The Girl Who Cried Pearls
©
2009 Aleck Loker
All
Rights Reserved
Chapter 1
Once upon a time, Beatrice and her friend Emily went
for a walk along the
The girls looked intently at the sand, casting their eyes left and right looking for sharks teeth and other fossils. Occasionally one would bend down to examine something that caught her eye.
“Here’s one, Bee,” Emily said, holding up a small, dark-gray tooth from a shark that lived twenty-million years ago when the East Coast was covered by a shallow tropical sea.
“Put it in your pocket, Emily. When we get home we can look in Dad’s fossil book and see what kind of shark it came from.”
The girls continued searching along the beach. As they walked farther, Emily said, “Do you hear that, Bee? It sounds like someone crying. Where do you think the sound is coming from?”
“It sounds like it’s coming from that shack over there.” Beatrice pointed towards a small, shabby hut that sat midway up the sloping bank that joined the shore of the bay. The hut appeared to be only large enough for one small room. It looked like it had been built from old barn boards and pieces of driftwood. The roof was very rusty corrugated metal with patches of cardboard in several places. The door, rather oddly, was secured by a bar on the outside.
“That’s strange,” said Beatrice.
“What’s strange, Bee?”
“Why would anyone put the bar on the outside? Wouldn’t they want to lock themselves in?”
“Maybe they want to lock something inside.”
“I guess you’re right, Emily.”
The girls looked around the hut. They smelled a pungent odor of dead fish and seaweed as they neared the shack. Piles of oyster shells lay on either side. On the shallow porch, which faced the beach, wooden baskets were scattered about. The girls recognized them as the ones fishermen use to carry crabs and oysters to market.
“Phew, this place stinks,” said Emily. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Wait a minute, Emily. Listen.”
Emily listened and heard someone crying softly. The sound came from inside the hut.
Beatrice put her finger to her lips and then motioned Emily to follow her as she crept towards the side of the shack. Emily followed, careful not to step on any dry sticks or make any other noise.
Chapter 2
Beatrice walked around the oyster shell piles, careful not to cut her bare feet. She stood by the side of the hut and listened to the faint sound of whimpering. She laid her ear against the rough boards of the hut and listened intently.
Emily watched Beatrice and raised her eyebrows. Beatrice turned and peeked through a gap between two boards. Emily crept over to Beatrice’s side and knelt down to peek through the same gap.
They saw a young girl sitting forlornly on the floor of the shack. She sat with her knees drawn up, her head resting on them, and her arms hugging her legs. Her back was toward the crack. Light from one small window on the opposite side of the hut provided only a dim illumination of the interior.
Beatrice saw a shimmering reflection of something at the feet of the crying young girl. As near as Beatrice could see, no one else occupied the small room.
Beatrice knocked on the side of the hut. She saw the young girl’s back stiffen and her head came up. As Beatrice and Emily watched, a sad face turned toward them.
Beatrice whispered, “What’s wrong? Can we help you?”
The sad little girl became alarmed. She whispered, “No! Go away. If he finds you here, he will lock you up with me.”
Emily tugged on Beatrice’s sleeve. Beatrice looked away from the crack as Emily said, “What’s going on, Bee? Why is this girl locked up in this filthy hut?”
“I don’t know, but we need to help her.”
Beatrice turned to talk to the girl imprisoned in the hut when she felt a second, urgent tug on her sleeve. As she looked at Emily, she saw Emily nod her head toward the water. Emily looked frightened.
Beatrice could see why. A boat was headed toward the hut. At the speed it was traveling, it would soon reach the shore. Beatrice did not think the man driving the boat had seen them.
She grabbed Emily by the hand and dragged her behind the hut. A narrow path led up the bank away from the shack. She quickly moved up the path, followed closely by Emily.
The sound of the outboard motor died. The path led into a wooded area that provided a hiding place for the girls. Just as they heard the scrunch of the boat’s bow strike the shore, Beatrice pulled Emily off the path and into the woods.
“What are we going to do?” Emily asked anxiously.
“Sh. Be very quiet and listen.”
The girls heard a scraping sound as the man pulled the boat farther onto the shore. They huddled down like two frightened rabbits behind a thick tree and waited for the man to come searching up the path.
Chapter 3
To their relief, Beatrice and Emily heard the man slide the bar on the door to the hut and then the slam of the door. The next thing they heard was a loud, gruff voice saying, “What have you been up to? You look different.”
