Rosa Jardine slumbered deeply and peacefully, occaisonally jostled in her seat in middle of the passenger cabin of the DHC-6-200 Twin Otter aircraft by the updrafts of warm air from the desert valley floor far below them. Bright mid-day sun streamed through the yellowed and scratched windows, lighting up all the occupants inside. Rosa’s long dark hair tumbled around her head and down her shoulders, cascading over the print of the crane on her yukata. She had her arms wrapped around her chest, as if hugging herself, making the yukata design look like the bird depicted on it was sleeping, it’s wings wrapped around it’s long, slender beak and head.

Sitting beside her and looking intently out the cracked window was Kenji Nobu, alternatingly pulling on his white beard and running his hand over his short-cropped white hair. The elderly man was deep in thought, every now and then looking askant at the young woman sleeping beside him.

Across the aisle from them, Theo had run out of questions to ask the pretty, blonde-haired woman squatting over her mechanical legs and resting her head on a pillow she had placed against the wall that separated the cabin and the cockpit. Jola used her shortened arm to prop the pillow up, and used her other hand to steady herself on the empty seats next to her. Her removed prosthetic arm lay lifelessly in the seat, the object of the young boy’s earlier interest. Theo as well had put his but his head between his seat and the cabin window, fast asleep. Sleeping, too, was Arfie, the white Husky with black and grey markings on the floor at Theo’s feet, his ears flicking every now and then with the changing whine and rumbling of the rickety plane’s two propellers outside.

In the cockpit, the loudly snoring Skoaler was jostled awake by a sharp poke from the pilot, Hanyo Soon. “Wake up, you big oaf! I need you take the controls. I want to check up on our payload.” The handsome young man unbelted himself as Skoaler took over the controls, giving Hanyo an irritated look and pushing his cowboy hat back on his head and sitting up straight. Hanyo stretched in the entrance of the cockpit, looking over the passengers resting quietly in the sunlit interior. His eyes rested on the tightly bound ball of cash that Rosa had dropped on the seat in front of her. He leaned over to pick it up, and met the stern brown eyes of Kenji Nobu as he stood up. Hanyo juggled the ball of cash between his hands, shrugging off the old man’s look of disapproval. He looked over at Rosa, nonchalantly grinning as he gazed longingly and her beautiful face.

“Do you like her?” Kenji asked gruffly in a low voice.

“Yeah, of course. Who wouldn’t fall in love with a beauty like her?” Hanyo answered, dropping his lean body into the seat in front of Kenji, twisting around to look at him over the headrest. He lifted the ball of high denomination bills, saying “This is my reason for heading south across the border. You haven’t really explained what your hurry is to get out of California.”

“You tell me what that delivery of money is for, and I’ll explain more about the California Independence Movement,” Kenji said and nodded to Rosa beside him, who Hanyo was watching again, “and her place in it.”

Hanyo, smiled his crooked smile, letting all his straight white teeth show in the sunlight. He ran his hand through his straight, shoulder length hair and laughed, putting the wad of cash down onto the seat again. “Would you believe humanitarian aid?” Kenji shook his head and frowned, prompting Hanyo to let his crooked smile fade. “OK, it’s business. Sheriff Jebediah Haught sends this money to his associate just inside the border. That’s all I know, and that’s all I get paid for.”

Kenji nodded, saying, “I can just imagine how Sheriff Haught came by this much cash. And I can assume that you deliver the same crates of spice back and forth across the border?”

Hanyo was bored now, sighing, “Yeah, yeah. It’s for if I get stopped and it’s something to fill out the paperwork with. Now that you know my deal, what’s yours?”

“It’s a long story, and I won’t bore you further with the details,” Kenji said, seeing that Hanyo’s attention was on Rosa again. “But I will tell you this. Twenty-five years ago, there was truly a heaven on earth: the Cooperative. It was a peaceful, prodperous commune, filled with art, music, and thoughtful discussions between its bright and loving members. Rosa’s father, Jesus Jardine, was the brilliant mind behind it’s organization and prosperity. It grew quickly as the number of members swelled, and it amassed huge sums of wealth, mostly in gold coins, bars and jewellery. I looked after the operations of the Cooperative, specifically the gardens. We had so many varieties of roses! You wouldn’t believe-” Kenji stopped, seeing that Hanyo was reaching his hand over the top of the seat to touch Rosa’s delicate chin.

Kenji pushed Hanyo’s hand away from Rosa’s face, and cleared his throat, continuing his story, “Anyway, Jesus was called away to the South-East Asian War; he was not drafted because he was middle-aged, but he volunteered out of his sense of duty to protect the freedoms the Cooperative cherished. As the SEA War escalated and spread, Jesus disappeared and hadn’t been heard from since. His daughter, Rosa, was only a small child when he left and indeed was his only child. Being the brains behind the Cooperative’s success, the commune naturally lost direction and its members left along with the business that made it great. Jesus in his wisdom bought and sold investments with the Cooperative’s profits, and had converted the profits into gold. He hid the entire fortune who knows where.”

Hanyo’s interest returned to Kenji’s story, asking, “And how much gold are we talking about?”

“Only Jesus knew for sure. I would estimate billions of dollars,” Kenji said, then looked over at the sleeping Rosa, “and this young woman, I suspect, is the key to discovering where the hoard is hidden. The Golden Queen.”

“Lovely. I mean, very interesting. How does the California Indepence Movement fits in all this, I don’t understand. Rosa doesn’t seem to know much about it,” Hanyo said, standing up and picking up the package of bills again.

“I hope to teach Rosa the principles of the Cooperative and encourage her to join the Movement. Finding the Cooperative’s fortune would advance the cause tremendously,” Kenji said, his voice filled with hope.

“Good luck, old man. She won’t buy your fairy tales of gold treasure and magical gardens,” Hanyo said casually and without cruelty. “We’ll be landing near Mexicali soon. I suggest you get some sleep too, where you can continue your dreaming of California independence and making this ‘Cooperative’ great again!” 
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*** 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. ***