When Cyphus looked up from his raking and saw the black park ranger with his Smokey the Bear hat and his park service flashlight hip-mounted, a little cockily, like a faux firearm, in his heart of hearts Cyphus thought, This will either be Attitude or Uncle Tom. He said to young Samuel, Just let me do the talking. Samuel said weren ’t they lucky they had not bought the shovel, just the rakes, and Cyphus said it had not been luck that they had not bought the shovel, that he had had the sixteen dollars for the shovel, that it was just Samuel’s deficit o /information concerning the location of their mutual father, more importantly, their mutual father’s wallet buried somewhere in these dunes. Cyphus asked, said furthermore , had Samuel ever shoveled sand before? and Samuel had said not really, and Cyphus explained, Sand just keeps filling itself in when you dig it, and when it’s wet, forget it.

Besides, having the rakes on the park preserve was bad enough, just let him do the talking.

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