‘Darling, this is something you’ve got to know,’ Jennifer says.
‘Um-hum,’ Emma murmurs.
‘I’m serious.’
‘Okay, what is it?’
‘You have to pay attention to the unit price.’
‘Unit price, what?’
‘See, you have two different jars of Nutella: 450 grams for $5.50 and 950 grams for $9.95. The 450-gram jar costs $12.23/kg, and the 950-gram jar $10.47. So, which do you buy?’
‘Mom, that’s a no-brainer, the big one! I love Nutella.’
Jennifer laughs. ‘I think we need to revisit this with a bag of peas.’
Emma rolls her eyes.
Jennifer and Emma start unloading the shopping cart standing behind a teenage boy. The cashier grabs and scans his item. ‘Beep,’ the scanner fails to identify it.
The cashier grabs the silver mic, ‘Price check, aisle five. Family pack of 12 condoms with strawberry-flavored lubricant.’ She turns to the boy and winks.
Emma, laughing, buries her face into Jennifer’s shoulder as Jennifer leans down and continues to unload her groceries, exposing her pearl necklace.
A woman with perfectly dyed hair and a large diamond ring comments, ‘Wow, that’s a beautiful necklace.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Where’d you get it? I have to have one.’
‘I made it.’
‘What? So those are fake?’
‘No, they’re real.’
‘What? Where are they from? Arabian Gulf, Red Sea, Strait of Manaar, Myanmar?’
‘No, Baja.’
Of course. I should have known with that creamy pink color—Baja. And that explains how you got your hands on them.’
Jennifer and Emma look at one another
‘I’ll buy them from you.’
‘Sorry, they’re not for sale.’
‘$10,000?’
Jennifer does not respond.
‘$20,000? That’s way above their value by my estimation.’
‘Hold on a sec, I have a coupon,’ says Jennifer.
‘No worries, take your time, hun,’ responds the cashier.
‘$30,000. Clearly, you need the money,’ says the woman, gesturing to Jennifer looking through her wallet.
Emma looks at the woman, and Jennifer says quietly, ‘Let’s just mind our business.’ Jennifer hands the money and a coupon to the cashier. ‘Here you go.’
‘Great, thanks! Have a great day.’
‘You too.’
‘My offer stands. When you change your mind, contact me on Insta, my handle is LovemyLouie. $30,000.’
After putting away all of the groceries, Jennifer reaches behind her neck and undoes her necklace clasp. In her hands, she slowly passes each pearl between her fingers as though she were a pious Catholic monk using a rosary. After completing the full length, she places the necklace onto the purple velvet cushion on a glass-topped table and closes the top.
‘Mom.’
‘Yeah?’
‘What’s with your necklace? Why do you touch every individual pearl before putting it away?’
‘I’m counting them, revisiting a special moment in my life.’
‘What?’
‘After college, I packed my bag, crossed the border, and found a job on Isla Espiritu Santo in the Cortez Sea. In the evenings, I fished for dinner. Life was simple. Balanced. A local guy showed me how to harvest oysters. Two days later, I found my first pearl! The beauty search overcame me. All of my free time, I searched and found 58 more pearls, each one a unique affair. The search became my life, and suddenly, when I had to leave, it was over. So, I guess when I count these 59 pearls, I try to extract that feeling, always searching for beauty.’
‘It’s going to be so great tonight,’ says Makayla on the phone.
‘Yeah, I’m going to go wild. I am so tired of being the girl who gets straight A’s,’ says Emma.
‘What’d you gonna wear?’
‘Pink! Hot pink. High plastic boots, a mini skirt, and a super tight strapless tube top, also pink.’
‘Wow, Emma, you’re pulling out all the stops. See ya tonight.’
‘Definitely!’
‘Emma.’
‘Makayla.’
‘Ya look amazing! I can’t believe your mother let you wear her necklace to the party!’
Emma raised her shoulders.
‘You didn’t ask.’
‘Let’s go up on the balcony,’ Emma says.
‘Aw, Ben’s up there.’
‘Come on. Let’s go,’ Emma says, grabbing Makayla’s hand.
‘Hey, Emma.’
‘Hey, Ben.’
‘You look great!’
‘You too.’
‘You want to do something crazy, Emma?’
‘Sure.’
‘Let’s jump.’
Ben, taking Emma’s hand, begins to count, ‘On three. One, two, three.’
They jump and fall into the water. The instant Emma’s face hits the water, she feels a strange sensation caressing her face. She thinks about the necklace.
‘It’s gone,’ she screams and starts uncontrollably crying.
The loud music with a pumping bass is turned off.
‘What’s wrong, Emma? Are you hurt?’ Ben says in a panicked voice.
‘I…I…I lost my mother’s necklace. It’s gone.’
‘It’s okay, we’ll find it.’
Makayla scurries around the pool, explaining the situation to the people in the pool, who start diving to look for the missing pearls. Thirty seconds later, a junior surfaces and holds his hand in the air, blurting out, ‘I found one!’
‘Me too,’ another girl says.
One after another, pearls are found and placed in a short, hand-blown green tumbler.
‘Morning, Emma. You got home late. How was it?’
Emma nervously shovels her cereal into her mouth and answers, ‘It was good.’
Emma watches Jennifer as she reaches for the necklace.
The doorbell rings. ‘I’ll get it,’ burst Emma.
Ben, covered in sweat, stammers, ‘I…’
Emma steps outside and says, ‘What?’
‘Last night, after you left with the repaired necklace, I drained the pool.’
What?
‘I found it, the last one.’ Ben opens his fist, revealing the missing pearl.
Emma grabs the pearl and says, ‘Thanks, talk to you later,’ and shuts the door.
‘Emma?’ Jennifer says, securing the clasp of the necklace, stepping towards her with a straight face. ‘Did you forget anything?’
Ashamed, Emma looks at her mother. Jennifer smiles and pulls Emma’s phone out of her pocket, holding it up and shaking it twice.
Emma’s pupils dilate. She extends her arm and opens her hand, revealing the missing pearl, and says, ‘Yes.’
Jennifer smiles, and after a brief pause, says, ‘Swap?’
Emma nods and says, ‘Yes, swap.’