They could barely hear the sad little girl reply, “Nothing.” This was followed by a scraping sound as if someone was sweeping the floor of the hut.
The man soon came out carrying a small cloth bag that was filled so full it bulged as he returned to his boat. When Beatrice and Emily heard the sound of the boat motor, they crept from their hiding place, and careful to stay out of view of the man in the boat, they made their way back to the hut.
As the sound of the motor faded into the distance, the girls returned to the side of the hut and listened at the gap between the boards. They heard the poor little girl sobbing inside. Beatrice turned to Emily and whispered, “We have to see what’s going on here, Emily. Why is that man keeping this girl locked up in here?”
“Let’s ask her, Bee.”
The girls cautiously looked for the boat out on the bay. It was hardly visible more than two miles across the water. They decided it looked safe to go to the front of the shack and the barred door.
Beatrice and Emily stood on the porch and examined the lock. The door was easily opened from the outside by sliding a stout wooden bar to one side. Emily opened the door and the girls entered into the dim interior of the shack.
“What are you doing here?” asked the little girl, startled and concerned. “You must leave at once. If he finds you here, he’ll tie you up like me.”
For the first time, Beatrice and Emily noticed that the little girl couldn’t move away from the back wall. A thick rope around her waist held her tight against the wall. She was dressed in ragged clothes and obviously had not bathed for some time. Her hands were free, and a jar of water and some bread sat on the floor within her reach.
Looking around the hut, Beatrice and Emily noted that the only furniture was a chair and small table in one corner. The poor girl didn’t even have a pad or blanket to sleep on.
The sad little girl said, “Please, you must leave before he returns.” Then she began to cry. Tears streamed down her cheeks. But as Beatrice and Emily watched, first with sympathy and then with amazement, the tears turned into shiny hard beads and clattered to the floor.
Beatrice bent down and picked one up. It felt quite smooth and had a sort of sheen to it. Beatrice looked at Emily and said, “This is a pearl. Look on the floor, Emily. All her tears have turned into pearls.”
Sure enough, when Emily looked, the floor at the little girl’s feet shone with the light reflected from a pool of pearls. As the girl continued to cry, more pearls of various sizes fell to the floor.
Beatrice knelt down beside the sobbing girl and stroked the back of her head. “That’s alright,” she said to the poor child. “We won’t let the man catch us. You’re going to be okay.”
After a bit, the little girl stopped crying. She took a shuddering breath and then bent over and wiped her eyes with the hem of her dirty skirt.
“What’s your name?” asked Emily.
“Sarah.”
“Well, Sarah, tell us how you come to be here,” asked Beatrice.
“You really should leave. I would feel awful if that terrible man returned and caught you here,” said Sarah.
“Emily, you watch for the boat while Sarah tells us what she’s doing here.”
“Okay, Bee.”
Chapter 4
With that assurance, Sarah began her sad story. She told Beatrice that she lived across the bay with her mother and father in a little fishing village. Her father made his living farming and fishing. She lived there happily with her family and could never remember being sad. She may have cried when she was an infant, but she could not remember it if she did.
One day she had gone with her mother into the village to sell fish at the market. While her mother wrapped the fish in old newspapers for the customers, Sarah wandered off to explore the other market stalls. She started down an alley between two buildings, and she had the feeling that someone had followed her. Just as she looked over her shoulder, a man scooped her up and clapped his big, hairy hand over her mouth before she could cry out. If only she had listened to her mother and had not wandered off.
He quickly carried her to the end of the alley and bundled her into a smelly, old sack. He tied the top of the sack and threw her into a wheelbarrow. In the dark sack, she felt each sharp bump as the man quickly pushed the wheelbarrow over the rutted street. The next thing she knew, she felt him pick her up and dump her into the bottom of a boat. The water in the bottom of the boat seeped through the sack and into her clothes.
She heard the outboard motor start and then felt the boat bouncing over the waves. The boat ride lasted a short while, and then she felt the boat hit the shore. The man picked her up in the sack and carried her into the hut where Beatrice and Emily had found her.
“I’ve been here for a long time, and I’m sure my mother and father will never find me,” Sarah concluded dejectedly.
“What did the man want with you? What did he do to you?” asked Beatrice.
