The next day was Sunday. Dani
decided not to wear, touch, or even think too much about the pearls until
tomorrow, when she would wear them to work. There they sat on her night table,
and their gleam in the morning sun was not at all as pleasant as it had been
the day before—looking at them made Dani think of the frowning princess and her
cry of, “Give me my pearls!” She could almost see the princess’ frowning face
in the largest pearl.
Dani
avoided looking at mirrors. She chose to wear an old t-shirt and tattered old
shorts so she wouldn’t have a reason to look at herself. She took a breakfast
muffin from the bread box and made herself comfortable on the living room sofa
with a book. She rested her feet on the arm of the sofa, nibbled at her muffin,
and realized that she wasn’t taking in a word of what she was reading. The
princess’ shrill little voice blocked out her thoughts so that she couldn’t
concentrate—“Give me my pearls!” She closed the book and growled in
frustration. Is she a ghost? Dani
wondered. Is she haunting me? She hadn’t seemed very much like a
ghost. She was more like a fairy. Dani was angry for having to think about her
at all. “They’re my pearls now,” she
said to the air out in front of her, “and you are very irresponsible for losing
them!” She returned to her book, hoping
that would be the end of it. But sure enough, that shrill voice made its way
back into her mind to say, “Being irresponsible is not as bad as being a
dishonest thief!”
“I’m
not a thief,” Dani said aloud. “I didn’t come into your house and take them
from you. You carelessly dropped them and you didn’t bother to come back for
them. Clearly, I know how to take better care of them than you do, and so I
deserve them more!” Dani knew that what she said was wrong, but she would
rather be wrong than have to give up the finest jewelry she had ever owned. “I
refuse to continue this argument,” Dani said before the voice could have a
chance to say anything else. She couldn’t go on reading; she had been
interrupted enough times to have gotten bored of reading. She decided that she
wanted to go to her room and play with her jewelry and makeup, before she
remembered that she would have to look in the mirror for that. More than
anything, Dani did not want to look in the mirror. She knew what she would see.
It
was the beginning of May, and the day was warm and bright. It was a good time
to begin working on a golden summer suntan. Dani went outside and began moving
her lawn chair to the sunniest spot she could see…
“Thief! Scoundrel!”
Dani
ignored the voice. She smiled satisfactorily at the patch of sun she had placed
her lawn chair in. She took off her shoes, sat down, and stretched out her
legs…
“Wretched scum!”
She
covered her ears, but what good was that when the voice was inside her head?
She shook her head as if trying to shake it from her mind.
“Villain! Devil! Trash!”
Dani
groaned, pulled at her hair, and smacked her head. Still, the voice continued
to shout every name and horrible insult it could come up with. She couldn’t
find any peace. She didn’t want to tan, and the day was no longer pleasant.
Suddenly, she hated those pearls. As beautiful as they were, she didn’t want
them anymore if they were going to cause so much trouble.
Dani
stomped back inside, slamming the door hard enough to rattle the picture frames
on the wall and the knickknacks on the shelves. The voice in her head subsided
as she headed for her room, and ceased completely as she eyed the pearls lying
on her night table. But the moment she laid eyes on them, she realized that she
had been mistaken; she couldn’t give them up, not to anyone, for any reason.
They were hers, and their beauty would be tarnished if they were worn by anyone
but her. She had looked like a real princess at the bar last night—nobody had
noticed, but she had. She had to keep them for work the next day. She would
wear them with her blue satin dress and rose-printed tights.
Dani
went to her jewelry box and took out a gold necklace with a pendant featuring
three large ruby drops. It had been a gift from an old boyfriend of hers. She
approached the mirror, placed the necklace in front of it, and said, “I am
keeping the pearls, but you can have this necklace. Rubies are much showier
than pearls anyway.” She knew that no ruby could be more splendid than those
pearls, but still she hoped that the princess would accept the gift and give
her some peace.
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