Mary Counts the Pearls
Once the big men leave, I begin cracking the bivalves, which comprise the catch, and making two piles from their halves: ones with pearls and ones without. This process kills the bivalve. When I’m done killing the bivalves, I throw away the empties. We are behind on our trash bill so I pack the empties into brown lunch bags which I bring into the city center and set down on a bench in the park. I sit in the park on a neighboring bench and stare at my watch periodically over the course of an hour. When an hour passes, I throw the lunch bags filled with empties into a park trash can, making a big show of shoving them in before leaving the rest to spill over the top. When I make my way back to the facility, I collect the halves of the bivalves from the pearls pile and deliver them to Mary.
A short story by Matthew Dix.