Beadzig - The Great Bead Adventure

I'm Beadzig. I was once a bead. I don't remember exactly when I was made but I remember my cooling and seeing the world around me for the very first time. It was a very different world then.



It was a simple life, hanging around in bowls with all my bead friends, talking about where we all came from, wondering what kind of necklace or special pair of earrings we would be chosen for and dreaming about the great adventure. New beads came and old friends went. It was something we were all used to and accepted. The new beads would tell stories about old beads they had known, beads that lived in far away palaces, beads that decorated great queens and kings, beads that traveled the seas and crossed great lands and beads that magical men and women of power wore and respected. This was the great adventure.

Almost every bead had the wish to be strung into a glorious piece that would last forever so they could travel with their bead friends and become a family. I had never been on string and for a while I even dreamed their dreams of the glorious forever necklace. I tried very hard to be like the other beads but I knew there was something odd about me, something different from the other beads. I came to learn that I am terribly afraid of string, stringphobic even. Call me a neurotic bead but the idea of being confined to one piece forever is terrifying.


I could hide my peculiar phobia no longer when one day I was taken along with a handful of other beads to be strung. Everyone was happy and preparing for their great adventure but I had a huge impulse to run. So I ran. I scurried across the floor and hid behind something really big for a very long time. I watched feet pass, beads fall, beads get picked up. Humans came and went and I stayed behind that very big thing until one of the furry creatures found me and wanted me to move around, lots. I tried to roll back to a safe corner, under or behind something but I was picked up. I was destined to be strung. I faced my fear and prepared for the inevitable.

To my surprise however I was picked up and put into a bag with some of the other beads and we were sealed off from the light and carried far away. I could feel the gallop of horses and the rocking of waves. I could feel the cold crawling into the bag where we all huddled together.
Then one day I could feel us being picked up. We were all freed from the bag onto a soft piece of fur. I immediately tried to make my escape again using the momentum of falling out of the bag to roll away but was caught within moments by a very friendly hand. I was looked at and then heard a long "hmmm" and "ahhhhh", then I was carefully placed away from the other beads on the fur. After a long while two of my friends were set next to me and then we were taken up by the kind hand and put into a soft, small new pouch that smelled like leather and sage.

We could hear the heart of the human thumping against us. Sometimes I could feel the hooves of a horse carrying us quickly to some place and every so often we were taken out of the pouch and placed on soft fur where a sweet smoke was blown over us and we were looked at by the human with the kind hands. We lived like this for a very long time.

One day we heard much commotion in the place where we lived. Hustling and what sounded like weeping. We were lifted and I could tell we were hung next to our kind human but I could not hear the thumping of the heart and the skin did not warm us like it usually did. Then it became especially dark and we lay still for a very, very long time.

There are stories about beads lost forever and we accepted this to be our fate. We spent some time talking to the voice of the human that once carried us. He was sad for a while but we helped cheer him up and then he said he was ready to cross the river of life. He thanked us for being with him and helping him and went his way. After that we occasionally would talk to the voice of a bear or a raccoon but we mostly talked to each other and made up stories. We could hear the sighs of of season's passing, the whispers of fall, the groan of winter, the giggle of spring and the song summer would sing. We told our stories, slept a lot and forgot about time all together.

One day we were stunned by a huge noise. So huge we thought for sure that the giant bead crusher of legend had found us. The ground shook and we were rocked this way and that. Our little bag tumbled and bounced and then a hint of light peered through the pouch for the first time in ages. We were lifted up and our little pouch home was opened. We were rolled out of the little bag but just as I was about to hit the palm of our discoverer's hand I had a giant impulse to run! So I ran. I will never know why I ran but without being noticed I quickly tumbled to the side of the hand and then fell onto the dusty ground. I saw my bead friends put in a little white box and carried away never to be seen again, by me anyway.

I sat there in the dust and the sun came and went, the rain came and went. This was a very noisy place - banging, drilling, rumbling and digging. Giant trucks passed all day long and I was very nearly crushed on more than one occasion. Whenever I could I would roll here and there. Then one day all was quiet. The next day all was quiet and the next. Finally after many quiet days I was picked up by a young girl who was playing in the field near where I lived. She picked me up and lifted me to her twinkling eyes and smiled a huge, happy smile. "We will always be together!" and she closed her little fist around me and held me tight. And we were together, for a very long time.

She always held me close or carried me in her pocket, she would talk to me about her own adventures, sometimes happy sometime sad. One day when the bright little girl was much older she tenderly held me then passed me to the tiny hand of a young friend and said "Keep this very special bead to remember me by. We both have been many places and seen many things. It is a very lucky bead. But don't ever string him... he is terribly afraid of string."