Strewn about the table, we all sat there enjoying the aftermath of the food settling into our stomachs. My younger brother Joshua and my older, wiser friend Elmer besides myself. The eggs, bacon, toast, and potatoes had been fine. Really, this Saturday morning started out like any other. Being the beginning of April, the air was cold outside. Rising just about to 40 degrees I think it was. Though, inside the house the wood burning fireplace had gotten us up to, I’d say, around 75 degrees. The steam rose off the coffee perfectly. That was something my wife was particularly gifted at, fixing coffee. Whenever I tried to do it, it never turned out the same.

       The fellas were here today on their normal Saturday visit. Every other day of the week it was simply my wife and I. My children were all grown out of the house now, so it didn’t matter all the much. But there we sat around the small circular table there in the kitchen. It wasn’t a very big kitchen, and really the table could only seat three comfortably, but technically four if you really wanted to. My wife stood at the sink, washing the dishes as usual. And we just sat jabbering away, in our native tongue of course, about this and that. Truth be told, I don’t even remember what we were discussing.

       That is, until one point in the conversation. For one reason or another, Elmer had brought up ponds, and how to keep them from getting stagnant in the summer time. Guess his pond tended to develop the green algae across it, and by the time summer would hit, the mosquito population would decide to settle there. Made sense, at least for them. But Elmer didn’t much like it. And he wanted to know what could be done. Well, I’m no expert when it comes to ponds, though, I did have one toward the back of my property. I guess we could take a walk and have a look, I suggested. Maybe there is something different about mine versus yours we can learn.

       Moments later, steps were being made through the grass. It was wet, well, it was that way from the freeze overnight. As I gazed across the landscape, I figured it wouldn’t be too long before it would need cut. And, yes, I would have do it. With my last son leaving about a year ago, the last to be married, he had his own place now, and help I didn’t have. Of course, my wife would trim around the edges. But I never felt too good about having her cut the whole yard. So the grass would be up to me to complete, and as old I was getting, I really wasn’t looking forward to it. Well, I wasn’t that old, only being in my early sixties at this point.

       Joshua was going on and on about how Elmer could just put some foliage in the pond and that would probably help. And I guessed inside my head it probably would. At least that’s what I heard over the years. But he wasn’t going to like my suggestion. I’d been holding it back because I figured he would shoot it down immediately. What Elmer needed was a pump. The pond needed a pump. That’s the way it was. That would move the water around freely and easily stop the stagnation. But, that would be money. Could it be solar powered? Probably. But it would solve the problem. I was sure of it.

       The large barren trees with their gray, naked branches stood in the distance. Looked like arms reaching toward the sky. And as we walked, in front of those trees my pond got closer, and closer. The deck then emerged on top of it, directly in front of us. It was a small deck that went out into the water approximately five feet or so. I had built it probably fifteen years ago so that I could fish in the pond with my sons. That was back when there were fish in it. Not anymore, though. My pond wasn’t really stagnant, but it wasn’t lively either.

       We all paused nearly ten feet in front of the deck. There we stood in our black and navy winter coats, with our flat rimmed black hats. As we gazed from that point, Joshua motioned to an object on the deck.

       “What’s that?” he asked, pointing with his finger.

       “I have no idea,” I replied.

       Resting on the deck was a rather large black bag. I’d never seen that bag before. Kind of surprised by its appearance there.

       “Guess I’d better see.”

       The three of us walked up to the bag, and as we got right over it, we could see that something was glimmering inside. Upon closer look, the glimmer was a gold color. I squinted to see if I could make out what it was. Then I stooped down, unzipped the bag all the way (for it was about a quarter-zipped), and lo and behold, right in front of us sat a vast array of golden shaped bars. If I didn’t know any better, it looked like bars of gold.

       “What is this?” Joshua then beckoned.

       “I, uh, I don’t know,” I said confused. “It looks like bars of gold.”

       “Let me see,” Elmer then said, as he approached the bag, and then bent down to get a closer look at the objects inside. “Well, you don’t say,” he then said. “That’s what it is… that’s what it has to be, bars of gold. You know, the same as in the old stories we read when we were kids.”

       I was skeptical. It didn’t make any sense. Where would these bars come from? Must belong to the neighbors, I thought. To my right lived another Amish family with young kids. But then, where would young kids get a bag of gold. It sure looked like gold.

       As we sat there contemplating, suddenly my English neighbor and his son were walking in the distance. The fellow, whose name was Dustin, was holding a rifle in his hand that was leaned against his shoulder. His son was probably around ten or eleven years old. They approached, and inquired about what was going on.

       “We found this bag sitting here, and we don’t know where it came from.”

       Dustin got down on one knee to have a look. His son joined him.

       “My,” he said, “it must be your lucky day. Looks like you found a bag of gold.” He picked up one of the bars and held it up against the sky. There it stood, right in his hand. Looked like the real deal to me. But I was no expert.

       “I’ve never held a bar of gold before.” He paused, with the gold still in his hands. You could tell the gears in his head were turning. He was giving it serious thought. “I don’t understand where it could have come from.”

       He stood up and looked into the sky, as if he wondered whether it had come from the sky. I couldn’t see how that would be. Fallen from an airplane? No, there was no damage to the deck. If a bag of that weight had fallen, the deck would have been crushed into pieces. But there was no sign of any damage.

       “Finders keepers?” Dustin then said, or asked rather.

       “It’s not my gold,” I exclaimed. But perhaps I shouldn’t of.

       Joshua stated that we need to ask around. But now my wheels were turning. I was starting to get nervous about the whole thing. Just how much gold was in this bag? Looked like thirty bars or so to me, upon my rough count. That would be a lot of money I knew. I was no dummy. I had never owned any gold, but I knew it was worth a lot. Especially solid bars. And then the thought, what if it was stolen? Or, what if someone was looking for it?