“I don’t know why he took me away from Mama. But when he tied me in this filthy shack, I started to cry. At first, that made him mad. He said if I didn’t shut up he’d give me something to cry about. But then his eyes grew wide, and he had this strange look on his face. My tears had turned to pearls. I don’t know why. I can’t remember ever crying like that before.
“He collected the pearls from the floor and left me tied in the hut. When he came back, he had some food and water for me. After I ate, I felt a little better and I thought maybe he would take me to Mama. But he became very angry when I asked him if he was going to take me home.
“He yelled at me and scared me. I began to cry, and as before, my tears turned to pearls. He scooped them up and put them in a bag. He said he would never let me go. He called me his ‘little pearl oyster.’
“I’ve been here ever since. Everyday he comes with food and water and collects the pearls. I never know when he is going to return.”
“We’ve got to get you out of here,” said Beatrice firmly. “Any sight of the boat, Emily?”
“Nope. Not a boat in sight.”
“Did you hear Sarah’s story?”
“Yes, Bee. We need to get her untied and out of here fast.”
Chapter 5
Beatrice searched inside the hut, looking for something to cut the rope holding Sarah. She found nothing. Then she went outside and looked all around the shack. She even looked under the porch, but she found nothing useful.
Back inside, she asked Sarah to turn around. “Maybe I can untie the knots, Sarah.” But the rope was too thick and the knots too tight for Beatrice’s small hands to untie.
“We’ll just have to cut through the rope somehow.”
“Don’t you have anything that will work?” asked Sarah.
Beatrice searched her pockets. She had some seashells that she had picked up on the beach, but they crumbled into white powder when she tried to use them to saw through the rope. Then she thought of the shark’s tooth Emily had found.
“Emily, quick. Bring me your shark’s tooth.”
Emily reached into her pocket and brought out the shiny, dark-gray tooth. She handed it to Beatrice and then went back to watch for the boat.
Beatrice took the tooth and began to saw the serrated edge of the tooth across the thick rope. Very slowly the fibers of the rope began to snap. But this was hard work, and progress was very slow. Beatrice worked until her fingers ached. As she sawed on the rope, the sunlight became dimmer in the hut. Beatrice thought: It must be getting close to sunset. Mom will be wondering where we are.
“Let me try for a while,” said Sarah. Beatrice gladly let her take the tooth and saw for a while. By the time Sarah’s hands got too tired to cut any more, they had cut about one-third of the way through the rope.
“There’s a boat coming,” shouted Emily.
“Where?” asked Beatrice.
“It’s coming from across the bay. It might be that man,” said Emily.
Beatrice stood quickly to see the boat, and in doing so, she knocked over the water jar, breaking it. Seeing the jagged pieces of glass, Beatrice pocketed the shark’s tooth and grabbed a large piece of glass. She tried the edge on the rope and found it cut much better than the shark’s tooth. “Now we’re making headway,” she said excitedly.
“It’s a good thing because that boat is coming pretty fast,” said Emily nervously.
“Oh, please hurry, Beatrice,” urged Sarah.
Beatrice worked quickly but carefully so that she didn’t cut Sarah or herself with the broken glass.
“Hurry, Bee. He’s almost here,” yelled Emily.
“Almost done,” said Beatrice as she cut through the last of the rope.
The three girls could hear the roar of the outboard motor as Beatrice helped Sarah to her feet.
“Can you walk, Sarah?” asked Beatrice, seeing how unsteady Sarah seemed.
“I haven’t stood up for so long, I’m not sure,” she replied.
“Let’s get out of here,” yelled Emily. “He’s seen the door open and he looks very angry.”
Beatrice put one arm around Sarah’s waist, and Sarah put her arm around Beatrice, and slowly they hobbled to the door. When they looked out, they saw to their shock that the boat, illuminated by the setting sun, was nearly on the shore.
Chapter 6
Emily grabbed the other side of Sarah, and after bumping into the doorjamb, the three girls finally made it out of the hut and ran across the porch just as the man stopped the outboard motor.
“Hey you girls, stop right there,” he shouted.
But Beatrice and Emily were not about to give up now. They dragged Sarah after them and headed for the path up the bank. As they went along, Sarah began to get her strength back, and soon all three ran along in single file: Emily in the lead, Sarah in the middle, and Beatrice in the rear.
As they reached the wooded area, they heard the boat hit the shore, and soon they heard the man panting as he ran after them.
