Sandra and the Pearl
By Grandma Baadsgaard
Happy 9th birthday Sandy. I love you very much.
I hope you like this story I wrote just for you.
When her teacher made a
new seating chart, she moved Sandy next to McLain.
“McLain has trouble
focusing, sitting still and completing his work,” Sandy’s teacher whispered in
her ear. “I’ve noticed you usually get your work done early. Do you think you
could work with McLain on his assignments after you finish? Don’t give him the
answers. Just encourage him to keep working.”
“I’ll try,” Sandy
answered.
Sandy was a little nervous
about her new table partner. He was always making funny faces and loud
outbursts in class. Some of the other children teased him. But when McLain sat
next to her, she smiled.
“Hi,” Sandy said.
McLain didn’t answer. When
her teacher started their science lesson about oysters, McLain poked Sandy and
wouldn’t stop talking.
“Shhh,” Sandy said turning
to McLain. “I’m trying to listen. “We can talk at recess.”
McLain stopped talking and
listened for a few seconds. Then he poked her.
“Please don’t poke. That
irritates me,” Sandy said.
“The making of a pearl is a quite miraculous,”
her teacher said. “Unlike gemstones that are mined from the earth, pearls are
grown by live oysters deep in the sea. Gemstones have to be cut and polished to
bring out their beauty. But pearls need no such treatment to reveal their
beauty. They are born from oysters and their luster and soft inner glow is like
no other gem on earth.”
Sandy loved beautiful
things. She often searched through her Grandma’s old jewelry in round metal
boxes near the dress-up clothes when she went to visit. Sometimes Grandma let
her take something home with her.
“A natural pearl begins
its life as an irritating object,” Sandy’s teacher said. “Things like a piece
of shell, bone or parasite accidentally lodge in an oyster's soft inner body
where it cannot be expelled. To ease this irritant, the oyster's body takes
action. The oyster begins to secrete a smooth, hard crystalline substance
around the irritant in order to protect itself. This substance is called nacre.
As long as the irritant remains within its body, the oyster will continue to
secrete nacre around it, layer upon layer. Over time, the irritant will be
completely encased by the silky crystalline coatings. As a result, something
lovely and lustrous called a pearl is formed.”
McLain grabbed Sandy’s
pencil and started scribbling on her desk.
Sandy gently took the
pencil away and directed McLain’s attention to the front of the classroom where
their teacher was showing samples of pearls.
“Cultured pearls share the
same properties as natural pearls,” her teacher said. “Oysters form cultured
pearls in an almost identical fashion. The only difference is a person
carefully implants the irritant in the oyster, rather than leaving it to
chance. Then they let nature create a miracle.”
McLain pulled Sandy’s
hair.
“We don’t pull hair,”
Sandy said with a calm voice. “Pulling hair hurts. We don’t want to hurt each
other.”
When it was time for
recess, nobody wanted to play with McLain. One boy called him stupid and one
girl called him autistic.
“We don’t say mean words,”
Sandy said with a calm voice. “Mean words hurt. We don’t want to hurt each
other.”
Then Sandy took McLain by
the hand and they walked around the play-ground together. Sandy noticed McLain
was sad.
“Don’t be sad,” Sandy
said. “Sometimes my Mommy says hurry up Sandy. You’re too slow. But I don’t
like to hurry. I like to go my own pace. You just have your own pace for
learning McLain. You don’t have to be fast.”
After recess it was math
time and then it was time for PE. Sandy’s teacher was giving all the children
instructions on how to waltz. Each child chose a partner. No one chose McLain.
Sandy walked over and took his hand and danced with him. All the other children
stared at them and laughed when McLain tripped.
“We don’t laugh at each
other when we fall,” Sandy said. “Laughing hurts. I like your dancing McLain.”
McLain smiled.
That day when Sandy got
home from school, she told her dad all about pearls. Then they looked on-line
to find out more.
“Did you know that some
people used to believe that pearls were the tears
of God,” her father said after he read an article he found. “Other people
thought they were dewdrops filled with moonlight that fall into the ocean and
were swallowed by oysters.”
“I like that,” Sandy said.
“Did you know,” Sandy’s
father added, “that the coating the oysters make is made of crystals of calcium
carbonate aligned with each other so that light passing along the axis of one
is reflected and refracted by the other to produce a rainbow of light and color?
“I like that,” Sandy said.
The next day at school and
the next and the next Sandy made McLain smile. Then she made him smile every day after that.
“Thank you for being such
a good friend for McLain,” her teacher said one day after all the other students
had gone home.
On the night before the
last day of school, McLain got all the money he had saved all year and asked
his mom to take him to the jewelry store.
On the last day of school
while they were at recess, McLain’s took Sandy’s hand and pried her fingers
back until they were in cupping shape.
“This is for you,” McLain
said as he gently placed a small white pearl in the palm of her hand.
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