Happy Isles
Lucas opened his eyes a few hours after
fainting in the Mariposa Grove. He was left lying in his family’s hammock next
to their tent that was already set up. He was surrounded by hundreds of
beautiful trees much skinnier than the Grizzly Giant.
The wind was blowing peacefully through
the trees making a very soothing sound.
Lucas felt like he was in heaven as he listened to the rushing of the
river in the distance.
Right when Lucas noticed the swaying of
the tall trees in the wind, his father John Henry came over, breaking him out
of his spell.
“Welcome back!” he said booming down at
Lucas from above. His deep voice was familiar and his smile was a welcoming
sight.
Lucas looked around the camp.
“What did I miss?” he asked.
John began pushing him in the hammock.
“You lucked out, you missed the fun of
setting up tents!” John replied.
Memories of the Grizzly tree were still
fresh in Lucas’s mind, especially his vision of Paul Bunyan.
“Paul Bunyan is here!” Lucas blurted out
nervously.
Lucy laughed as she peeked at Lucas and
John through a window in the tent.
“Lucas ate watermelon with Paul
Bunyan,” she teased.
“Did I talk in my sleep?” Lucas
asked.
“A little,” Lucy replied.
Lucy quickly zipped the tent window
closed and started to come out, while Lucas looked up at his perfect view of
the mountain everyone called 'Half Dome'.
Thinking of where Paul Bunyan might be,
Lucas noticed the size of the cliffs around him.
“This place has hundreds of places Paul
Bunyan could easily use to hide without anyone seeing him,” he explained.
“It’s nothing to worry about right now,”
John replied, giving the hammock another push.
“Can I have a turn on the hammock?” Lucy
asked.
Lucas carefully slipped out of the
hammock and held it for Lucy to climb in.
“Sure,” he replied.
Lucy climbed into the hammock as Tali
brought over a few folding chairs to sit and talk in.
Lucas was not wearing any shoes and felt
the pine needles poking through his socks into his feet.
“They are not very sharp,” he said
moving his toes around.
Before Lucas could go anywhere, John
wanted to make sure everything was clear about Paul Bunyan.
“Paul is my friend,” he told Lucas.
Lucas looked oddly at John.
“When was the last time you saw him?” he
asked.
“A few years before you were born!” John
replied.
“How long exactly?” asked Lucas.
John thought hard for an answer.
“It must have been around five years or
so before you were born, when he left for Ireland on a secret mission.”
“That sounds cool!” Lucas replied, still
a little doubtful.
Tali was holding the backpacks for their
trip to Happy Isles.
“I met him!” Tali added.
Lucy was beginning to feel a little left
out.
“Are you sure you saw Paul Bunyan?” Lucy
asked.
“Positive!” Lucas replied.
“I am confused,” she continued. “Dad is John Henry, I know that. Stronger and
taller than anyone I know, but that does not explain how a man can grow to be
two hundred feet tall.”
Tali felt Lucy needed a mother’s view on
the subject.
“You remember seeing how little
Lucas
was when he was born, right?” she asked.
Lucy remembered the picture of Lucas in
her birth mother's hand.
“Sure. I guess that’s right,” she
replied.
“Anything is possible,” Tali explained.
“Now let’s get going before they close the nature center.”
As soon as everything was closed and
locked up, they began walking towards the bus stop.
“Paul lives in a large cave several
miles above Muir Lake, near a glacier,” explained John.
“Why didn’t you tell us anything
before?” asked Lucy.
“We weren’t coming to see Paul,”
explained Tali. “Not until his giant ox, Babe, cracked the Hetch Hetchy dam.”
“When?” asked Lucy.
Even John was unaware of this.
“Yeah, when?” he asked.
“I was sent the video this morning,”
Tali explained. “It’s a good thing we were here right after it happened.”
“What happened?” asked John.
Tali shrugged her shoulders.
“That is a good question, maybe you can
help me find out,” she replied.
“How does he keep from being seen?” Lucy
asked. “I mean if he is two hundred feet tall?”
“He was seen for the first time this
morning,” Tali replied.
She pulled out her cell phone to show
them a blurry video of a large blue ox with its horn stuck in the dam. A very large man helped pull it free before
the video went fuzzy.
“This is Paul’s blue ox, Babe. He was
seen charging into the Hetch Hetchy dam yesterday,” Tali explained.
“It looks fake!” Lucy noticed.
“It’s not,” Tali explained. “The people
who recorded this video had their camera taken away by police right after it
was sent all over the internet.”
“So, what happens now?” Lucas asked.
“The government must protect Paul and
Babe,” she replied. “Just like they always have.”
“That’s good,” Lucas said.
“Not really,” John interrupted. “Lucas
and I need to meet Paul and discuss what needs to be done,” he explained.
“So far people might think it’s a hoax
like Bigfoot, but this video speaks for itself,” Tali explained.
The bus stop to Happy Isles was not very
far, but as soon as a bus arrived it was full of passengers, sitting and standing
all the way to the front. With no room to even squeeze inside.
“I guess we are walking,” Tali said
happily.
“How far?” asked Lucas, worried he still
might not have the energy.
“Only about half a mile,” Tali replied.
Lucas was bummed about walking.
“I can’t believe how many people come to
Yosemite!” he complained.
“You are just tired,” John explained as
he lifted Lucas up on his shoulders. “Just a little more walking today, then we
will be back to rest in camp.”
Lucy did not mind, she just smiled and
continued looking for wild animals.
The nature center was not crowded at
all, and it felt strange after seeing a bus full of people going this way.
