Summary: A different ending to The Pearl by John Steinbeck. Short read.
A/N: This is something I wrote in response to reading The Pearl in class last year. I found it in a stack of papers and thought, why not?
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And Kino looked down at the surface of the pearl as he stood at the water's edge. In his hand it was heavy and large, but the pearl was still as beautiful as ever, its surface winking innocently at him in the light.
And in its surface he saw the eyes of the frantic man in the pool and his burning hut. He saw Coyotito with the top of his head blown away in the arms of Juana, a red blossom spreading from her chest. He saw the cave floor sticky with the blood of his family, and he smelled the smoke and death and gunpowder and he tasted bitterness and dust and saltwater. He felt the heat of flames and the greed in the pearl-buyers' eyes.
The stench of misery was in the air even now.
Kino looked at the pearl and he saw the destruction of his family and his home and his dreams. And with all his might he drew back his arm and flung the pearl as far as it could go, and he watched it drop into the surface of the water until it was no more. And he could no longer see the shining surface of the pearl.