questions aren’t tied down by convention or even…”

He smiled somberly and swiped his foot over the pile of sand he’d made.

“Questions are for smart people,” I said. “I don’t think that way.”

“It was never about being smart, Brandon. Some of the brightest geniuses in the human race go their whole lives without finding the most basic crumbs of wisdom; and it’s the simplest among us who find those crumbs and leave us all in the dust. The limits are different for us all, but the true solution stays the same. Now, do you believe that tomorrow can be better?”

Words failed to form sentences in my mind. His eyes stayed locked on mine, his revealing sincerity and a kind of compassion, as if he understood – as if he tried to understand my own position. I looked away to the pristine sand and crashing waves as I considered his last question, eventually realizing that, beyond the words I tried to form from the limits of the mind, one had already been on my heart. As I spoke it, I knew that I had answered honestly, that it had been the real Brandon Dauphin speaking from underneath the mask.

“Yes.”

The patrolman walked off silently, carrying my slampak off to be forgotten. I felt relief, not of a close-call, but of realizing that there hadn’t been cause to worry. It was better, I thought, that he didn’t ignore me.

I stole another glance at the light in the sky and began walking again.

“Limits.”

- -- -- - - -- -- - -- - - --- - --- --

As I returned to the floodlit site, I heard shouting and saw that someone was standing on top of the behemoth sandcastle: a teenager with long black hair and a chain around his neck, kicking and punching and screaming incomprehensibly as if he were having a mental breakdown. I stopped in fear when I noticed the crowd below cheering him on.

“What are they doing? Someone has to stop this, now!” I said out loud, my inner thoughts pouring