The Pearl.

The Pearl.

The Pearl was large and scintillating in a pinkish glow. I found the Pearl while eating oysters in France. It is the only time that I have ever had the good luck to find such a treasure and the owner of the restaurant told me that it is most unusual to find a Pearl in French oysters. Another diner in the restaurant offered me a considerable sum of money but somehow I had this feeling that this Pearl was meant for me and I refused. On my way home on the ferry from Calais to Dover I heard a passenger speaking about a man that had found a beautiful Pearl in an oyster in the restaurant where he had eaten his evening meal. Arriving home at my house on Dartford Heath I took the Pearl and washed it in warm soapy water. Carefully drying the Pearl I placed it in a wooden box that I had inlaid with smooth velvet and forgot all about it.

Some months later I was walking in the woods and heard the Fairies talking about a Pearl of great beauty that, if polished with a velvet cloth, would tell the owner his future. This got me to thinking what if my Pearl was the Pearl that could tell me my future. I was not sure that I wanted to know my future. I am the type of man that tries to take everything in my stride; knowing what would happen would spoil my style I am sure of this. I decided to see whether my Pearl was a teller of my future. Taking the Pearl from its wooden velvet inlaid box I carefully rubbed it. Nothing happened and I must admit I felt a bit of a fool for believing something that I had heard from the Fairies. I decided to go to my bed and forget the whole story.

The following morning everything that I did, everywhere that I went, I knew what was going to happen next. It was uncanny, this déjà vu of knowing all that I was going to do in advance. A very weird feeling I must say. My feet were moving of their own accord and I found myself standing in front of Her Majesty's cottage. My hand reached up and knocked on the Queen’s door. The door opened and Her Majesty invited me in to her cottage. Inside I heard my voice telling Her Majesty about my finding this lovely large pinkish Pearl in an oyster in France. My hand at the same time took the box from my pocket, opened it and placed the Pearl in Her Majesty's hand.

Her Majesty looked at the Pearl and turned quite pale. “Why have you brought this Pearl to me?” she asked. On seeing Her Majesty upset I quickly took the Pearl from her hand and replaced it back in its velvet inlaid wooden box. Her Majesty showed me to a cupboard and opened it. On a shelf were at least a dozen of these Pearls, each in a velvet-inlaid box.

"Mr Shaw," she said, "these Pearls with their boxes you have brought to my cottage for the last twelve years at regular intervals. I know they tell the future I like you also do not want to know my future place the box with the others and I will seal the cupboard again until you come back next year with another such Pearl."

Her Majesty then told me this story: "Once a year I went to France and found such a Pearl in an oyster. I was under the influence of a magician that had cast a spell on me. This would happen until my time was at an end.”

The wizard had made sure that I would take the pearl to Her Majesty - it was part of the spell. He hoped that Her Majesty would use the Pearl to show her own future and then she would be open to attacks from all bad wizards. By sealing the Pearls in her cupboard Her Majesty made sure that no Fairy would be involved in such attacks. I implored Her Majesty to stop me going to France. If I did not go to this restaurant I would never find another Pearl and this spell would be broken.

Her Majesty had tried every time that I brought her a Pearl to place me under a more powerful spell that would make me not want to go to France.

I had an idea: "Your Majesty, what if we placed one of the Pearls onto your magic mirror? It might show us which wizard it is that is making me go to France every year."

Her Majesty broke the seal to the cupboard and I laid one of the Pearls onto the magic mirror. I saw pictures of men placing small oysters on special lines and taking them out to a bay on the seashore. These fresh young oysters were left to grow in the seawater and after a couple of years the oysters were large enough to harvest. Then I saw a hand place a small piece of pinkish stone or gravel in one of the fresh young oysters. Her Majesty made the picture larger and we saw the wizard Killemdown. It was he that had cast this spell not only on me but also on Her Majesty.

Now we knew who it was the answer was easy. Her Majesty waved her magic wand, a shower of sparks went east, and the picture showed Killemdown changing into dozens of fresh young oysters. One of the fishermen placed the special cord with the new oysters in the seawater. I myself hoped that in every oyster was a small piece of grit so that each oyster would grow a Pearl that would be a fitting punishment for such a bad wizard, Bern.