But let me take you back to where this all began. Because to understand why what happens next is so extraordinary, you need to see what Darius\u2019s life is really like.<\/p>\n
5:30 a.m. Every morning, the alarm clock beside Darius\u2019s bed doesn\u2019t even work anymore. His body just knows when to wake up. He rolls out of the narrow twin bed he\u2019s slept in since he was eight years old\u2014the same bed his mother bought him before the accident. The floorboards creak as he tiptoes past his grandmother\u2019s room. Miss Ruby is already awake. She always is at this hour, but she pretends to sleep because she knows Darius worries about her. Through the thin wall, he can hear the wheezes of her breathing, the way she struggles even while lying down.<\/p>\n
Their house on Elm Street tells its own story. The yellow paint has faded to the color of old newspapers. The porch steps sag in the middle from decades of weight. Windows are held shut with duct tape because new ones cost money they don\u2019t have. But Miss Ruby keeps it clean\u2014spotless, even. Because being poor doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t be proud, she always tells him.<\/p>\n
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