Largest Natural Saltwater Pearl

Courtesy InternetStones.com

Amanda Zee and Adam Furness were new staff coders at a highly successful Silicon Valley startup called Spaceway. Truly, outer space was the limit as far as what their products could do. Fresh out of Stanford and MIT, the two of them were trainees in two different branches, so they didn't meet while training. Mostly their work involved either working alone or collaboratively on large touch screens. With all of the amenities at the Los Altos location, they could be seen taking advantage of the cafeteria, the gym, the game room, or the outdoor track and pool. All designed to give employees a break during highly stressful coding sessions that sometimes lasted many hours nonstop until an objective had been met.

Adam, while at the swimming pool, diving off the high board, perfecting dives involving twists and somersaults, noticed a ravishingly beautiful Asian woman watching him. Sometimes from the pool as she was swimming, and sometimes when she would stop walking wet, ringing out her long hair and flipping it over her shoulder out of the way. When he retreated to one of the benches to get some sun, dry off and rest, the woman climbed the high board and did an exquisite twisting single flip, entering the water with nary a splash as if to challenge him. Adam waved a V sign to her, and she lifted her hand in response, but exited the pool by the other side and went back in the building. Even if he had the chance to talk to her, Adam was too shy to do it.

There was nothing wrong with Adam. For a geek, he was very fit. But in high school, with all of his interests and top grades, he was ostracized by the jocks and all of the average kids who went to state colleges and joined fraternities. Adam had a good sense of himself and didn't care whether he was "popular" or not. The only girls he dated, rather unsuccessfully, were geeky girls who were mostly greatly out of shape or had some other bad habits like binging on video games or certain types of junk food that made him gag. Never gave him opportunity to learn how to talk to a girlfriend or a woman except his mother who was single and hard-working to pay for maintaining their expensive Boston home and its mortgage after his father died in the Iraqi war from an IED. After three or four years, sympathizers no longer came around and his mother had to carry the financial load herself. Adam did his part by volunteering and getting scholarships. Did some tutoring on the side for money so he didn't have to ask his mom for any.

Adam saw her again in the cafeteria. She was with some of the women. And he was with some of the guys. This happened again several times. But he didn't t have the nerve to go over and talk to her, although he did see her glance his way a time or two that he tried not to return, but found that he did anyway, trying not to stare.

Finally, one day when he was in the gym doing a routine that he normally did, Adam saw her out of the corner of his eye coming his way and getting on the machine next to him. He could hardly contain himself. Adam wanted to say something to her, but wasn't sure what to say. I really like your bod? You sure are hot? Want to go on a date? None of them made any sense, so he didn't say a word and tried not to glance at her flexing muscles. She had set the machine at a high rate of difficulty and was showing it--sweating.

After exchanging glances for some time, Amanda calmly said over her exertion, "I saw you diving the other day. You have great form and confidence off the high board. I like it too, among other physical tests. I find these machines rather boring, don't you?

His tongue untied, Adam had to answer. "I much prefer going outdoors and doing more natural things like walking on mountain trails, but the weather was pretty bad today and that's why I came in here and did my usual reps in order to keep my muscles in tone working so long every day at the smart panel."

"I feel the same way," she responded clearly straining under her exertion.

Not knowing what to say next, Adam just blurted the first thing on his mind. "Tomorrow, if it's nice, would you like to join me on the trail?"

"That would be great. I've been running alone there for a long time. Some of the women runners aren't as fit as I am and can't keep up with me. Hell, most of the men either…" She giggled at the thought.

"I know what you mean, I have the same problem." And then, Adam thought out loud, "Oh, no… Not women, just men." His face grew red and it wasn't from the exercise.

Their routines over, Adam stood close by as they both wiped the glistening sweat from their bodies with their towels. Each sizing the other up and not trying to make it obvious, even though it was. And then, they both went off to their separate showers and back to work.

The next day, in the cafeteria, Adam spotted Amanda sitting alone at a table and took his tray over to sit next to her. Immediately, after saying, "Hi," and sitting down, he could feel her warmth and vibe as though there were Wi-Fi between them. Whatever she was wearing smelled heavenly, like jasmine.

Conversation suddenly became easy and they began telling each other about each other. Amanda told Adam about her strict Chinese father and mother in San Francisco's Chinatown where they both were accountants. She was not allowed to date. So her only escape from home was to enter sports in high school so that she could be with others and not have to stay at home after school and listen to her mother or father scold her about not doing well in her homework. But when she got a full ride at Stanford, they changed their tune and began to brag about her to family and friends.

