Far Above Pearls

My necklace needed a new clasp. It was a string of cultured pearls my mother-in-law had given me as an engagement present years ago. I brought it to the store and - for the fun of it - asked the jeweler if he could tell if it were real or not. He ran his teeth over it (if it feels gritty, it's real). "Nope," he said, "but it's a good quality imitation." How could that be? I took the pearls after they were washed and ran my teeth across them. The jeweler was right, they weren't real. Had my in-laws given me a fake? I left the necklace at the jewelry store.

On my way home, a thought struck me. My married daughter has a string of imitation pearls that looks like mine. Maybe the one I brought to the jeweler was really hers; she must have left hers with me when it broke. Where are my pearls, the genuine ones? I don't know; maybe they're lost - but at least the mystery is solved. A day or so later my daughter showed up ... wearing her pearl necklace! So, the one in the store was mine after all! My in-laws had given me a fake! Well, some people don't make a big deal about material things, I rationalized. If it looks nice, who says it has to be real? It doesn't mean that they love me any less, right? Despite these thoughts, I felt "done in." The next day, I brought the necklace home from the jeweler. While putting it away, I noticed something nestled at the bottom of the jewelry box, something white buried under all the other jewelry. I dug it out. It was a pearl necklace! I ran my teeth over it. Guess what? It was the real thing! My engagement present!

Where did the imitation necklace come from? I still don't know. Maybe it was put there to teach me a lesson: Don't jump to conclusions, no matter how strong the evidence seems.

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