there were quarter-mile grey dirigibles humming transatlantic routes across grey transoceanic skies to and from grey photographic skylines ; there were champagne corks popping in tall business-dealing offices ; there were farmers turning soil and driving home-modified model ts across brown acres , proud odd time-saving home-welded metal arms clawing dust inventively and effectively while horses and mules watched and twitched their ears ; there were crystal radio antennas attached to window screens in a farm boys stuffy boxy upstairs room in summertime , with cicadae hatching and humming in the acacia in the yawning purple-then-black world outside , and his younger brothers already out like a light and snoring , but this boy at 13 or 14 is just beginning to realize that out there somewhere in the sweetening and cooling darkness is something precious he is missing , something his heart has a hole in it for , something he is yearning to find .