"So, while I participated in swimming, diving and track at Stanford and made some female friends, I didn't have a social life because during all breaks I had to return to Chinatown where my parents would ask me to continue my studies online so that I would be better than everyone in my class. And I was." She hunched her shoulders and frowned, showing a humility in her that he liked.

"I tested and my grades and interests were so high in high school, that I didn't have any real friends. There were those that came to me asking for favors like doing their homework for them that I had to decline. But my social life was cut short by having to work and help my mother support us. I did get into doing things on my own, researching ideas, that no one else understood except me."

"Sounds pretty lonely to me. But a good-looking guy like you… And really smart, too. You really caught my eye. I'll have to admit. Not many like you around."

"I'll have to say, 'Ditto,' to that." Adam blushed at the thought and Amanda caught it with a twinkle in her dark eyes that told Adam more than if she had said something.

They made plans to meet for an evening run at 6 pm and both left the cafeteria glowing with having made a new kind of friend in the business of hard-core out-of-the-box technical innovation. Sometimes, cutthroat competition. Both back to work with a newfound sense of purpose.

Spaceway hired both of them full-time. Flush with money, they both bought high-rise studios in buildings within walking distance of each other. Dating, they took in much of what the Bay Area had to offer… Diving, surfing and fishing on the coast. Climbing, skiing and camping in the Sierras. And driving to the various scenic places up and down the state, hiking the trails and occasionally viewing the wild side south of the border. But the state of California was coming apart from prolonged drought, wildfires, inequity in pay between the fieldworkers and service people being driven from their jobs by robots and cut out of the good life that California offered most. Unable to pay for even housing with what they were paid.

The crowding, air quality and concern for water were a bit overwhelming even though both worked online after a while and didn't have to concern themselves with what was happening on the streets until they went outside and started to experience it. They took to leaving on jet planes to other parts of United States and some tours to foreign countries. Finding that in some foreign countries conditions were getting worse.

They didn't marry because Amanda's strict Buddhist parents forbid it. Although they seemed to like Adam, they were too set in their ways to accept him. Although Adam was able to send money to his mother, she had married a man that he didn't get along with and he stayed away from them unless he had to. That guy, Mark, had eyes all over Amanda every time they visited. He wanted to give the guy a black eye over it, but that would've only angered his mother and made the situation worse. Besides, Amanda laughed it off, saying, "Oh, Adam, don't worry, I get that all the time. I know enough karate to give him a bit of pain if he tries to touch me in the wrong place."

One of the places they visited on brief vacations was New Orleans. They loved the people and style of life there, similar to San Francisco, where waiting for the "big one," made it all the more urgent to live fast and let what happened, may. The only difference was that everything was a lot less expensive in New Orleans. Anywhere in the Bay Area cost at least twice as much. Their studio apartments were already overflowing with things they had acquired and the thought of having children or pets seemed out of reach.

Amanda wanted a house. Growing up where she did in crowded Chinatown, and then ending up in that studio apartment after she was earning good money, she convinced Adam that it would be a great idea to look into New Orleans real estate. They contacted a realtor on one of their trips there and took a look to see what they could buy for $600,000. Each of their studios was worth about $450,000, so if they both threw in together half, or $300,000, on a house in New Orleans upon selling their studios, both would still have $150,000 each to invest in whatever they wanted. The move to New Orleans would be easy because they were now doing 90% of their work online anyway and could go to 100% without any trouble.

Stan Boudreaux, the realtor, showed them some palatial homes and some of the nicer communities that had survived Katrina quite well. But then, he told them about something they hadn't thought of. Stan, after hearing their comments about having to renovate almost all of antebellum type structures, complaining that they were too far from the French Quarter and too expensive to renovate, said.

"Why don't you buy one of the abandoned houses and completely rebuild it?"

Adam was intrigued. "What do you mean?"

"In the area that was badly flooded they have rebuilt the levees. But many of the elegant homes located right next door, within walking distance of the French Quarter, have been abandoned and never restored after Katrina. If you don't mind, there are a lot of vacant lots you can buy for a song."

"What's a song?"

"Depending upon the house, $50,000-$100,000." Rebuilding with all of the contractors in town constantly doing reconstruction after hurricanes, usually runs $200,000-$300,000."

Amanda was intrigued. "Show us some."

