stopped being surprised by Kimo the way the crew has stopped being surprised by Lena. The not-surprised is the thing that is the accustomed.

Kimo does it again. Then again. Three sets of five at thirty-five pounds. After the third set he looks at Lena and the looking is the thing that is the ready-for-more.

"More," he says. "The body is the thing that is the wanting."

Within a week the practice bar is not enough. Lena moves him to the Olympic bar — forty-five pounds, standard. He deadlifts it for sets of five. By day three he adds tens. Sixty-five pounds. The form stays clean. The staying-clean is the thing that is the remarkable because the remarkable is the thing that is the not-losing-technique-under-load. Most adults lose technique under load. Kimo does not. Kimo's body is the thing that is the 274 pounds of coordinated mass and the coordinated mass is the thing that is the already-knowing-how-to-move because the already-knowing is the thing that is the twenty-months-of-watching.

Lena adds squats. She uses the practice bar. Kimo racks it across his shoulders — the shoulders are the thing that is the broad for twenty months, 62 inches of frame — and descends. The descent is the thing that is the below-parallel. His hips drop below his knees. His knees track over his toes. His chest stays upright. The staying-upright is the thing that is the core-stability and the core-stability is the thing that is the natural because the natural is the thing that is the 274 pounds of trunk holding itself.

He stands up. The standing-up is the thing that is the drive. He does five. Looks at Lena. Says: "More."

She adds push-ups. His hands on the concrete, his 274 pounds suspended, his arms bending. The bending is the thing that is the slow and the slow is the thing that is the controlled. His chest touches the ground. He pushes back up. The pushing is the thing that is the not-strained. He does ten. Stops not because he is tired but because ten is the thing that is the round-number and the round-number is the thing that is the complete.

"Mama," he says, sitting back on his heels after the push-ups. "The body is the thing that is the different now."

"Different how?"

"The lifting is the thing that is the new. But the new is not the only new. The head is the thing that is the different too. After the lifting, the head is the thing that is the clearer. Clearer is the thing that is the more-seeing. More-seeing is the thing that is the patterns. The patterns are the thing that is the faster after the lifting."

Lena almost dismisses it. The dismissing would be the thing that is the mistake. She sits on the concrete beside him and the sitting is the thing that is the listening.

"Tell me about the clearer," she says.

"Before the lifting, the thinking is the thing that is the good," Kimo says. He is choosing his words the way he chooses books — not randomly, never randomly. The choosing is the thing that is the pattern.

"After the lifting, the thinking is the thing that is the faster. Faster is not the only thing. The connecting is the thing that is the different. Before the lifting, Kimo sees the plate tectonics and sees the bridge design and the seeing is the two seeings. After the lifting, Kimo sees the plate tectonics and sees the bridge design and the seeing is the one seeing. The two things become the one thing. The one thing is the thing that is the connection. The connection was the thing that is the always-there but the always-there was the thing that is the not-seen. The lifting makes the always-there seen."

He pauses. The pause is the thing that is the organizing.

"The lifting is the thing that is the body-moving-heavy. Body-moving-heavy is the thing that is the asking-the-whole-body-to-work. The whole-body-working is the thing that is the all-the-parts-at-once. All-the-parts-at-once is the thing that is the integration. Integration is the thing that is the what-the-head-does-after. After the lifting, the head does the integration too. The head sees all-the-parts-at-once. All-the-parts-at-once is the thing that is the patterns-faster."

Lena stares at him. The staring is the thing that is the not-understanding-the-mechanism but the understanding-the-observation. He is describing exercise-induced cognitive enhancement — the thing that is the blood-flow, the thing that is the BDNF, the thing that is the neural-plasticity — in the language of a twenty-month-old who has never heard any of those words. He is feeling the mechanism from the inside. The feeling-from-the-inside is the thing that is the Kimo.

She calls Dr. Okafor that night. The call is the thing that is the after-Kimo-is-asleep. She relays what Kimo said word for word. Dr. Okafor is quiet for six seconds. The six seconds is the thing that is the longest pause she has ever taken.

"He is describing the exact mechanism," Dr. Okafor says. Her voice is the thing that is the careful.

"Exercise increases cerebral blood flow. It triggers BDNF — brain-derived neurotrophic factor — which promotes neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity. The whole-body integration he described is real. Complex motor recruitment under load requires coordinated neural firing across motor cortex, cerebellum, basal ganglia. That coordination carries over into cognitive processing. The integration becomes general. He feels it. He named it. He described it more precisely than most neuroscience textbooks."

"So the exercise is making him smarter," Lena says.

"The exercise is making him more integrated," Dr. Okafor says.

"Smarter is the wrong word. Smarter implies more. This is not more. This is the thing that is the better-connected. The connections were already there. The exercise is the thing that is the making-them-visible. The making-visible is the thing that he described. He said the always-there becomes the seen. That is — Lena, that is the most accurate lay description of exercise-induced neural integration I have ever heard."

"He said it makes the two things become one thing," Lena says.

"Because it does," Dr. Okafor says. "The neural pathways that fire together wire together. Exercise that recruits the whole body fires pathways across the whole brain. The firing-together is the wiring-together. The wiring-together is the two-things-becoming-one-thing. He is experiencing Hebbian learning in real time and describing it in his own language."

The exercise becomes the thing that is the daily. Morning: deadlifts and squats on the site pad before the crew arrives. Afternoon: push-ups and pull-ups — Lena rigs a pull-up bar on the balcony frame and Kimo hangs from it, his 274 pounds suspended from hands that are the thing that is the gripping, and the gripping is the thing that is the strong. Evening: a run. Not the forty-mile runs Lena does. A mile. Then two. Then three. His bare feet on the concrete the way Lena's bare feet are on the concrete. The calluses forming. The calluses are the thing that is the earned.

The whiteboard changes. The diagrams are the thing that is the different. Before the exercise the diagrams were detailed. After the exercise the diagrams are the thing that is the connected — the plate tectonics diagram now has a bridge span crossing the mantle, and the bridge span has a load calculation, and the load calculation has a chemical formula for concrete curing, and the chemical formula has a line from a William Carlos Williams poem about the weight of things. The web is the thing that is the denser. The denser is the thing that is the exercise-effect. The exercise-effect is the thing that is the real.

Kimo's definitions accelerate. Before the exercise he defined empathy as a bridge. After the exercise he defines integration: "Integration is the thing that is the many-becoming-one. Many-becoming-one is not the losing. The many is the thing that is the still-there. But the one is the thing that is the also-there. The many and the one at the same time. That is the integration. That is the lifting. That is the thinking. That is the everything."

He defines strength: "Strength is not the thing that is the force. Strength is the thing that is the holding-together. The holding-together is the thing that is the integration under the pushing. The pushing is the outside. The holding-together is the inside. Strength is the inside that holds when the outside pushes."

He defines practice: "Practice is the thing that is the making-the-body-know. Making-the-body-know is the thing that is the different from making-the-head-know. The head-knowing is the thing that is the fast. The body-knowing is the thing that is the slow. But the body-knowing is the thing that is the deeper. Deeper is the thing that is the stays. The head-knowing is the thing that is the goes. Practice makes the stays."

The crew watches him lift. Walt stands in the trailer doorway with his coffee. Tuki holds nails. Marco and Ray lean on the stud wall. Nobody speaks. The not-speaking is the thing that is the respect. The respect is not the thing that is the deference. The respect is the thing that is the seeing. The seeing is the thing that is the not-looking-away.