Zack studied his father. His throat went dry. He could converse like a normal human being with Bob, but not with his father. He reached for his iced tea and emptied the glass. That was better. “I honestly don’t know, Dad. I got a bachelor’s degree in history by correspondence from an accredited university in Illinois. But you need a master’s to teach. I was going to continue, had a program lined up, but that went by the boards when I met Sanjay, Sarina’s brother.” Whew! That wasn’t so hard now, was it?

“Where did you meet Sanjay?” Bob asked.

“Believe it or not, at a base camp in the Himalayas. We climbed a ways up that mountain. I can’t even remember its name. We climbed with a Dane, a German, two Frenchmen, and our guide, an amazing fellow, fluent in all but Danish. Luckily the Dane spoke French. Sanjay and I shared English but with different pronunciations. He’d been educated in England.” Zack laughed. “That, and the fact that we were the least experienced members of the group. Anyway, he and I never did make it even halfway up. He invited me to meet his family and his in-laws when and if I got to India.”

“And of course you got to India,” Max said.

Zack directed his reply to Bob. “Why not? I liked Sanjay. I hadn’t visited northern India, which is near Nepal and lush and beautiful. The rest is history.” He turned his gaze to the window, to several men followed by caddies dragging golf bags down the steps of the club, headed for golf carts. The golfers piled into carts and drove toward the first tee. The caddies walked. Zack shook his head. “Golf. I just don’t get.”

Max was impressed that his son had had the fortitude to study and obtain a degree. As he listened to Zachary, Hannah’s idea seemed more feasible, a long shot maybe, but he decided to chance it.

“Zack, we haven’t a clue what’s up on those seven hundred acres behind Bella’s Park. We’re working the bottom twenty or so acres, but the rest, well, who knows? Would you be interested in going on up there and sort of informally mapping its assets and liabilities? I’d like to know if there’s water. Are there flat areas for pasture? How much timber have we got in that old growth? How steep’s the terrain? Are there caves or waterfalls?”

Zack considered this. Seven hundred acres. All he’d need was twenty. Surely he could convince his father to part with a mere twenty acres of his precious land. He’d be somewhat the hero, returning with a report of timber stands, and who knew what else. He looked at Max. “I could do that. That’s a lot of land not to know what’s there and how you might use it.”