“Dana, how are you feeling today?” I ask, my eyes clocking her dirty uniform, and the dark circles under her eyes.

“OK,” Dana mumbles (嘟囔).

“Have you eaten today?”

She nods. Another lie.

“Can I get you anything?” But what could I possibly get her? A bedroom of her own? A family with love?

“No, thanks.”

Her repeated absence from school recently has worn out teachers’ patience. But I don’t want to send her back to class: What use is it knowing all the square numbers and all the grammatical rules when she has to work out how to wash, cook and decide between feeding herself or her younger sister?

“A biscuit?” I offer. It works and Dana takes the biscuit I hand het.

I remember the first time I met Dana, the day after she locked herself in the house when her mum abandoned the family, I remember thinking how young she was to have built such a high wall around herself and how on earth I could possibly break through. As a social worker, it is my job to knock down such walls no matter how.

I know it would take more than a biscuit to ease out one of her bricks. But I will try.

“How are you feeling?” I push slightly, hoping the biscuit might have softened her.

“OK,” she shrugs. I’m about change topics when her eyes rest on my arm.

“How does that feel, Mia?” Dana stares at me. The sleeve of my blouse has rolled up, evidence of how deep I had put it into the biscuit can. A deep scar along my arm is obvious against my fair skin.

I roll my sleeve back down, “It’s from a fire. It hurt. But everything will be OK when you think it’s OK.”

Dana pauses and picks up another biscuit. In that instant, I know something has changed in the room and we might actually be OK.

At Phoenix Bikes, a bicycle shop, students are learning to repair bikes. Phoenix Bikes sells bikes to the public at their business in Arlington, Virginia. But it also teaches teenagers how to repair bikes.

Most students at Phoenix Bikes start in its after-school “earn-a-bike program”, at middle and high schools in and around Arlington County. Once a week over a 12-week period, students learn repair skills. They learn how to use tools, fix flat tires, correct the wheels, and change gears (齿轮). The first lesson includes splitting the bike, and by doing this, they learn all the parts of a bike.

In the first few weeks, they work in small groups to repair a bike given to the shop. The bikes often have missing or damaged parts. The finished bike is then given to a person in need from the community (社区). In the last four weeks of the program, students come to the shop to work on one of the given bikes which they can then take home at no cost.

Anthony is a student at nearby Wakefield High School. He just completed his bike. He said it was not in good shape at first but was the kind of bike he was looking for and could be made into something better. He said it had no light, no front tire, and was without a chain, which controls the gears. He said he joined the program to get better at working with his hands and fixing things.

Phoenix Bikes is teaching 300 to 400 young people this year. Phoenix communications coordinator Gage said the classes are fun and let students learn with their hands after sitting in the classroom all day at school. He added that bikes are interesting for teenagers especially because they are a means of transportation and freedom. Learning how to fix a bike can also be a fun challenge, he said.

After a terrible electrical accident, which caused him to become both blind and deaf, the whole world became completely dark and quiet for Robert Edwards for almost ten years. The loss of sight and hearing threw him into such sorrow(悲伤) that he tried a few times to put an end to his life. His family, especially his wife, did their best to tend and comfort him and finally he regained the will to live.

One hot summer afternoon, he was taking a walk with a stick near his house when a thunderstorm started all at once. He stood under a large tree to avoid getting wet, but he was struck by the lightning. Witnesses thought he was dead but he woke up some 20 minutes later lying face down in muddy water at the base of the tree. He was trembling badly, but when he opened his eyes, he could hardly believe what he saw — a plough and a wall. When Mrs. Edwards came running up to him, shouting to their neighbors to call for help, he could see her and hear her voice for the first time in nearly ten years.

The news of Robert regaining his sight and hearing quickly spread, and many doctors came to examine him. Most of them said that he regained his sight and hearing from the shock he got from the lightning. However, none of them could give a convincing answer as to why this should have happened. The only reasonable explanation given by one doctor was that, since Robert lost his sight and hearing as a result of sudden shock, perhaps, the only way for him to regain them was by another sudden shock.