We tried to put them back in balance, but it was impossible: there was always something missing, a needle-sized piece of shell or a filament of silk thread. We tried to add other things, hoping to find the missing piece: an earring with a pearl or several strings of pearls; or a necklace that held together another necklace; we added bracelets and rings. But when we had gathered all these objects on one scale, it became clear they were not enough to restore the original equilibrium between the egg and the flower. The shell, the flower, the bowl, and the egg, all had the slightly pointed arch of a scale, the kind in which snakes are wrapped, and lizards, and fish, and the kind that could weigh the most diverse objects, but only if they were in equilibrium.