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OUT OF FOCUS: For Tim Alley, 28, picking out the threads of his life is an elusive task. He visibly strains to remember what things were like before June 25, the day he fell 12 feet from a roof at a construction site. In addition to several broken bones and a collapsed lung, he suffered a concussion that left him with a brain injury that impairs his memory, he said.

"I'm still kind of scrambled," he said. "I have brain lapses."

Maybe times were always tough -- he remembers standing in line for help at the Salvation Army. Maybe they weren't -- he also remembers sharing a home with a friend. He does know his life has changed -- and not for the good -- possibly forever.

WORKING: Alley was born in Roanoke and graduated from William Fleming High School in 1997. He knows he got his first job at 16 working for a pizza restaurant. He also remembers where he worked after graduation -- his aunt got him a position at the now-closed Halmode Apparel factory. Much of everything else is a blur.

"I've had quite a few jobs," he said.

THE MONKEY: Alley remembers being a regular at Roanoke Area Ministries' day labor program. He often showed up hours before the charity opened to make sure he was one of the ones picked to go out to work.

"You never know what you're going to get," he said about the jobs.

On the day he was injured, a friend told him about a job demolishing a gas station. So instead of going to RAM, he went along to the job site.

"I've always been a monkey," he said. "I liked to climb things just to do it." So when the foreman asked for volunteers to go on the roof, Alley said he raised his hand.

"It was the first time I'd done that kind of roofing," he said. "I didn't know what I was getting into. I didn't know I needed to be tied down."

He also didn't know that the day before, other work crews had removed some of the roof supports along with the shingles, he said. It also had been raining, and the roof was slick, he said.

"One minute, I was hammering on a board," he said, "and the next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital."

STILL RECOVERING: Alley was released from the hospital in July after spending a month recovering. He has lived at the Roanoke Rescue Mission and with friends since then, spending his days at RAM's shelter. Because he is indigent, Alley expects most of his medical treatment will be free.

"I filled out so many papers for charity care," he said.

His medications are another matter.

After his release from the hospital, he was given prescriptions for a painkiller and an attention-deficit disorder drug that is supposed to help him concentrate.

But because Alley's entire income consists of $74 a month from Roanoke's General Relief program, filling the prescriptions himself was out of the question.

Caseworkers at RAM sent him to the charity's Emergency Financial Assistance Program. The program -- which is supported by The Roanoke Times' Good Neighbors Fund -- provided a grant toward the medications.

"They're nice to me here," Alley said, his voice choking with emotion as he paused to wipe his eyes. "It gives me faith to know there are people like that in the world. I guess they see the best in me."

LOOKING FOR JUSTICE: Among the things Alley can't remember is the name of the man who hired him. He has consulted a lawyer about filing a lawsuit but was told he had little chance of winning.

By October, Alley was mentally, if not physically, ready to go back to work.

"If I had my choice, I'd rather work," he said. The shelter managers, who approve workers for the day labor program, let him go out on easy jobs just so he'll have a little spending money, but won't let him return to heavy work until he's completely healed, he said.

That's fine with Alley. "My feet will never leave the ground again."