The Princess and the Pea

A string of green pearls ran around Pearline's neck. Not real ones though, the plastic kind. It was her dream to own the real ones. The rare green pearls that came from the black lipped oysters. She lived at a bar and helped to pour beer and clean. She saved up enough to be able to buy one real pearl. She wore it with pride instead of her costume jewelry and was laughed at for doing so. She then got a locket necklace and put the green pearl inside the locket.

She kept the pearl as her little treasure vowing to save up slowly to get an entire sting of pearls. The ladies at the bar thought it was a silly idea. Why care about that when she could update her rag clothes or find something nicer to eat besides the soup she regularly made. Pearline wanted the pearls for her namesake though and wanted the goal to work towards. Everyone also said she was so pretty she looked perfectly fine in her sewn together rag skirts.

One morning when she went to open her locket and touch her pearl, it wasn't the same! The texture was different and she ran down to the kitchen to hold it next to a pea. It was a pea! 🫛 Someone had replaced her precious pearl with a pea. Distraught at the betrayal, she asked around and put up signs all over about how important the pearl was to her and to please return it.

This caused an uproar at the bar she worked at. Distrust was all around that any item could be replaced within a given moment. Anything remotely valuable could become a piece of food or a poorly made rendition of the original. The bar keeps kept touching the chairs, knocking to know they were still real wood. They kept tasting the beer to make sure no one replaced the liquid with some other brew. There was constant looking at the glasses to see if they had been exchanged for plastic.

The prince of the village saw these signs and thought it admirable that someone put in such effort to find such a small item. He then added to the sign if the pearl was returned to him, he would give them several other pearls of their choosing in return. A tattered man came by and they exchanged the stones. The prince found Pearline and gave her back her original pearl and some more little green pearls he bought for her to add on with her first.

She thanked him and blushed in thinking about the Prince caring to step into her search. "Dear Princess and the pea," he said at her.

"I am no princess," she replied.

"You will be when I invite you to my castle," he held his hand out and she took it. She was glad the issue was solved and they bar would return to less paranoia. Finding out it was not anyone who lived at the bar area, it was a man who lived by the lake was wonderful news!

The Prince and Pearline spent much time together and he came to love Pearline. She was gifted many green pearls drop earrings and bracelets from the prince. She began to wear beautiful pink gowns with green pearl buttons and baubles. He eventually one day proposed to her with a green pearl pea pod ring and the village called her Princess Pea Pearline. She enjoyed the origin of how she met the prince so much, she bought many green round items for the palace, turning the home into a pea palace as they lived happily ever after.