       Dustin spoke up, “I can help you guys take it to the bank. We can see how much is here, that is, for a bar or two of course.” He chuckled. None of us were chuckling.

       Elmer spoke from his wisdom, “We need to find its proper owner.”

       “Yeah and then what?” Joshua chimed in. “If we go around asking people if they are missing a bag of gold, it won’t take long until someone says, ‘Yes, it’s mine.”

       “He’s got a point,” I added. “We need to think this through and decide what to do. Let me go get my cell phone from the house. There is someone I want to call.”

       “Let’s just leave it here for now,” Elmer then said. Joshua concurred.

       “I’ll tell you what,” Dustin spoke up, “My son and I will wait here with the gold while you guys decide what to do. We are in no hurry anyway. We were just going to do some target practice out back in the woods behind the pond.”

       We nodded, and stepped back toward the house. Of course, by this point, we were walking at a quicker pace than usual. I could tell Elmer was starting to get nervous about the whole thing.

       “I don’t like this, Joseph, not one bit. We need to get this resolved.”

       Joshua added, “Elmer’s right.”

       “Don’t worry,” I reassured. “I got a guy I can call. You know, Ed, from the jewelry store in town. He’ll know, and he can tell us what to do.”

       The fellas nodded, and we made it back to the house rather quickly. Arriving inside the kitchen, my wife was now sitting at the table we had been comfortably sitting at not too long ago, before this whole thing fell into our laps.

       I could tell my wife sensed something was amiss by the expressions on our faces.

       “Joseph, what’s wrong?” she asked.

       “Well, we found a bag of gold. I mean, real gold. A lot of money, back by the pond. I am going to call Ed the jeweler in town and see what he says we should do.”

       “Hold it,” my wife said quickly.

       “What?”

       “Real gold?”

       “Yes.”

       “Why would you call Ed? I mean, if it’s real gold, and it doesn’t have owner, maybe you should keep it Joseph.”

       “Are you serious, Ethel? I can’t believe you would even suggest that.”

       “Well, Joseph, you did find it. It’s yours.”

       “Absolutely not,” I retorted.

       Then Joshua added, “Well, think about it Joseph. What if you did just keep it? We could divide the spoils amongst ourselves. You know, three ways. And, we could give your neighbor a couple blocks since he’s now in on it too.”

       “Joshua, are you hearing yourself? We can’t do that. It’s not our gold.”

       Glancing down at my phone, I quickly pressed Ed’s name in my contacts. I wanted him to get over here before things got any further out of control.

       “Hello, Ed, it’s Joseph Stutzman…” I walked into the other room so that everyone couldn’t hear me. As I was talking with Ed, prancing around the living room, I could see my wife, Joshua, and Elmer talking back and forth. I couldn’t tell what they were saying.

       After a few minutes, I stepped back into the kitchen. “Ed will be here in about twenty minutes. Ethel, when Ed gets here, send him back to the pond.”

       I motioned to the guys that we should head back there now. Truth was, I was afraid that Dustin and his son had taken off with the gold after the way my wife and Joshua acted about it. At least Elmer was on my side. I couldn’t believe all this madness. But I knew from experience that money could bring out the worst in people. It had happened with my brother many years ago. The Bible even warns us regarding that. It’s a hard temptation to turn away from for some people.

       Walking back through the grass, the pond emerged again. And there sat Dustin and his son dangling their feet from the deck, and the bag was still there. Thankfully, Dustin’s character had more credence than I had feared, which truly shows how the mind can go off kilter in these types of situations. Needless to say, I was relieved as we approached the pond again.

       “Hey there guys,” Dustin greeted us as we approached.

       “Ed will be here in about fifteen minutes,” I informed him.

       “Ed the jeweler…” Dustin then said. “Good, we can get this settled once and for all.”

       Joshua, Elmer, and I stood there in the grass right in front of the deck. Dustin sat back down and was talking with his son. With nothing else to do, us guys started talking, wondering where indeed the gold had come from. Theories continued to be thrown about. Joshua seemed convinced it had something to do with a drug deal, probably from town, and one of the dealers had left, or tried to hide, the bag of gold here for a temporary time. I told him that was nonsense, that no one would set a bag of gold on a deck like this to hide it. That didn’t even make any sense. Elmer thought maybe a bank had been robbed, and that one of the robbers placed the gold there. Maybe from a far away town. We’d of heard about it if it had been in our town, which was only five miles down the road. Again, sounded far fetched, but nobody had any good explanation.

       As we were standing there talking, I caught out of the corner of my eye my neighbor John’s son, Matthew, walking toward us. He was around seven years old if my mind serves me correctly. I noticed he was pushing a wheel cart, two wheels to be exact. The kind you would use for gardening.

       Matthew approached and stopped. “Mr. Stutzman, can you help me load this bag into the cart here. I need to take it back up to my house.”

       “Oh no, son,” I replied. “This bag is important. It’s full of gold. I can’t let you take it.”

       “It’s not gold,” Matthew replied, “It just looks like gold.”

       “What are you talking about Mattie?” Joshua asked (some people called him Mattie.)

       “I created these blocks for my English friend. He is making a movie and needed bars of gold.”

       He reached in the bag and picked one up. “They’re bricks I tell you. I painted them gold and then put clear coat on them. You know, the shiny stuff that makes English cars shine.”

       At this point, Dustin and his son had risen up from the side the deck. Dustin held out his hand for the block of gold. Matthew handed it to him.

       “So you say they’re bricks?” Dustin asked. He put a bar on the deck, took the backside of his rifle, and hit it. It split in two, right down the center, and you could see the red inside.

- Daniel Litton

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