That Woman from Arbutustvscribe20192024-03-02T16:25:45+00:00
The Woman from Arbutus – Book Description
Ama Bazan, a black Cuban refugee, turned U.S. citizen, has owned and operated a popular athletic club for forty years in Arbutus, Maryland, a suburb southwest of Baltimore. But Ama’s recent tough financial times that have caused her, for the first time ever, to be late on her monthly rent. The realty company that owns the athletic club’s twenty acres of athletic fields and Ama’s hugely popular gymnasium has activated a clause in her lease that allows them to evict any lessee who fails to pay rent fully and on time. The eviction is not without a purpose. The realty company intends to build a casino, bar, and restaurant on Ama’s valuable property. Ama is given five months to vacate the property and abandon her club that has kept hundreds of local youths off the streets and bettering themselves under her excellent tutelage. She is left to find a way to buy the athletic club or build a new one elsewhere, but that will take at least a million dollars or more to accomplish.
Ama has a powerful talent. She was a multi-time amateur golf champion in her youth and has a wall full of trophies to prove it. She decides to try out for the U.S. Women’s Open Golf Championship to be held in Stuart, Florida well before her eviction will take place. If she can resurrect her old golf game she could earn enough money to build and maintain an athletic club for her kids. She is a strong, youthful gay woman who works out every day, has never partnered romantically with anyone because of her dedication to the children who have flocked to her athletic club, but there is a single drawback that could affect her ambitions to play in the Women’s Open Tournament: she is 70 years old. But Ama Bazan soon discovers that her age becomes a tremendous advantage. Would anyone believe a 70-year-old woman has qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open Golf Championship? The cameras on the event would be melting from overuse. It’s a scenario the sportscasters and TV advertisers dream about.
