As they ate the rest of their lunch, the day started heating up. Gary loved how the shimmer of heat took up the whole horizon like a vast lake. He loved how the trees on the farmsteads looked like islands hovering over the water. Whenever he’d pointed out those islands as a child, and asked his mother what they were, she’d always said, ‘That’s the happy lands.’ They were out there, oh yes, the Happy Lands were out there today.
