Small Steps

Theodore Johnson got the nickname “Armpit” after a scorpion stung him while he was at Camp Green Lake Juvenile Correctional Facility. He complained so much about the pain in his armpit that the name stuck. Because of a fight in a movie theater over spilled popcorn, Armpit served 14 months at Camp Green Lake where he dug holes in a dry lakebed. Following a six-month stay at a halfway house after his release from Camp Green Lake, Armpit is back in his hometown, Austin, digging trenches for Raincreek Irrigation and Landscaping. Armpit is landscaping at a house in Austin when Cherry Lane, the homeowner and Austin’s mayor, approaches him. She tells Armpit that she knows about the terrible things that happened at Camp Green Lake and that she admires his perseverance and determination to “turn [his] life around” (3). Armpit shakes the elderly mayor’s hand and smiles as he watches her briefly dance to a song by Kaira DeLeon playing on the radio as she walks away.

Armpit’s friend X-Ray pulls up at the mayor’s house in his old car and shouts for “Armpit,” a nickname that Armpit has not shared with his work crew.