They ran deep into the woods. Beatrice hoped that it would be harder for the man to find them in the dim light. The girls heard the man crashing through the brush, and they decided to hide behind a large tree. They all knew they had to remain very still. Beatrice’s heart beat so hard she wondered if the man could hear it.
From the sounds the man made, they could tell that he was headed toward them. Beatrice looked at Emily and Sarah and put her finger to her lips. They nodded, indicating they knew they must remain silent.
As the man moved nearer to their hiding place, they heard him trip and fall. He got up cursing loudly, and he started off in a new direction, heading away from them.
As his footsteps became fainter, and Beatrice began to feel safe, Emily sneezed loudly. Beatrice looked crossly at her, and poor Sarah covered her face with her hands. The sounds of the man began to grow louder as he changed course and headed toward the girls’ hiding place again. Emily thought: I’ve done it now!
But just as the girls thought all was lost, they heard, “Beatrice, Emily, where are you girls?” Beatrice’s father’s voice seemed to be coming from the beach. The girls heard Sarah’s captor moving away from them through the woods, muttering curses to himself.
“Beatrice, Emily, do you hear me?” this time Beatrice’s mother’s voice. Beatrice was relieved that her mother and father were on the beach looking for her and Emily.
Then they heard the man moving down to the beach. “Who are you?” they heard Mark, Beatrice’s father, ask.
The man replied, “I come her to fish sometimes. That’s my shack there.”
“Have you seen a couple of young girls beachcombing down here?” asked Beatrice’s father.
“Nope, haven’t seen a soul,” the man lied.
“Well, what are these footprints on the beach? They sure aren’t yours,” Beatrice’s mother observed. “Let’s look in that shack, Mark,” she said.
Beatrice made a decision. She looked at Emily and Sarah and whispered, “Now is our only chance. We need to get to the beach before Mom and Dad go away. Let’s go.”
Sarah seemed hesitant but allowed Emily and Beatrice to lead her along.
Mark shined his flashlight into the hut. As he swept the light across the floor, he saw the broken glass, the cut rope and something else: a pile of little beads, shimmering in the beam of his light. He went inside to investigate.
“What’s this? What are these pearls doing here?” asked Mark.
“Get out of there. Those are mine,” snarled the man as he bent over and scraped them up.
“Mom, Dad, here we are,” yelled Beatrice as the girls reached the beach.
With that, the man pushed past Mark and ran to his boat.
“Hey, where are you going?” shouted Mark. But the man
pushed the boat out into the inky water, and they heard the motor start.
The last they saw of him and his boat was the shimmering wake behind the motor
as he sped away across
Chapter 7
Mom, Dad, are we glad to see you,” said Beatrice, more confident again now that the evil man was gone and Sarah was safe.
“Where have you two been? We’ve been worried sick since you didn’t come home to dinner,” said Annie, Beatrice’s mother. For the first time, she noticed Sarah. “Who is this?”
“This is Sarah, Mom. She’s the reason we’re late,” replied Beatrice.
“Why you poor thing. You look awful. What has happened to you?” asked Annie.
“Let’s go home, Mom. We’ll tell you all about Sarah on the way,” said Beatrice.
“What’s for dinner? I’m starved,” said Emily as if she and Beatrice had just been out for a stroll on the beach.
“Well, it’s good to see Emily is none the worse for wear,” said Mark.
As they walked back along the beach following the beam of Mark’s flashlight, Sarah told Beatrice’s parents her sad tale.
“You poor thing,” said Annie. “How long has he kept you here?”
“I don’t know for sure, but it must be a month at least.”
“Your parents must be sick with grief. We should call them as soon as we get home,” said Mark.
“And the police, too,” said Annie.
“That’s right, Annie. They’ll want to search that shack and try to find that awful man,” replied Mark.
“He shouldn’t be too hard to find, Dad. He must have sold a fortune in pearls by now,” observed Beatrice. “Surely someone will know about that. And here are some he didn’t get,” said Beatrice, handing several large and shiny pearls to Sarah.
“Good point, Bee. Those pearls will be his downfall,” said Emily.
As they climbed the steep hill and approached Beatrice’s home, Emily said, “I bet Sarah’s hungry. Are you hungry, Sarah?”
“The first thing I want is to take a bath and put on clean clothes,” said Sarah.
“Whatever,” said Emily disappointedly.