Short Story: The Fable of the Pearls

The Story of the Pearls

She was born the third girl to peasant farmers in a village nestled between English and Irish territories of Ireland. Her mother was beaten because her father wanted a son. She was put to work for the family at a young age.

Her father’s farm abutted the road between Omeath Bay and Lord O’Conner’s castle and she watched the wagons that traveled between the harbor and the castle. Wagons filled with wool cloth from town, fish from market and other wares. She was so small, the drivers never saw her deftly climb onto the moving wagons, take some fruit or vegetable, wrap it in her apron and take home. Her mother knew enough to cover the reason for the coveted items by telling Maebeh’s father the girls found on the road, the food it must have fallen off one of the wagons.

Her appetite for stealing didn’t stop with food, she honed her skills and began pickpocketing when her family sold potatoes at market. An exceptional thief with a sixth sense, she rarely got caught and knew exactly when to steal and when to walk away. Her abilities grew, as did her indifference towards her family. Determined she was destined for greatness, she vowed she would escape her life to one of privilege. She took to wandering the paths along the rocky coast.

One fateful dawn as she roamed, Maebeh witnesses a group of seals washing up on the shore. The seals waddled to a clearing, gathered into a circle and before her very eyes, transformed into women. All but one large seal in the center. The women bowed to the large seal and kissed him. Then the women walked away, each in separate directions. Maebeh was stunned. She set out to learn how these women became seals.

She waited each dawn to catch the seals. A full moon cycle completed before she witnessed the seals returning to the cove, transforming and bowing before the Seal King. This was her chance this was her moment. She raced to the clearing and prostrated herself before the large seal.

“Oh great one, forgive me for intruding. I am a poor girl born of this village, please let me join you on the next moon swim.” Maebeh looked up at the Seal King.

He was larger than she expected and he seemed to expand in front of her. His skin was like polished onyx and he smelled of fresh ocean breezes. He raised his head back and bellowed long and angry. All the women fell to their knees and wept.

“No, no, we did not betray. We do not know this thief!” They rolled along the sand and shed large tears. One of the women lunged at Maebeh, grabbed her and pushed her head down holding her face in the sand.

“Forgiveness! Forgiveness, I am a stupid girl uneducated in elegant ways.” Maebeh cried.

The Seal King shook out his head and small droplets of pure ocean water sprayed out. One drop hit each woman and instantly they stopped their wailing. The drops purified the air with sweet perfume.

“I have seen you searching, ever searching.” He began. “What do you seek?” The Seal King slowly waddled in a circle around her.

“Freedom.” Maebeh said hoping they would take pity one her. She really wanted to feel the aliveness of danger.

This incensed the women and they began shouting and wailing, they knew Maebeh lied. The Seal King flapped his large fins together, which made a loud crack like the deepest break of an underwater volcano. The women collapsed to the ground in silence.

“Are you willing to use your cunning?” The Seal King challenged. “These women hold secrets. Find why they became my concubines and I will consider your desire.” The Seal King began to waddle back to the sea. “Discover three secrets and perhaps we will let you dance the never ending waves, roam the surf and discover treasures in the deepest trenches.” The Seal King said the last words as he glided in the water. He dipped his head and silently submerged into the azurite emptiness.

“Go away little girl,” One woman said.

“What can I do to let you know this is my true joy?” Maebeh asked.

“You heard the King’s challenge, find three of our secrets, come back next month and the King will decide,” The elegant woman said.

From that moment on, Maebeh secretly followed the women throughout the town, listening to gossip of neighbors and spying on their lives. She learned that one woman was a nun at the convent. As a young woman, she was discovered in a tryst with a young man. She was deemed unworthy to be married and sold to the convent and an austere life. She begged the Seal King to save her. If she was doomed to a life of punishment simply because she loved too carelessly, it was unjust to be sent to a prison of backstabbing and gossip for a lifetime. The king accepted her devotion and knew she would never betray, as this was the only avenue for music to enter her forbidding life.

When Maebeh followed the second woman she discovered that the she was the wife of a brutal man who beat her for as many reason as there were minutes in the day. If she didn’t have dinner ready, she would be beaten, if the babies cried, she would be beaten, if it rained or was sunny or dark or light, she would be beaten. She asked the Seal King to take her in as she dreaded her children could become outcasts, that one day her husband would push too far, she would kill him and be hanged for her crime. The king accepted her honor to keep his secret.

