Secret Societies exist solely by the determination of the members within that society to keep their existence as such.

Should one sole member of that communal social order, at any time, singularly decide that the outside world has finally evolved to an acceptance of the customs and rituals within -- the chain of secrecy will be proved only as strong as its weakest link.

Throughout the 1800's, the Spaniards, the English, the Russians, the Chinese and countless other nations were making strategic migrations to the California coast; some arriving less publicly than others.

Among those arriving in secrecy were at least two distinct tribes escaping the warring kings of that group of Pacific Islands known collectively today as the State of Hawaii. Secrecy was a matter of survival, for one and for all.

Having deliberately burst their outriggers into splinters upon the rocky coastline of San Diego, the water-weary Hawaiian emigrants advanced up -- and disappeared into -- the hills of California without contention, for they came in just as they left; without a trace. Though the Chinese were taking a beating in San Francisco, and the Irish immigrants were suffering in New York, these island tribes who vowed to keep their practices and their existence clandestine remained alive and prospered.

Under the sway of the only-recent human rights amendments, they have finally come down from the hills, and have come to mingle quietly among those who live and work in La Jolla even up to this day. Concealing their activities and rosters from those not born into the tribe, they continue living and working peaceably amongst the rest of us by day. Some have become so entrenched in our society that they retain wealthy and powerful positions within our corporations and our government. And thus, the secrecy of the tribe will be continued from generation to generation, by the silent interdiction of what conspires within the home, and behind the seclusion of their walls.

Until today. For today the young woman, referred to by her family members as impetuous, stands at the oceanfront and contemplates the homeland of her tribe's heritage. She has met a young man; an outsider, and his sincerity has caused her to wonder if indeed the world has finally evolved beyond the storm.