After dinner they sit and look up at the sky. There are even some stars. The eucalyptus leaves click together like plastic coins. It’s a warm evening, there’s a touch of Santa Ana wind blowing, even.

Hana suggests a walk up the canyon. They take the dinner materials inside, and then walk up the narrow, dark road.

“Do you know much about the Modjeskas?” Hana asks as they walk.

“A little. Helen Modjeska was a Polish actress. Her real name was something longer, and very Polish. She married a count, and their salon in Warsaw was very fashionable. The salon members got the idea of starting a utopia in southern California. This was in the 1870s. And they did it! The colony was down near Anaheim, which was also a utopian project started by a group of Germans. The Modjeskas’ thing fell apart when none of them wanted to do farm work, and the Modjeskas moved to San Francisco, where she took up acting again. She became very famous there, and the count was her business manager, and they did well. Then in the late 1880s they returned, and bought the place up here. They called it Arden.”

“As You Like It. What a nice idea.”

“Yeah. This time it was a life of leisure—no farming. They had vineyards and orange groves and flower gardens, and a big shady lawn, and a pond out front with swans in it. During the days they rode horses around their land, and in the evenings Helen gave readings from her various roles.”

“Very idyllic.”

“True. It seems unreal, now. Although it’s funny, up here I can imagine it happening. There’s this feeling of being completely cut off from the world.”

“I know. That’s one of the things I like best about living up here.”

“I believe it. It’s amazing you can get that feeling anywhere in OC.”

“Yeah, well, you should see Santiago Freeway at rush hour. Bumper to bumper.”

“Of course. But here, and now…”

She nods, touches his upper arm. “Here, follow this trail. This little side canyon is pretty long and deep, and there’s a way up to a lookout point over Riverside.”

They hike through trees, up a steep-sided narrow canyon, one without a road at its bottom. Hana leads the way. Jim can hardly believe it; they’re out in the bush! No condos! Can it be real?