A Beginner's Guide to the American West ✓

chapter twenty-nine

t w e n t y - n i n e

*

At six o'clock this morning, everyone but Young-mi and I headed off to do the Yosemite Point hike. I was still half-asleep when Arjun left, and I can only vaguely recall him telling me that he'll be gone for a while but he'll let me know when he's back.

I slept in for another three hours after that, waking for a second time when Young-mi crawled into my tent and I freaked out, thinking she was a bear. Once she assured me she wasn't there to kill me, and once I covered up, we pored over the hike guide. Apparently the Yosemite Point hike is a ten mile round trip, the guide warning that it will take at least six or seven hours.

We laughed that off and hopped on the shuttle to take us to stop number six, for the Lower Yosemite Falls trailhead. While everyone else is torturing themselves climbing up more than three thousand feet to the top of the falls, Young-mi and I will reach an elevation of about fifty feet on a thirty-minute hike. It's not even a hike: we're doing a trail, one of the easiest routes in the whole park.

We want to be able to enjoy our time here, rather than die on any of the routes Arjun was looking at. All of the ones he pondered were hours long, nothing easier than a level described as difficult, and the one he and everyone else agreed on is, according to the map in my hand, very strenuous.

"I have good feeling about today," Young-mi says as we hop off the shuttle. For some reason, despite it being the height of summer, the park is relatively quiet today. Maybe everyone else got up super early to start on the tedious hikes, or maybe they know better than to come to Yosemite in August.

"What kind of good feeling?" I ask, checking we're heading in the right direction. Judging by the people ahead of us – a small group of grey-haired elderlies – I think we're on the right track.

"Like good things will happen," she says. "This is such beautiful place, like a dream." She undoes her ponytail and ties her hair up higher and tighter, wrapping it around itself into a bun that she secures with a scrunchie from around her wrist.

"It's pretty freaking amazing," I say. "I don't think I've ever seen such a blue sky."

"So blue. So clear. Where are the clouds?"

They're nowhere to be seen. The sky is clear and such a strong, uniform shade of blue that I could almost be in an animation. The lush, leafy trees are stark green against cornflower blue, a clash of bright summer colours. Every now and then, the trees part to reveal the powerful yellow of the sun, beating down on us with over thirty degrees. We're both wearing plenty of factor fifty suncream, but I'm sure I'm going to burn today.

We follow behind the old folks, not so fast that we'll end up awkwardly overtaking them. It's quite nice to have my pace dictated by a bunch of geriatrics for once, rather than the rest of the group, who seem to be sport junkies.

"I think," I say slowly, working my tongue around my words as I figure them out, "today might be the day."

"What day?" she asks, followed by a loud gasp that alerts the oldies to our presence. A couple turn around as though a shot's been fired, but they're faced with nothing more than Young-mi's excited realisation. "The day? For you and Arjun?"

"I want to just ... go for it. I don't think I can take it any longer if we just flirt and don't actually do or say anything." I hook one thumb under the strap of my backpack, weighted down with enough water to see us through the day.

"March! That's so exciting!" She grabs my elbow, grinning like a kid on a sugar high. "What you want to do?"

I shrug, even though I know exactly what I want to do, and her wide-eyed stare is enough to get it out of me. "I just ... I want to kiss him. I just want to, I don't know, go for it. I'm too awkward to say anything, god knows what I'd say. I really want to kiss him."