Summer of Pearls by Mike Blakely Read Free Book Online Page B

the shell. Billy Treat had found a pearl.
    â€œWow,” I said, before I could consider all the ramifications of the find. “Hey, y’all, Billy found a pearl!”
    Cecil and Adam stopped arguing and looked. They jumped to their feet and hung over Billy’s shoulders to see. Billy had that faraway look in his eyes again, as if he was thinking of someplace else. It almost seemed like he was afraid of that pearl.
    â€œHey, Esau!” Cecil shouted.
    â€œEsau!” Adam repeated.
    â€œBilly Treat found a pearl!” they yelled together, as if they had rehearsed it.
    Esau rose slowly, but Judd Kelso floundered as if wasp-stung getting out of his chair.
    I envied Billy something terrible at that moment, and resented him a little, too. What was he going to do with that pearl? I knew what I would have done with it, if I could have found the nerve. But I didn’t have the pearl. Billy did. And in my eyes, he had nerve enough for ten men.
    I had heard about Caddo Lake pearls all my life, and had seen several girls wearing lopsided ones given to them by their beaux who had been lucky enough to find one. But this was the most beautiful one I could imagine. It was fairly large—bigger than a raindrop. It had an overall white color, but little windows of blue and green and red and purple kept appearing within it, blurred and indefinable. A prismatic haze seemed to cling to its surface like a fog.
    I smelled whiskey over the stench of the mussels when Esau and Kelso arrived.
    â€œWell, I’ll be damned,” Kelso said.
    â€œThat’s one of the best I ever seen, and I’ve lived on this lake forty years,” Esau said.
    Billy looked up at the old Indian. “Pearls are common to this lake?”
    Kelso was squinting his gator eyes, scheming.
    â€œMaybe not common,” Esau said, measuring his words. “But they
turn up. I’ve found a couple myself over the years. Nothing as pretty as that one, though.”
    â€œWhat do people do with them?”
    â€œWell,” Esau said, glancing at Kelso. “A young man might give it to his sweetheart, if he’s got one. A daddy might give it to his daughter to play with.”
    â€œNobody ever sold them?” Billy asked.
    Esau wrinkled his old dark face. “They ain’t worth nothin’.”
    â€œThey’s worth somethin’ to me,” Kelso blurted. He pulled a large roll of bills out of his pocket and peeled one off. “Here, I’ll give you five dollars for it.”
    â€œWhere did you get all that money?” Billy asked, his voice flat and emotionless as ever.
    â€œNone of your business. Here’s five. Now, give me that shell slug.”
    â€œFor five dollars?” Billy said.
    â€œAll right, ten!” Kelso peeled off another bill and shook it in Billy’s face.
    â€œDon’t sell it, Billy,” Cecil said. “Use it yourself.”
    I pushed Cecil and he looked at me as if I was crazy, but the whole incident was making me mad. I didn’t want Billy using the pearl the way Cecil was suggesting.
    â€œUse it?” Billy said. “Use it for what?”
    Kelso laughed. “I’ll use it. I’ll take it over to Pearl Cobb and get my piston stroked.” He peeled another bill from his roll. “Fifteen. That’s as high as I’ll go, Treat.”
    Billy looked up at Kelso. “What do you mean by ‘getting your piston stroked’?” he asked.
    Now, even I knew what he meant, and I was only fourteen years old, but I guess Billy wanted to be certain.
    â€œPearl’s a whore!” Cecil said. He was so red in the face, you would have thought he had found the pearl.
    I shoved him hard in the chest. “She is not!” I shouted. I was getting really mad now, and so frustrated I thought I would cry.
    â€œShe’ll be a whore tonight!” Kelso said, grinning idiotically.
    Billy looked up at Esau.

    The old Indian took a sip from