“Where did everyone go?” asked Lucas.
Another person interrupted from behind
them.
“Most people skip the Nature Center and
just go on hikes up the mist trail to see Vernal Falls,” she said cheerfully.
Tali smiled recognizing her dear friend
Pamahas. A very well dressed Ranger with Ranger clothes that were spotless. She
had beautiful long black hair braided under a large Ranger hat.
“Hi Pamahas,” Tali said turning to give
her a hug.
“Nice to see you, dear friend,” Ranger
Pamahas replied.
Ranger Pamahas went over to the kids who
were waiting patiently.
“You must be Lucy,” she said looking
down at Lucas.
“I’m not a girl.” he replied irritably.
Everyone laughed until even Lucas did
when he realized it was a joke.
“I know,” Ranger Pamahas replied. “Just
making sure you were paying attention before we go out into the woods.”
“I always pay attention,” Lucas said
standing straight up, looking around for anything he could use to prove it.
“I believe you,” she replied.
Lucy stood in front of Ranger Pamahas to
get her attention.
“I am Lucy,” she explained.
Ranger Pamahas took her hat off to get a
better look.
“What a beautiful girl you are,” she
replied. “Why don’t you two call me Ranger Pam.”
“That’s much easier,” Lucas replied.
“I rather say Pamahas, it’s a pretty
name,” Lucy explained. “Where does it come from?”
Ranger Pam smiled.
“It comes from right here!” she said
pointing to the ground.
Lucas looked for something special she
might have been pointing at.
“I don’t see anything,” he said
scratching his head.
“My name is American,” she explained
happily.
“What’s is your name again?” asked
Lucas, thinking he heard her name wrong.
“Pam-a-has,” Ranger Pam repeated.
“It doesn’t sound American to me,” Lucas
replied.
Lucy began to understand.
“She means America before it was even
America,” Lucy explained.
Ranger Pam reached out and gave her a
big hug.
“That’s right,” she said, making Lucy
feel important.
“Do you live here in Yosemite?” asked
Lucas.
“I sure do!” Ranger Pam replied.
Lucas smiled feeling a little jealous.
“You are so lucky. I have never seen any
place like Yosemite before,” he said.
“It’s because there is no place like
Yosemite,” she replied. “Every National Park is unique and each has a reason to
need our protection.”
Tali had something to tell Ranger Pam,
so she carefully interrupted.
“Why don’t you guys go and pick up a
Junior Ranger handbook while we have a talk with Ranger Pam for a minute,” Tali
suggested.
Lucas took Lucy by the hand and started
walking around the nature center. They saw many animals that looked real, even
stuffed. The kind of animals that lived-in
Yosemite.
A little farther away they found a real
bear that was dead and stuffed, hanging from the branch of a fake tree inside
the building.
Under it was a car door and a television
showing a video of the bear when it was alive, breaking the window of a car.
“This is a door like the one in the
video,” Lucas said pointing to the door under the bear.
The door had no window and was damaged
and bent, just like the door seen in the video.
“How sad!” Lucy said almost crying.
“The bear looks like it’s still alive,”
replied Lucas. “It’s so small.”
John came over noticing a tear in Lucy’s
eye.
“Time to go outside to visit the fen,”
he said cheerfully, trying to avoid any tears.
“What’s a fen?” asked Lucas.
“The fen is a small patch of wetlands
here in Yosemite. It is a place bears
love to visit so we need to keep an eye out and be safe,” John explained.
“Maybe we will see this bear's family?”
Lucas replied. “I want to see a live bear!”
Lucy was still feeling sad.
As they all walked towards the fen,
Ranger Pam noticed Lucy’s sadness.
“My grandmother’s name was Lucy,” Ranger
Pam told her.
“It was?” Lucy asked, finally smiling
back at her.
Lucy took Ranger Pam by the hand.
“It was her second name given by the
government,” Ranger Pam explained. “She was called Pamahas like me before she
was Lucy.”
“I like Pamahas better,” Lucy said. “I
wonder if I can change my name to Pamahas.”
Ranger Pam pulled Lucy and Lucas aside
for a minute, in order to explain something very important.
“Pamahas means meadow, and as a Native
American, the name is part of my heritage. It’s who I am, so never be ashamed
of your name, or who you are. Both of your names have an even bigger meaning
than you could ever imagine,” she explained.
“Like What?” asked Lucy.
“Your names mean Light or Light Giving.
My grandmother taught me that,” Ranger Pam explained.
Lucy was pleased with her name for the
first time in her life. She always felt
it was a little boring.
“I’m glad that I am Lucy,” she told
Ranger Pam.
“Do you have a last name?” she asked.
Ranger Pam smiled.
“I was an orphan like you two were
before John and Talitha adopted you, only no one adopted me. I’m afraid that I don’t have a last name to
call my own until I am married, or legally take the name of my Grandmother,”
she explained.
“You don’t need one,” Lucy replied.
“Pamahas is better than any first or last name.”
“I think you’re right,” Ranger Pam
replied.
Lucas looked around
the fen as
they
began
to cross a wooden path over water. The amazing bugs and birds made him more
excited than ever. He watched a bug flying right in front of him moving its
wings a million miles an hour, and it did not move. It would lurch back and
forth in a perfect line.
“That’s amazing!” he whispered to
himself.
He thought of touching before Ranger Pam
took him by the hand leading him deeper into the fen.
“Let’s get working on earning those Junior
Ranger badges,” she said joyfully.
“Great idea!” Lucy replied.
