The Wide Rim of the Bucket by Mary Ellen Pape

Up and down. Up and down.  Out of the corner of her eye, Sara caught a flash of pink. Sara looked to her right. Five-year-old Lucy was stubbornly pushing a sandcastle bucket against the stream’s cold current. Sara ruminated on the bucket, which she knew was not Lucy’s. Where did it come from? Sara knew that Lucy’s mother, Mary, had brought some blankets for their outing to the park, but Sara could not recall her good friend packing any beach toys in the car.

 Sara surveyed the line of kids dotting the stream. None of them paid any attention to Lucy. Sara sighed. The bright, eager young girl was left alone playing in the stream. Sara watched as Lucy soon became listless. Lucy began to collect river rocks while still holding tightly onto the pink beach bucket in her right hand.

A father stood by watching his children. Lucy confidently walked up to him and started chattering away. Sara listened as Lucy gabbed on about her discovery of secret shells which grew on the bottoms of the rocks she had collected. Sara, protective of Lucy, gauged the man’s expression. Sara’s opinion was that he seemed to be an uninspired sort of man. He appeared confused as to why Lucy was having a conversation with him. When he finally spoke, the father’s reply was polite and dramatized. Sara groaned inwardly. She recognized the condescending high pitch he used as one reserved for even smaller children.

Sara’s body tensed as childhood memories of loneliness flooded her. Sara had struggled throughout her academic career for authentic friends. It really wasn’t until she had graduated from college that friendships stuck. Watching Lucy, Sara felt the hunger pains of loneliness once again. Lucy’s sadness was palpable.  

Sara instinctively knew that Lucy’s isolation needed the attention of her mother. Sara wrestled internally with the difficult situation unfolding before her. How could she relay her own childhood sadness without offending Mary? Sara offered up a brief prayer for Lucy to be able to make friends during their trip.  

The pink bucket continued to bob up and down. Sara watched as Lucy’s attention was sucked into the natural push and pull of the water. Various volumes of water poured into and out of the bucket through its wide rim. Lucy continued to wade in the rocky stream. The urge to secure friends for Lucy erupted once more in Sara, and she turned to Lucy’s mother. 

“I’m going to wade in the stream. Want to join me? I’m sure the stream will soak through our only pair of shoes as well as the bottom of our jeans.” Mary laughed. She was always up for an adventure.

Sara’s goal was simple: to be the friend that Lucy needed. Alongside Mary, Sara waded to the depths where Lucy was swinging the faded, pink beach bucket and lovingly dumped several rocks into it. Mary could hear her daughter’s surprised giggles resound and proceeded to give her a wet hug. Sara was relieved watching Lucy’s wide smiles appear. Sara noted that it was a chilly day but that the stream had been warmed by the August sun.

Mary Ellen Pape lives in Syracuse, New York with her husband Earl. Her proudest moment of 2022 is when she exchanged wedding vows on June 18th. Besides learning to navigate her beloved new role as a wife, Mary Ellen is spending this year working as a home health aide for the elderly and catching up on her never-ending stack of unread books. Last year, she taught 5th and 6th grade English Language Arts at Faith Christian School in Roseto, Pennsylvania.