Pearl (story)

• Cinema - pearl fisher .
• Juana is his wife.
• Coyotito is their baby.

The story about which the author tells, passed from mouth to mouth for many centuries.

Events unfold in a small village on the shores of the Gulf in the Mexican part of California . The main character, Kino, a poor pearl-catcher, wakes up in his hut, next to him is his wife Juana and baby Coyotito, sleeping in a box suspended from the ceiling. Suddenly, Kino sees a scorpion sting a child. The cinema manages to seize and crush the scorpion, but the poison has already penetrated the body of the child. Juana is trying to suck the poison. At the cry of a child, neighbors come running: the scorpion bite is very dangerous, and Kino carries the boy to the house where the white doctor lives. Having learned from the servant about the arrival of Kino, the doctor says that he does not want to treat "some Indians" for insect bites. Kino also has no money to pay for a doctor's appointment, and the servant informs him that the doctor is not at home. Having experienced a sense of shame, humiliated Kino returns to his hut.

This morning, Kino, along with Juana, goes to the shore of the bay to start catching pearls. He sits in the boat, taking the basket to which the rope is tied, its other end tied to the stone. This is a primitive, but reliable fishing gear. Cinema is heading for a pearl beam. He starts fishing. "Youth and pride" allow him to be under water for more than two minutes. He works slowly, chooses the largest shells. Suddenly, he sees a large shell, which lies alone, without relatives. Intuitively, he feels that it contains something special. Cinema raises the sink to the surface. The cinema does not dare to open it for a long time. Finally he opens it with a knife. Before him - a huge pearl, "not inferior in perfection to the moon itself."

Juana gasps for joy. She looks at Coyotito, she notices that her son’s edema subsides, and that his body has been overcome by poison. Cinema screams with happiness. Meanwhile, the village lives its own life. No sooner had Kino, Juana and the other catchers reached the huts, as the message already rang in the village: “Kino caught the Pearl - the biggest in the world”. All instantly change their attitude to Cinema. Everyone thinks about the benefits that can be derived from this.

And Kino surrenders to dreams - what will he use his wealth for. He wants to get married with Juana in church, buy a new sailor suit for Coyotito, send him to school someday. But a local priest is already in a hurry in his hut and asks for money to be disbursed to the church. A white doctor appears. He is ready to treat his son Kino and gives the child medicine for which he only gets worse. During the second visit, the doctor pours the child into the mouth of a drug, after which the matter is getting better. Thus, he demonstrates his healing power, hoping to get a good reward. Now Kino needs to sell the pearl to pay off the doctor.

To this end, Kino goes to La Paz, a nearby town. Everyone is eagerly watching him. Now Kino has to face buyers who act together: their main goal is to deceive, to bring down the price. One by one he passes Kino out of the office, but he hears everywhere that "the pearl is not so perfect." Both Kino and Juana feel that a lot has changed. And not for the better. The pearl hunt begins.

One night someone enters their home and hurts Kino. Juana proposes to destroy the "unkind" pearl, but Kino refuses a similar undertaking. They go to bed again, but Juana quietly gets up and takes the pearl to throw it into the sea. Angry Kino rushes after her. On the way, some people attack them. Kino kills one of them and shouts to his wife to take the child and hurry to their boat. But it soon turns out that the bottom is broken in the boat. Cinema hurries to the village and sees that its hut is engulfed in fire. With his wife and child, he hides with his older brother, and at night he secretly leaves the village. They move quickly, but soon notice the pursuers. The fugitives hide in the crevices of the cave. At night, Coyoteto begins to cry. It seems to the pursuers that this is a coyote, and they shoot towards the cave. They kill the baby with one shot, but Kino manages to first put the knife into the gunman and then shoot the others. The next morning, Kino, his wife returned to the village. Behind Juana is a bundle with a calf of her son. The cinema stops at the bay and hurls a pearl into the sea.