The Impossible Coin (The Downwinders Book 2) by Michael Richan

I’m sure it was worth a lot.”
    Marty perked up. “I know a way we
can find it!” he said, and stood up, smiling at him. “Come with me, young man!
We shall try to locate this mysterious nickel of yours!”
    Winn left the can of lemonade on
the table and tucked the nickel into his pocket. He followed Marty out the
front door and through the yard as he walked back to his shed, located behind
the trailer. Marty pulled a keychain that was attached to his belt, and fiddled
with the keys until he located a small padlock key. He inserted it in the
padlock and turned until it clicked, then he removed the padlock from the
aluminum doors and slid them open.
    Winn had seen Marty’s shed many times.
It had a wooden workbench and a brown pegboard above it with every tool
imaginable neatly arranged, hanging from hooks. There were little white
outlines around each tool, so when you took one off, you knew exactly where it
was supposed to go when you were done. Marty had two large red and black tool
chests that were on rollers, tucked against one wall, and opposite was a set of
metal shelving that held large boxes. There was a single bulb light hanging in
the middle of the shed, but with the doors open there was more than enough
light. Marty walked to one of the boxes, pulled it off the shelf, and sat it
down on the wooden bench.
    “OK, I haven’t used this in years,
so I hope it still works,” he said, rummaging through the box.
    “What is it?” Winn asked, excited
to see what Marty was talking about.
    “This!” Marty said, pulling out a
piece of round metal and showing it to Winn. Then he kept searching in the box.
    “What is this?” Winn asked,
turning the metal disc over in his hand.
    “It’s a metal detector,” Marty
said, pulling out two long poles. “It goes on the end of these.” Marty snapped
the metal poles together, and then slipped the disc onto the end of it. “Now to
find the electronics.”
    He pawed through the box some
more, and finally located a small cardboard box. He opened it, and pulled out a
square black metal box that had a meter on it and long cables. He snapped the
metal box onto the pole midway, and twisted the cables around the lower portion
of the pole until they reached the disc, where he slipped the ends of the
cables over two metal prongs.
    “This disc,” Marty said, “will
detect any metal underneath it, and cause this box here to make a noise. I’ll
bet it needs batteries.” Marty popped the batter cover off the back of the
black metal box and removed an old 9V battery, then went to a rack of containers
underneath his workbench. He pulled out a plastic tub that had a variety of
batteries, selected a 9V, and put it into the box.
    “Now, did you bring that nickel?”
Marty asked.
    “Yes,” Winn said, digging into his
pocket.
    “Put it on the ground, right
there,” Marty said, motioning to the floor. Winn placed the nickel on the
ground and Marty demonstrated the metal detector by moving it slowly over the
wooden planks of the floor, slowly towards the nickel. When the edge of the
detector passed over the coin, a speaker on the metal box let out a squeal.
    “Ha ha! You see, it works!” Marty
said. “Let’s take this over to where you lost the nickel, and see if we can
find it!”
    “Can I try it?” Winn said with
sudden enthusiasm.
    “Once we get there, I’ll let you
do the searching,” Marty said.
    They left the shed, Marty grabbing
a gardening trowel as they walked out. He took pains to lock it back up, then
they made their way out of Marty’s yard and down the driveway.
    “Where did you get that thing?”
Winn asked.
    “They were all the rage in the
seventies,” Marty said. “People used to use them on beaches and other public
places, finding money that people had dropped, or jewelry. People always like
the idea of getting rich by finding something, not having to work for it. This
little device made a lot of people think they were going to be millionaires,
and