DAVID SEDARIS

took off over the lake. Inside the restaurant, our first
courses had arrived, and I watched through the window
as Hugh and Pat considered their plates. I should have
gone inside right then, but I needed another minute to
take it all in, and acknowledge, if only to myself, that
I really did have it made. A storybook town on the far
side of the world, enough in my pocket to shout
a fancy lunch, and the sound of that bird in the distant
trees, laughing. Laughing.
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