The story is about a young man who is put into community service. He goes to the beach every night to find sea turtle nests and put grates on them to protect the little turtle eggs from raccoons. His dreams of going to New York to intern are shattered by these turns of events. Every night, he is assisted by a man named John, a man who seems to have a very happy-go-lucky attitude towards his job. Our narrator isn’t too happy but has no real choice but to grin and bear it. One night, the two of them find a treasure chest full of gold but as they are carrying it back, John reveals it is just lead painted gold. The boy laments as he takes a couple of lemon drops.
I really liked the voice in this piece. I loved the sarcastic nature of the narrator and the way he believed there to be only two types of faces in the world. I really liked the line comparing Cairo and Cape Canaveral, as well as the part talking about the mosquitoes (I found it a bit humorous). I also appreciate how the “treasure” at the end turned out to be nothing more than a practical joke.
A couple of things stuck out to me. There were a couple of tense issues that confused me a bit. I really didn’t see the conflict nor a real resolve to the story. The narrator never really seemed to change, he only seemed to be going through the motions as he counted down the days to his freedom. The only real point of conflict seems to be at the end with the treasure and that does little to change the young man.
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