The third woman was the Lady O’Connor, the lady of the castle. She was the daughter of a wealthy wool merchant. Her father made an offer to Lord O’Connor; his debts would be paid if, in return, he married his beautiful daughter. It seemed a simple enough bargain, his monumental debts would be cleared and her children would be royalty. Lord O’Connor married her, she was taken from her home, set up in a cold and flat existence to be raped and robbed by her highborn husband. She begged the Seal King to take her in. She promised if she was given the chance to dance in the surf, she would do all she could to help the people of her land. The king took pity not only on her but also on the townspeople. He accepted her in the group.

Maebeh wondered what she had that would sway the great king? She was never beaten, or imprisoned, or raped. She stole anything she wanted. How could she ask for pity? What could she say to impress the king?

On the next full moon, Maebeh cast herself before the Seal King. “Help me oh great king of the seas and waves, I am a thief, I have spent my life stealing. I know no other way. If I can swim with you my inner demons of taking what is not mine will subside. I will find an honorable way to live if I know I can have a night of adventure. Please help me from myself.”

“If I take you in, it is at great risk. You admit to being a liar, will you, once my back is turned, pirate from me?” The Seal King glared into the very heart of Maebeh.

“No!” Maebeh shouted, as she could not hold the Seal Kings glare. “I will remain true to what is asked of me.” She wept large dramatic tears.

The king took a chance on her and performed the spell for her to become a seal. That flawless night, Maebeh experienced utter happiness. She swam with the women, jumped and dove in the water effortlessly as if it were mounds of freshly fallen snow. She giggled and sang with the other women. When they returned to the cove, she promised the seal women she would find honest employment in the town.

She found a position with the town blacksmith as a housemaid. His wife was pregnant with their third child and as they could afford it, she requested a servant to run the house. For a time, she was happy.

At the rising of the next full moon, the women gathered at the secluded cove and began the ritual of becoming seals. Each seal was unique in color and shape. The Lady’s coat was the color of Lapis Lazuli, the nun’s was silvery hematite, and the mother’s coat was stripped like a black and grey tiger. Maebeh looked down at her coat, it had a burnished amber tone. Once they were all fully formed, the King told them this night they would dive for hidden riches in the sea.

They swam to the northern seas, dived along the upper caves. Found clams, oysters, mussels and random items from sunken ships; belt buckles, knives and bolts. Timelessness of diving and gathering passed. Then the Seal King led them to dive under a horseshoe shaped jetty, which surfaced to his hidden lair. A rock wall filled with nooks and crannies overflowing with sea treasures surrounded a protected cave with a sandy floor. Multicolored sea glass cradled on half shells of large opalescent clams, abalone shells filled with pearls, green ones, red ones, black ones and ivory ones all with a silken sheen. Such beauty Maebeh had never seen before.

Resting to the left of the Seal Kings throne, nine pearls were cradled in a special shell. There were pink, blue, grey, red, purple, bronze, black, white and a purple pearl that captured her eyes. She could not stop staring, she was all at once ecstatically happy and desperately sad. She began to weep but hid her tears from the group as they sang a song of gratitude to the King. He began to carefully open the shells brought by the women.

In only the way nature can, each one held a miraculous pearl. Each pearl was as different in size, shape and color as fish in the sea.

The night was ending and as they swam back to their cove, Maebeh knew she would have to see the pearls again. She made scratch marks on the shores so she could find her way back to the lair. She told herself, how could he miss a small handful of pearls? There were so many. Large red ones that sparkled as rubies, green ones the color of moss, blue ones reflecting pools of the deepest seas. Comparatively, this was a simple grey pearl, he would never miss it, and she had to take it for her very own.

The next night she followed the marks back to the lair. She knew that she would have to dive deep under the jetty this time as a human. The first time she tried to dive she lost her way and barely surfaced before her breath ran out, the second time the waves pushed her away from the jetty and she had to stop. But the third time, the third time she succeeded in finding the right wave that opened up the cove to dive and enter the lair.

He was sleeping, she crept closer and searched in his nest of underwater treasures. There it was the pretty grey pearl, she took it and crept out silently without disturbing the King.

It was hers now, and she was its. They belonged together. She delicately fastened the pearl off a chain and once she placed it over her neck she felt the power of the seas and the skies beyond the azure curtain. She understood how people thought, how they could be easily frightened by superstition, greed and change. She was at once out of time and in time. She couldn’t remember if hours passed or days. It didn’t matter anymore.

The next full moon, she was aware of, she arrived at the bay and found the Seal King waiting. He demanded to know who stole from him, the other women cried and denied any knowledge. Maebeh stared at the King with blank eyes and also denied any knowledge. He stared at her with vapid pools.

