Good Kings Bad Kings

Joanne Madsen is a data-entry worker at the “Illinois Learning and Life Skills Center, or ILLC” (11). All of the patients there struggle with discipline and have a disability. Having been in a severe bus accident, Joanne is quadriplegic in a wheelchair. She receives significant financial compensation from the Chicago Transit Authority but struggles to be physically independent. That said, she has come to terms with her situation, and she uses her good sense of humor to get ahead. She doesn’t need money but decides to work full-time in order to interact with others, knowing that she will be hired because of her disability:

People will see me coming through the door, wheelchair awhir, and momentarily freeze. Then they will marshal their resources and nervously reach out to shake my gimpy hand and smile enthusiastically while they mentally feed my résumé to the shredder (11).

Having only worked at ILLC for a week, she documents the reports on each adolescent and develops a few favorites, including Mia—a Mexican girl who isn’t allowed a power chair and must sit in the same spot each day—and Mia’s boyfriend, Teddy—a blonde-haired jokester who wears a suit every day. Because Joanne lives in the North Side of Chicago and has inherited wealth, she feels empathy for the young people in ILLC, who face neglect and abuse. Though unstimulated by her actual duties, Joanne finds joy and purpose in being around the young “crips” (11).

Ricky Hernandez, a good-looking and gentle Puerto Rican man, helps the ILLC patients in various capacities. In Mrs. Schmidt’s classroom, Ricky escorts a misbehaving student, Pierre, to the “time out room” and asks how the boy is doing; the young man responds by telling him “fuck you” (18). Ricky is accustomed to this behavior and explains that many kids have it rough at ILLC. He reveals that he had a disabled aunt who prepared him for his current role as a bus driver and security guard. He recalls his childhood in his Puerto Rican family; he never wants to be as physical and angry as his parents.

While waiting with Pierre in the time out room, he tries talking to him. Ricky wants to treat the kids respectfully and finds them to be “pretty cool” (23), despite their disruptions and disabilities. When Pierre throws up a crayon he ate in class, Ricky shows the student compassion and knows the boy is hungry, so he allows him to get lunch and return to his class.

Michelle Volkmann is a recruiter for Whitney-Palm Health Solutions—a privately-owned company that runs ILLC. Previously, ILLC was state-run, but after the state “made a mess of it” (25), WP Health Solutions became involved to help make a profit. She loves her role, and believes she will join the management team soon, since she is taking classes with the company. She is originally from Indiana, and her family thinks Chicago is full of criminals, so they never visit her.

Michelle makes $300 per patient, and she often searches until 8pm to find someone new to get the “beds filled” at ILLC (25). She is currently out looking for patients by searching the homeless shelters, and she thinks she has found an ideal candidate from afar, but when she approaches the woman, the woman tells Michelle off because she had already asked that same woman a few weeks ago, and she had refused. Then, she sees a black 14-15-year-old girl limp out of the building. Michelle speaks with the young woman and learns about the girl’s difficult life and how she was kicked out of her house two days ago. The teen is naive and trusting, so Michelle tries to sell her on the nursing home and imagines how she can spend her money if her recruitment is successful.