As they came out of the woods past the trailer, they were surprised to see that someone had begun to rake the leaves in the backyard. Three large piles of leaves had been gathered into stacks between the trailer and the house. The ground was dark and raw where the leaves had been scraped away. The grass, never very abundant, seemed tortured by rake-teeth. The backyard had the appearance of a newly gleaned field. Their shoes stuck to the ground as they had not stuck to the leaves on the path through the woods.
As they came up beside the house and approached the storm door that led into their basement, they could see the bamboo lawn rake leaning up against the side of the porch at the front of the house, a few dead leaves impaled on the prongs. And just as they came to the storm door -- Tha