“Whomever abducted the pearls will have powers beyond her artistry. With these pearls, she will ask for and receive anything she wishes. All languages are open to her. She will bring forth riches and abilities for others. But, her offspring will pay for this betrayal. No amount of fame or wealth will quell the cancer that grows between them.”

The king rose and sang:

Pearls of enchantment rare

held deep with my lair

stolen by a dark heart

with cruelty to outsmart

Liars smile with ease

Cold is their touch

Their spell is ‘give me much’

Enough isn’t for these gypsies

A Mothers curse on thee:

Jealousy spawns lies

Lies birth rumor

Rumor breeds ill humor

Ill humor incites gossip

Gossip delivers evil

Seal King vanished and the women were not allowed to swim that night. A wail came from the women; deep within the center of their souls they wailed and cried to the moon asking the King to return.

“Who would steal from our King?” The Lady shrieked.

“Why would someone risk a curse to her children for a mere pearl?” The mother asked through pursed lips.

But the nun understood the temptations of the flesh and said, “How easy to judge those whose weaknesses are different from ours. But who amongst us is not weak? Weak in patience, generosity, or courage.”

The women silently left the cove. Maebeh knew she would never return. She decided that she would never have children and that would stop the curse.

That night Maebeh ran away to the harbor and took the first ship she could. She sailed to the east coast and settled in Galloway. She found a job with a newspaper by promising the owner if he employed her he would experience success as never before. He hired her and the newspaper doubled its size with the magic touch of Maebeh and her pearl.

But time passes, humility fades and arrogance builds. Maebeh dismissed the curse as silly words and it faded from memory. She fell deeply in love with a young man named Ronan Kelly and they married. Soon she gave birth to twin boys; Aiden and Hugh. Doomed from the start, the boys fought constantly. Maebeh feared the curse found her. She suggested to Ronan that they move to America. She secretly thought, although she never put it into words, if she moved far away from the Seal King’s influence the curse would die.”

They set sail to America. Once back at sea smelling the ocean breeze, Maebeh remembered swimming in the waves as if they were buoyant clouds holding her as a mother holds a child. She was filled with regret. The first night of a full moon, Maebeh cried. Roman was helpless to ease her pain. She finally told him of the pearl and the curse. He took pity on his wife and held her through the long cold night.

Their ship was arriving on Nantucket Island on the second full moon. Maebeh seemed a woman deranged, she cried, and screamed of loneliness, begged for mercy and for Ronan to set her free. They argued bitterly and she left the boat leaving the pearl.

She walked along the harbor to a cove north of the town. She sat on a jetty and felt the spray on her face and sang a song of regret. The Seal King responding, rose out of the ocean and confronted her. She begged him for mercy, but not for herself, for her boys.

The king had a great heart and felt every tear she shed as his own. He offered her a condition, he would take her back with him, but she would never be able to be a woman again, she would always be a seal and bark and laugh with the waves ever curious of mankind.

“What about the curse? My sons?”

“A curse can never be erased, it is the strongest magic. You were given a rare gift of sight. The talent will pass and expand from down family to family, as will the curse. Your progeny will be saints or sinners, there is no middle road.”

Maebeh’s heart sank, she knew that her son Hugh would take the path of crime and easy choices, he was like her. “How can I help my sons? They do not deserve to be punished for my crimes.”

“Children always pay for the crimes of the parent.” The Seal King said.

He began to sing:

Maebeh hung her head with shame. “Hear the rest of the curse.” The King spoke:

Destiny from this demise

Rests in one born of lies

An innocent of deception

Chance favors her wisdom.

The pearl flowers its gifts,

Blesses this one and uplifts

Only she can atone

By finding lost bones

Such a sacrifice will purify

this careless curse.

“Only one can counter the curse. This one has the chance to use the pearl to its greatest skills, the magic of the pearl will test this child.”

“Take me please.” Maebeh begged the Seal King. “Spare my children and take me.”

“The curse may soften in your sacrifice, but never stop.” The Seal King rose up and stretched to his full height and blanketed the moon in Maebeh’s view. Maebeh stood back in awe of his size and majesty. She wept.

But a broken heart is a heart open. As her heart unfurled, she witnessed the full beauty of life itself. She perceived the still beauty of all that is and ever was. Silence held her like a summer’s twilight.

Understanding is a path toward freedom, the Seal King embraced her and whispered, “I will take you.”

Maebeh smiled a smile of dazzling beauty and instantly transformed into a beautiful amber seal. They swam off together leaving her husband and two boys to wonder what became of her that night.

After a month of searching, Ronan took the boys and traveled west along the Great Lakes to build a farm. The first full moon of summer they brought out the pearls, raised a glass to their lost mother and remembered her smile.