Pearl Loves the Middle

Pearl is a happy little oyster, and Pearl loves ONE thing best of all: being right in the MIDDLE, with friends all around her.

When the cove is built, some tiles are on the edge, with only a few neighbours. But a tile in the middle? Oh, a middle tile can have SIX friends touching it - all the way around! And that is the coziest, happiest spot in the whole cove.

“Count them with me!” says Pearl, all snug in the middle. “One friend here… two friends… three… four… five… SIX! Six friends all around me! That’s a full, cozy middle. When a tile has all six friends around it, it goes cozy - like a warm hug from every side!”

Pearl watched the cove grow, and every time a tile ended up in the middle with all six neighbours touching it, that tile went warm and cozy and glad. “Six!” Pearl would cheer, counting them round. “One, two, three, four, five, six - all six friends! Cozy in the middle!”

The edge tiles were happy too, of course. But the middle tiles, with their full ring of six friends? Those were the coziest of all.

A grown-up can play too! Put one toy in the middle. Now put six friends around it, one at a time - count them! “One, two, three, four, five, six!” See how the middle one is surrounded, cozy, with six friends all around.

That is Pearl’s cozy joy: a tile with all six friends around it, snug in the middle - count them, one to six!

When a tile has all SIX friends around it, it’s cozy in the middle - count them, one to six! That’s Pearl.