After my dad ran off with a bank teller with great teeth, my mom and I moved in with her boyfriend, Ronny. I was fifteen and needed a job, so I applied for a position at Marvel Sands State Beach, and I was hired. During the day I sat in a booth at the entrance of the parking lot and sold tickets. I liked it out there, especially in the morning when fog curled around the booth.
I picked up trash in the parking lot before the cars came. I strolled along the hedges that divided the lot from the marsh. I pinched cigarette butts and straws and plastic cups with long metal pickers and dropped them into the black trash bag I dragged behind me. I always stopped to smell the beach roses. Once in a while a bee would be sitting in the yellow center of one like a pearl.