On a lonely street with only two or three houses, all grown up with weeds and some debris left from that terrible flooding after Katrina, they found what they were after. A strong Victorian three-story with good bones that had been ravaged, first, by the flood, and later, by illegal inhabitants long driven away by the authorities because the area was rebuilding and there were new houses being built, showing a resurgence of the tax base.

The house was up for sale by a bank for $75,000. Stan told them, "Go for it!" They made a bid of $70,000. The bank had the house for over two years on its inventory and was most willing to get rid of it.

It didn't take long for Amanda and Adam to agree on what would be going into the house. While it would retain its regal Southern looks and charm, the interior would be updated and opened up to the light with solar panels and a steel structure that would withstand the strongest hurricane known. The final budget came to $350,000, far less than the other houses they were looking at and right next to the French Quarter.

After moving their work operations to a nearby hotel, Amanda and Adam sold their studios quickly because there were so many young techies just starting out in the Bay Area gobbling up anything they could buy. Demolition had already begun. A workman, Andre Ward, up in the attic, was working on a replacement metal roof that was guaranteed not to peel back under hurricane winds, when he came upon a small black box that was padlocked and hidden up under the eaves. When he came downstairs for lunch, Amanda was there overseeing other demolition.

He approached her. "Miss Zee, Ma'am, I found dis ugly box up in de attic. Don' know why anyone would put a padlock on it? I didn't find the key neither, but it rattles, so there's somethin' in it. Do you want me to break it open for ya?”*

"That would be nice, Andre. It sure looks old and weak. I think a hacksaw would cut it open easily."

While eating his lunch on the run, Andre got a hacksaw and started sawing. Amanda was right, in no time at all, his mouth full, Andre's sawing broke through and the hasp was released. She looked on with anticipation as he opened the lid so she could look in.

The box contained five pieces of jewelry: a necklace and bracelet of silver with red rubies set with small diamonds and a ring and tie clip in gold with emeralds. The cuts of the stones and the design of the jewelry was very old, antique. And there was one, very large, pearl that seemed out of place.

Andre remarked, "Some nice jewelry here, Ma'am. If I was a thievin’ man, I would’nya showed it to you, an’ snuck off with it so’s I could wear that ring. Maybe sell that other stuff or give it to Myrtle (Andre's girlfriend). She woulda really lik’d it even though it's not her style." His expression showed more than what he said about her taste.

"I see what you mean, Andre." Amanda unzipped and reached in her belly purse to see what she had by way of cash. "As a reward for finding it, here's $160, that's all I've got on me. Will that do?"

"Sure will. Mighty kinda you, Ma'am." Andre returned to eating his lunch with gusto having made a little money on the side. More than he thought he would.

When Adam saw what was in the box, he was intrigued. "That pearl seems overly large. I wonder what it's worth?"

"I'll take it to a jeweler tomorrow and see."

The next day found Amanda at a jewelry shop in the French Quarter. She asked the old man at the counter if he could appraise some jewelry she had.

"Depends. My eye, it not so good as use to be for sure. But I'll take a look see for you."

Amanda opened the box and spilled the contents out on the counter. Catching the pearl to keep it from rolling away. The old man turned on a light mounted on a swivel mount and pulled an eyepiece from his drawer to take a look. He picked up each piece, looked at it very carefully, turning it around looking for marks and other identification going… “Ahh…Mummm… Okey…"

Finally, he looked up from those investigations. “Dis is really old stuff. Nineteenth century. Don't see it much anymore, even from old estates. Mostly melted down with the stones recut and remounted. I can give you $500 for the jewelry. Dat pearl, now she is something different. Never saw one so big. I could give you $1000 for it but I wouldn't be able to sell it here. I suggest that you try Sothby's. And have them auction these off for you. Wouldn't trust the local auction house with that pearl. Cheat you, Ma'am."

Amanda thanked the man and was already searching the Internet before she arrived back at their hotel room. Under good light, she photographed each piece front and back until she had good photographs to send to New York. It wasn't long before she got an excited email back.

"Amanda Zee,

Thank you for the pictures of the jewelry and the pearl and thank you for the ruler alongside of the pearl giving us some sense of its size. We did some background checking on the items and found that they were stolen about 75 years ago from the LeBlanc estate in New Orleans. Emile LeBlanc was a New Orleans entrepreneur and explorer. One of his ventures was hiring native divers in the West Indies retrieving large very old oysters that yield the best pearls. They are all gone now.

