Leaving the Valley

Tomas was on duty again. He found Polly at the visitor centre kiosk just after sunrise. He had a fresh Thermos of coffee. He set it on a bench and sat down next to it.

Tomas var på vagt igen. Han fandt Polly ved besøgscenterets kiosk lige efter solopgang. Han havde en frisk termokande med kaffe. Han satte den på en bænk og satte sig ved siden af.

They did not say much for a while. Polly preened her wing feathers. The morning was cool and smelled of the river.

De sagde ikke meget til hinanden i et stykke tid. Polly plejede sine vingefjer. Morgenen var kølig og duftede af floden.

"I imagine you're moving on," Tomas said eventually.

"Jeg forestiller mig, at du er på vej videre," sagde Tomas til sidst.

Polly tilted her red head. He nodded slowly.

Polly vippede sit røde hoved. Han nikkede langsomt.

He told her about the rest of the park, the parts she had not been to. The high country off Tioga Road, with its lakes and bare granite domes. Hetch Hetchy, the other valley to the north, dammed and turned into a reservoir more than a hundred years ago, still beautiful, still mostly empty. The grove of redwoods up in Tuolumne Meadows. He spoke of these places with the calm pride of someone who had spent fourteen years getting to know one stretch of mountains.

Han fortalte hende om resten af parken, de dele hun ikke havde set. Det høje land ved Tioga Road, med sine søer og nøgne granitkupler. Hetch Hetchy, den anden dal mod nord, opdæmmet og forvandlet til et reservoir for mere end hundrede år siden, stadig smuk, stadig for det meste tom. Lunden af redwoods oppe i Tuolumne Meadows. Han talte om disse steder med den rolige stolthed hos en, der havde brugt fjorten år på at lære et stykke bjerge at kende.

"This place doesn't really show you everything," he said. "Even if you live here. You catch pieces. The peregrines, the lilies, the Milky Way on Wednesday but not on Thursday. People come for three days and think they saw it. They saw a postcard." He sipped his coffee. "Better to see one piece all the way through, I think. The peregrines I told you about? Fourteen years and I still don't know what they're going to do tomorrow."

"Dette sted viser dig ikke rigtig alt," sagde han. "Selv hvis du bor her. Du fanger brudstykker. Vandrefalke, liljer, Mælkevejen onsdag men ikke torsdag. Folk kommer i tre dage og tror, de har set det hele. De har set et postkort." Han tog en slurk af sin kaffe. "Det er bedre at se ét stykke helt igennem, tror jeg. De vandrefalke, jeg fortalte dig om? Fjorten år, og jeg ved stadig ikke, hvad de vil gøre i morgen."

Polly thought about her dives off the El Capitan ledge. She had not landed cleanly once. She had also gotten less bad at it each time. She thought she could keep getting less bad for a lifetime.

Polly tænkte på sine dyk fra El Capitan-afsatsen. Hun havde ikke landet rent én gang. Hun var også blevet mindre dårlig til det hver gang. Hun tænkte, at hun kunne blive ved med at blive mindre dårlig hele livet.

A shuttle bus pulled in. The same green bus. The same driver. The driver waved at Tomas as she opened the door. Tomas waved back.

En shuttlebus kørte ind. Den samme grønne bus. Den samme chauffør. Chaufføren vinkede til Tomas, da hun åbnede døren. Tomas vinkede tilbage.

"Off you go," he said. He stood up. He had not finished his coffee.

"Afsted med dig," sagde han. Han rejste sig. Han havde ikke drukket sin kaffe færdig.

Polly stretched her blue-teal wings. The shuttle door was still open. She could smell the warming pine of the morning forest and the faint diesel of the bus and the river beyond.

Polly strakte sine blågrønne vinger. Shuttle-døren var stadig åben. Hun kunne lugte den opvarmende fyrreskovs morgenluft og den svage diesel fra bussen og floden derude.

She lifted off from the bench railing, circled once over the visitor centre, and climbed. The valley dropped away. El Capitan stood on the left. Half Dome on the right. The Merced ran the floor.

Hun lettede fra bænkerælingen, kredsede en gang over besøgscentret og steg op. Dalen faldt bort. El Capitan stod til venstre. Half Dome til højre. Merced flød gennem dalbunden.

At the rim, she banked west. Below her, a peregrine was hunting a small flock of swifts along the cliff face. Polly watched it for half a minute. Then she found the wind she wanted and let it carry her out of the park.

Ved kanten drejede hun mod vest. Under hende jagtede en vandrefalk en lille flok mursejlere langs klippevæggen. Polly betragtede den i et halvt minut. Så fandt hun den vind, hun ønskede, og lod den bære hende ud af parken.

Behind her, Tomas was already moving on toward the meadow. He had a clipboard out. There would be corn lilies to mark today, and tomorrow, and next year.

Bag hende var Tomas allerede på vej videre mod engen. Han havde en clipboard fremme. Der ville være kornliljer at markere i dag, og i morgen, og næste år.