What Would You Do?

One day I was down at the dock in Marathon Florida when a couple of fellow Canadians sailed off over the horizon.  I threw them their last line, waved and yelled my good-byes.  They then puttered slowly down the canal in their powerboat towards the Caribbean side of the Keys and off into adventure.

And I got to drive back and then fly into -38F below McLean Lake, Northern Saskatchewan. McLean Lake is easy to find. Its in the middle of the province 45 miles by ice-road from The North West Territories. Right at the freezing top of the province.  Where I welded on a tank outside in the crackling cold for all of January, February, and most of March.

Then I flew out and drove back all the way to the Florida Keys. I just had enough time to unpack my gear and who comes puttering back up the canal but those two other Canadians back from their winter’s cruise. They threw me that first line and then tied up the boat to the dock.

After the greetings I asked the obvious.
“Anything exciting happen?”
“Oh yeah.” His wife looked meaningfully at her husband.
“What?”
“A couple of days out of … (pick an island) … we see this black ‘thing’ bobbing in the water. So I call my wife on deck and we sail over to it. Its a bale. A square plastic wrapped, square-cornered bale.”
He looked at his wife.
“We circled it. For almost an hour; just circling it. Going round, and round, and round.  Looking at it. Thinking about it. How much it was worth. How many years we would get if we got caught with it on board. Whether it was a trap, a set-up. Or a Lotto.”
“So?”
“Its out there.”
He and his wife looked at each other.

Me? I don’t know what I’d do.

What would you do?