In 1905, one of his divers discovered the pearl in the picture, nearly spherical and .73 inches, the largest found in the Caribbean, ever. After he lost his family to a shipwreck during a hurricane in 1923, LeBlanc became a recluse in his home in the Montclair so huge smile Quarter for the rest of his life. Except for his meager staff he was little seen venturing out until he died in 1930 after taking a big hit in the Wall Street crash of 1929.

The estate lay vacant until 1937, and boarded up, but that did not prevent the theft of those pieces. Easily recognizable from their features and marks. They are well-known by antique jewelry connoisseurs. I was quite shocked when I saw your pictures that they had been found. My rough estimate is that the four pieces of jewelry will bring $100,000 and the pearl about $50 million. But you never know.

I suggest that we have the auction right there in New Orleans, rather than here in Manhattan because that's where the interest in these pieces will be. Please screen face me to set up arrangements for the auction.

Best regards,

Malcolm Perlmutter

Chief Appraiser and CEO,

Sothbys.com"

Amanda printed the email almost crying from laughing, and texted Adam as she rushed to find him. They met in the foyer of the house where she started to read the letter with a silly grin on her face. She was reading too slow, so Adam grabbed it out of her hands and then, scanning it quickly, gasped when he discovered the estimated amount for the find.

The first thing he said was, "You're gonna have to give Andre and that whole crew a much bigger reward for this!" With that, he leaped into Amanda's arms, picked her slender body up, off the ground, and spun her around like a top until they both were dizzy, falling to the ground, rolling around on the hardwood flooring and laughing their heads off.

It was late in the day, but not closing time yet in Manhattan, so Amanda pulled out her smart pad, found Perlmutter's phone number listed in the site map of Sothby's, and called.

An overly dressed middle-aged man with the right white accents to his curly dark hair and cherub like looks over rimless glasses smiled when he saw the two of them, sweating in their work clothes on a typical New Orleans summer day with no air conditioning.

"Hello Mr. Perlmutter." Amanda introduced the grinning man by her side. "This is Adam Furness, my partner in life and this project where we found the jewels and the pearl."

"The find of a lifetime. We love it when that happens. Call me Mal." He chuckled. "Have you thought of a location for the auction?"

"No, we haven't. We couldn't have it here, this place won't be finished for another three months."

"How about the LeBlanc Manor? The Internet says that the New Orleans Heritage Society took over the place in 1955 and has managed it ever since as a museum of fine Antebellum housing right there in New Orleans. It was damaged during Katrina, but probably is restored by now. You could give them a donation for the use of the place for the auction. A percentage?"

"That sounds great. We are just here working for as long as it takes to get this place in order so that we can move in. If you could do the arrangements that would be wonderful."

"If you will accept our standard fees… You can view them on the website under legal documents… We will take it from here and do all of the arrangements, promotion and the auction. I am looking forward to coming down and overseeing the auction myself."

Within a month the auction was held. Because of the fervor created worldwide upon finding museum worthy pieces of nineteenth century jewelry and the largest known spherical pearl from the Western hemisphere ever found, the bidding was fierce for all of the pieces both on the Internet and in person with billionaires present. The four jewelry pieces sold for $1.3 million. And the pearl, for $79.3 million. Adam and Amanda were shocked standing there with their champagne. They clicked their glasses together, kissed, and toasted their good fortune.

After paying Sothby's, their crew a bonus, taxes, the Heritage Society and helped out both families in San Francisco and Boston, they still had enough money to buy three more houses in the neighborhood and renovate them in the style they deserved. And their plan for their house was revised so that the house was raised, along with the others, and given higher grade upgrades for all of the interior furnishings. When they were all through, six months later, the whole neighborhood had increased greatly in value, improved New Orleans's tax base and brought in old residents who had regrettably left during Katrina and never came back. Enticed now to return to their old lifestyle with more safety and security.

Amanda and Adam started up their own online ventures and made millions more over time. They still had time to mentor New Orleans youth and venture-capital projects they thought had a chance from young entrepreneurs. They knew that their adopted city was doomed as storms grew greater and more frequent every year with storm surges that would eventually breach the levees and walls, but they kept the myth going, and near the end of the century, they abandoned the city along with everyone else for higher, weather safer places.

Nothing is forever, not even the pearls of the ocean.

Copyright 2020 © Ronald W. Hull

9/23/20