Kenji Nobu looked at the line of motorcycles parked in front of the low road-side bar, and pointed out the police car at the end to Rosa, marked “Morongo Valley Police Department”, saying, “I see that Jebediah Haught is here tonight. I will do all the talking, and if anyone asks, you are a visiting relative from Japan. This lot won’t be able to know any different if you just stay calm and nod.”

Rosa Jardine bowed her head slowly, looking down and then burst out laughing. “I look ridiculous in this outfit! How am I going to keep a straight face through all this?” she giggled, spreading out her arms in the yukata she was wearing, at the same time making the print of the crane with outstretched wings on the cloth robe appear to prepare to take flight. A couple strands of long dark hair slipped out of the comb and pin holding her hair up on her head, and framed her face on each side.

Kenji caught his breath for a second, looking at Rosa in the flickering neon lights of the road-side bar spelling out “Morongo Desert Bar & Grill”. He said to Rosa, “You’ll do fine, but don’t forget this is a pretty rough crowd, so stick close to me and try not to bring too much attention to yourself.” Kenji pulled back his brown robe to reveal the handle of the sword concealed underneath in its sheath. “I hope Hanyo Soon is here tonight. You won’t miss his business partner and co-pilot, trust me.”

“OK, but it’s going to be hard to blend in wearing this get up,” Rosa grumbled. She waved to Theo and Arfie in the silver Datsun 280Z parked just out of sight, and Theo waved back. Rosa gestured at Theo to duck down, and Theo dutifully did so, pulling the white Husky with black and grey markings using using the dog’s blue and silver collar. “OK, let’s do this,” Rosa said, making her face expressionless and folding her arms into the wide sleeves of the the light blue yukata with silver stars, and making the print of the crane appear to cross its wings.

Kenji pushed open the door to the bar and held it for Rosa to pass through ahead of him. They were immediately hit by a cloud of cigar and cigarette smoke, with the sour smell of spilled beer and sweat mixed with the sweet odour of weed. Rosa stifled a cough, and scanned the room from the corners of her eyes as she looked down at that stained and worn carpet. She could see all shapes and sizes of characters, all with hardened faces and dead eyes, numbed by the booze and dope. The noise was deafening, with a rock band playing in the corner of the bar, and the patrons shouting and laughing loudly. Rosa forced herself to breath again, and looked over at Kenji, who was scanning the room and heading purposefully to the bar.

On the way to the bar, they passed a hugely obese, sweating man sitting at a table in the center of the room, facing the band. He was biting onto a cigar and surrounded by several young men in light-grey uniforms. He was roaring with laughter, shouting, “You gotta see Stumpy tonight! I’ll get her out, and she’ll give you a show you won’t forget! HAR, HAR!” He took his sheriff’s hat off and removed his badge, dropping it into his hat. “Let Jeremiah Haught show you boys a real good time! Bring us a round of drinks now!” he shouted at the bartender.

Rosa followed Kenji to the bar, and stood next to him as he asked the bartender a question, who nodded towards one of the booths near the back of the room. Rosa felt a hand roughly on her arm, jerking her to face an leering man with a scarred face and a red bandanna tied back and covering his head.

“Yer a preddy liddle thing,” he slurred, trying to pull her close to him. “Where are you from? China?”

Rosa tried to pull away, grimacing under the reek of the strange man’s putrid breath. She stayed silent, and looked over to Kenji for help. “You needn’t trouble this little one,” he said calmly. “Come, let me buy you a drink.” As Kenji spoke, another man with a red bandanna came up next to the man holding onto Rosa’s arm.

Both men ignored Kenji, and the one holding her rolled Rosa into his arm, trying to drag her to one of the private rooms at the end of the room, “Come with me, liddle China doll. Lemme show you shome American hoshpi-, hoshpital.. ity!” Rosa resisted him with all her strength, and spun herself out of his grasp, grabbing the pin in her hair and stabbing his hand with it. The man roared in anger, letting go of Rosa. His friend pulled out a gun, about to point it at her. In a flash, Kenji had his sword out and about to slash down on the arm of the gun-weilding man, when he was interrupted by the loud bang of Sheriff Haught’s gun firing into the ceiling of bar. The band stopped playing and everyone turned to look at Kenji and Rosa.

“No guns on my watch!” Jebediah shouted at them, pinning his badge back onto his shirt, and pointing his gun at them while chewing on his cigar. The young men at his table bounded up to the bar and pulled aside the bandanna-wearing men. “Or swords, for that matter,” Sheriff Haught sneered at Kenji. The light-grey uniformed men tried to restrain Kenji, but he put his hand up in surrender and sheathed his sword onto his belt again. Everyone in the bar turned back to their drinks and conversations, and the band started playing again. Jebediah put away his gun, but left his badge on. “Where are those drinks? And start the show, already!”

Rosa put the pin back into the comb holding up her hair, and was led away to by Kenji to one of the booths at the back. In the booth was a young, handsome native-American man, leaning back with his feet up on the table. He was wearing cowboy boots and form-fitting jeans and a white t-shirt under a leather jacket. On seeing Rosa, he took off his hat to reveal shoulder-length, shiny black hair parted in the middle. Kenji was about to introduce him when he stood up and reached his hand over to Rosa, saying, “I’m Hanyo Soon. And this is my co-pilot, Skoaler.” Rosa felt someone standing behind them and jumped on seeing a tall, solid man looking down on her, wearing a beaded cowboy hat with long black hair flowing out. The tall man held out his hand to Rosa, easily double in size to her hand, and bowed down to her, making her blush a bit.

Kenji and Rosa joined Hanyo in the booth, and Skoaler sat silently at the end of the table in a chair that he easily dwarfed, his knees almost touching the table top from underneath. “So tell me more about why you need our help?” he asked Kenji, grinning at Rosa with straight, white teeth and leaning back again in his seat. 

Kenji said calmly and seriously to Hanyo, “We need to get to Ojai as soon as possible… undetected. And we’re prepared to pay whatever you want to charge us to get us without any Presidential intervention.”

*** This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. ***