I Beat the Odds by Michael Oher Read Free Book Online Page B

we were playing outside. Twin also had a biological son about my age named Aaron, as well as a biological daughter, who was quite a bit older than us. Aside from the grown-ups, I was probably the tallest kid of the bunch already, even though a couple of them were several years older than me. In all, there were nine people—seven of whom were little boys—living in one tiny house. In that way, it kind of felt like being at home. But Twin managed to keep everything and everyone in line in a way that was definitely different from anything I’d encountered before.
    We had a strict bedtime and chores to do, like washing the dishes and making sure our beds were made and our rooms were clean before we left for school. My new school was Shannon Elementary, just a few blocks away from Twin’s house, so we could walk there each morning. It was a redbrick building and looked like pretty much every other school I’d ever attended, but it felt bigger because it was all on one floor. It was kept neater-looking than most of my other schools, but it had kind of a saggy look to it, almost as if it was tired from years of serving the neighborhood.
    Twin was strict about making sure that we always went to school. She taught GED classes at the community center, and she was very focused on education because she saw what people had to go through as adults if they dropped out of school when they were younger.
    That was tough to get used to at first—getting ready for school every morning. Carlos and I had never had anyone stay on top of us like that to make sure that we were out of bed, finished with homework, and on our way to school in time for the first bell. When we lived at home, school was much more optional and homework wasn’t even a consideration.
    Every day after school, we would have to catch a bus to day care, where we would stay until Twin was finished with work. That was a big challenge for me because even though I was only seven years old, I had been spending time out on the streets, fending for myself and learning how to handle myself around the older kids. It felt like an insult that I was suddenly expected to spend time in after-school day care, when I already kind of viewed myself as an adult. I think Carlos felt the same way. That arrangement continued the whole time I lived at Twin’s house, and I don’t think we ever really got used to it.
    School and supervision after school weren’t the only things she was strict about, either. Every Sunday morning, Twin loaded all of us boys up and we headed off to church. “You might be foster children, but you are God’s children, too,” she told us. And I guess she wanted to make sure that God had no grounds to complain that He didn’t get visitation rights, because we started with the seven a.m. service, then Sunday School, and then stayed through the eleven o’clock service. It was a long morning. Sometimes, one or more of us boys was even roped into working as an usher, handing out church programs and opening doors for people as they came in.
    We sang in the choir for a while, too. As part of the music program, you could learn to play the recorder or the triangle and then everyone would perform in church. We all wore robes, which was good because even then I was bigger than most of the other boys in the house and definitely all the other kids my age. The robes were very forgiving in terms of fit, so I was able to blend in with everyone else. We sang all the time with Twin, even when we weren’t in church. She and Thelma were always teaching us church songs, spirituals, Gospel music. They also taught us folk songs, like “If I Had a Hammer” and music from Up with People, that super-positive group of college kids that tours all over the country.
    On weekends, sometimes we would sell newspapers on corners and at stoplights on busy roads, which is a popular thing in Memphis, and other weekends we’d go camping. The Twins would load up all of their foster kids into an