CULTURED PEARLS 

No different from rats injected with cancer cells for research and future profits, oysters are pried open and surgically implanted with irritating beads of shell. Pearls are born from their bruises and, after their removal, the oysters are rewarded with a squeeze of lemon and maybe a drop or two of Tabasco sauce.

The pearls will be trafficked to a big city where they’ll lose their virginity by having a silk thread penetrate their pinholes. Lined up, one by one, they will form springs of pearls which, according to their length, will become necklaces or bracelets.

After a lot of wear, the silk thread will break, setting free the enslaved iridescent orbs. They will run in all directions: some will seek refuge inside bathroom drains that’ll lead them to dark tunnels and, finally, foul-smelling underground canals.

Others will hide under furniture, or disappear inside thick carpets or between the nooks of old floorboards. The vacuum cleaner will usually take care of those, and bury them forever inside dense lumps of dirt.

If there are pets in the house, the pearls may be swollen whole and excreted later, but rarely retrieved.

The exhilaration felt at the time of the silk thread’s rupture is quickly tamed by a gloomy reality. Freedom does comes with a price.