Excerpt: Eviction

After we check in at the Ahwahnee and clean up a bit, the four of us venture down to the patio — adjacent to the bar — to order a light sandwichy supper and have a beer. I figured that tomorrow evening, after the climb, would be the time to feast on a gourmet meal, in the cavernous dining room. We were all determined to go to sleep early tonight, and get on the trail before 6 a.m.

Well fueled, we stroll over to the Giant redwood at the edge of the lawn. We hold hands, closed our eyes, and prayed privately for our dead mothers and grandmothers: I liked to think that my mother’s ashes had been nourishing this tree for the last few years.

After a brief, but very sweet, time on the lawn, all four of us walk back into the historic lounge, just off the lobby.

Thea asked me to stay with her downstairs. Even though it is still light outside, fires were lit in the massive double-sided fireplace; there was plenty of room for us to relax in one of the plush, rust-colored couches. The lounge is luminous with its open beamed high ceilings and stained glass windows that frame Ahwahnee meadow. It is nearly dusk and a few mule deer unhurriedly graze nearby.

The chandeliers have a rustic elegance, but are almost superfluous as the soft evening light fills the generous windows. The room is auspicious and welcoming: native motif rugs, sculpture and photographs contrasted with elegant chinoiserie lamps and the sheen of a wood century-old wood floor.

We settle in on a couch near the fireplace. Thea pulls the new book out of her Coach handbag. It’s title is The Yosemite Journal and it is clearly a reproduction of an old-style newsletter magazine.

“I am drawn to this book,” she says,” the Yosemite Association published it from a journal this woman, Mrs. J.E. Holm, kept in the early twentieth century. It is just riveting and I thought you might be interested.”

“I’m kind of distracted, and worried, about this big hike tomorrow.”

“From what I can tell, its a story of an odd friendship between a Swedish housewife and this grizzled, old Yosemite Native woman. It’s like turning back the clock to when people were just discovering the park.”

“Ok, I read some of the history in the museum.”

“But its better than that, its about these women, their connection.”

And Thea proceeds to read from The Yosemite Journal, by Mrs. J.E. Holm, published in 1920....