“ This is Steve. How can I help you?”

  “Hello Steve. This is Carl Dappler, the geologist you folks contacted about the new swamp. I have to say the news about a swamp appearing overnight is quite unusual. Are you sure it is not just a sinkhole?”

  Steve said, “Thanks for calling back so quickly, Carl. No, it is not a sinkhole . It is definitely a swamp.” He ran his hand through his gray hair as he asked Carl if the swamp was likely to go away again.

  Carl answered, “We haven’t ever heard of a swamp appearing overnight and definitely haven’t heard of a swamp just up and disappearing. Do you have any idea how deep your swamp is?”

  Tom, who was on the conference call with them said, “Yes, we measured it in several places and it seems to be three feet deep at its deepest.”

  Carl then asked how much land it covered.

  Steve said, “As near as we can tell, it is somewhere from thirty-five to sixty acres. We haven’t completed the inspection.”

  Tom, the sensible one, said, “The time and the equipment it would take to reclaim the swampland would be outrageous and the expenses would far outweigh any profits we could hope to make.”

  Steve asked, “Could we possibly drain the swamp and if so, how long would it take and what would something like that cost?”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Carl answered, “Have you ever read about the Florida Everglades?”

  Steve answered, “No, I haven’t. Would there be pertinent information about our situation?”

  Carl explained, “They actually spent “19 million dollars on draining the everglades, built canals that were supposed to drain the land like pulling the plug on a bathtub. They were able to reclaim some of the land, but it was not the big success they expected. I would not recommend it.”

  “Ok, thanks for your help, Carl. I guess it is back to the drawing board for us. Talk with you later.” Steve said and hung up as his eye caught something over beside the Mercedes.

  “Tom, what is that bag?”

  Tom looked up from his phone, where he had been checking his mail and was surprised to see a small suitcase. “I don’t know. I’ll go check.” He walked over and bent down to open up the satchel, laughing when he saw the tiny heavy duty equipment. “It’s just some kids' hot wheels.” He picked up one of the machines and said, “Hey look, there is an old school Caterpillar front end loader just like the one I drive sometimes. Imagine that. Hey, it has our company symbol on it.” He examined it closer and said, “Steve, come look at this. You are not going to believe this. You know how I am always losing my gloves, so I had hung some up from the rearview mirror? My gloves are inside this toy. What is going on?”

  “Let me see that,” Steve demanded. He took the front end loader out of Tom’s hands and examined it. While he looked it over, Tom picked up another of the miniature machines and said, “Our company logo is also on this one, Steve.”

  Steve reached into the satchel and brought out another one and another one and found all of the equipment had their logo and said, “Grab the bag and let’s get out of here. I don’t know what is going on, but I think I would like to reconsider in a safer place.”