Crystal marbles¶
The crystal marbles are perfectly spherical, clear, warm and extremely hard spheres hoarded by several members of the Marblehead church, one of which the Biz pockets and insists is a diamond.
| Type | Item |
| Aliases | crystal spheres; diamonds; the marble; shoebox of clear marbles |
| Holder | Jester, Amos Shaw and Arnold Weathers each held a stash; the Biz holds one |
| First appearance | Summer Service 01 |
Description¶
The spheres are clear, a little smaller than an ordinary marble, and sparkle intensely with the chromatic scatter of high-quality quartz or other gemstones. They feel warmer than glass, very smooth and surprisingly light, "like plastic" in the Biz's pocket (Summer Service 01).
Properties¶
They are extremely hard. When the Biz drags his new carbon-steel pocket knife along one, the blade visibly blunts and the sphere is not marked (Summer Service 01). The Biz announces to the group that the spheres are diamonds, and Rita's Andrew repeats the word to Big Bill, calling them "weird, perfectly spherical diamonds" (Summer Service 03). The episodes never establish what they are, or whether they are payment to the congregation, a by-product of the worm infection, or something else. In Summer Service 05 Dante jokes, "Synthetic or no, we're obliterating the diamond market." (Summer Service 05)
History¶
- Jester's bag. At the inn's front desk the Biz finds an open bag of about a dozen marbles that Jester left behind while arguing in the back room, in which the words "weather", "quarantine" and "unbeliever" are audible. Jester returns and snatches the bag back, but the Biz has palmed one (Manipulate Someone, 7). Later he shows it to a little girl at the Scott house, who is uninterested and asks for coffee. At day's end Jester is frantically rooting around his desk (Summer Service 01).
- Shaw's nightstand. In the "murder house" Huell finds roughly ten pounds of clear spheres in an improvised plastic grocery bag in Amos Shaw's nightstand. He leaves them in place and keeps quiet that the Biz called them diamonds, and McManley bags them as evidence (Summer Service 03). See Amos Shaw's house.
- The Biz's temptation. The Biz considers buying a new car with a diamond, then reconsiders (Summer Service 03).
- Before the selectmen's meeting. Ezra jokes that Jester "did lose a very valuable diamond recently" (Summer Service 04).
- Arnold's shoebox. In Arnold Weathers' house, Huell finds two sets of the town's financial books (Two sets of financial books) and a shoebox in a closet absolutely full of clear marbles. He takes both back downstairs and hands the marbles to the Biz (Summer Service 05).