The Metal Men

I once spent a week alone at a resort in Maui. The reason I was there is a topic for a future article, but for now lets say I was on a fact finding mission. Though I had several day trips to see this and that and see people I needed to speak with, but I found that I ended up on the beach every evening with a tall drink that always included pineapple.

Yes, I found time to do some snorkeling and diving and a lot of fine dining, but those evenings on the beach were most remarkable. However even more remarkable were the mornings on the beach. I would be out there at dawn with a large cup of coffee taking in the morning air. The morning air on a Hawaiian beach is probably the best air I’ve even been in.

Just before sun rise every morning the quiet beach would be invaded by several men with metal detectors. There were five of them. They never spoke to one another and they each seemed to have their own turf. Always looking down with their detectors sweeping right to left to right like a human pendulums.

As I watched every morning four of them seemed to do rather well, stopping and scooping and putting some sorts of objects in their pockets, but one of them rarely ever found anything. I wondered if his turf was bad or if he had a metal detector that wasn’t finding things for him. One morning I got out before they arrived and I put a nickel under a couple inches of sand to see if he would find it, he did.

The next morning I put out more coins in his turf. He found them all. Every morning for the rest of the week I laced his turf with my pocket change. On my final evening I took all the rest of the coins I had and composed a note that said, “Dear Metal Man, I hope you’ve enjoyed finding the coins I’ve left for you this week, but I am leaving today and you are on your own.” I folded the note, inserted the coins and buried it in the sand. I had a flight to catch and I checked out of the resort before the metal men arrived.

It is now 20 years later and I wonder if the metal man was amused.