"Rickety"

“Rickety”

By: Dustin J. Pari

06.25.2016

It was the last day of school for Beans, my daughter, on Tuesday the 21^st of June 2016. I wanted to do something special for her, as she was just finishing up the 3^rd grade. Time seems to be going quicker these days, quicker for me than I would like it to be; the non-stop hustle and bustle of it all. Each day seemingly filled more and more with the plastic nonsense of this world rather than the things of substance; soulful, loftier things. I can clearly recall the day of her birth 9 years ago when the doctor handed her over to the nurse to be cleaned and little Beans grabbed me by my pinky finger; nothing has ever been the same since.

So in order to make the most of the opportunity in front of me, I hurried home from work and made it there in time to pick my little girl up and whisk her off to the movies despite the traffic that attempted to thwart our path.  We went to see Alice Through The Looking Glass, the follow up to Alice In Wonderland.  The theater was empty when we went in and so we were able to take our usual seats in the middle of the top row.  With a large tub of buttered popcorn between us, and a swirled slushy in our hands, we embarked on a fantastic journey of whimsy along with Dorothy, Hatter, and their friends.  My daughter has a slight cat obsession, so Cheshire is her clear favorite.  The movie was quite enjoyable and I was thankful for our time together. Interesting thought in retrospect as so much of the movie was about time itself.

As I try to do quite often, I make efforts to add to our experiences with a little next level idea. This time I had purchased some Alice characters for one of our video game systems and had them nestled in the passenger seat of Maggie May, my big blue Dodge Ram truck, for my daughter to find upon our return. She was quite excited to see them and climbed up into the cab.  As I went around the other side and slid behind the wheel, Beans drew my attention to a solitary red plastic shopping cart that sat alone in the parking lot beneath a streetlight. 

There were no immediate stores near the movie theater so she wanted to know where it was from. I explained that there were quite a bit of stores in the shopping plaza as it was about a half of a mile in length. That answer did not quite satisfy her curiosity, so moments later there we were, the two of us joining the lonely red carriage under the buzzing glow of the flickering streetlight. 

The little red carriage had the name of a liquor store upon its side in tiny white print.  She asked me where that store was and I explained it was at the other end of the plaza, the very last store.  She didn’t even need to ask the next question, for in my heart I knew this night would see the two of us escorting the wayward cart back to its rightful place in the world.

“But Daddy it’s an outcast! It’s a misfit! We have to bring it back! Can we?” she exclaimed as she grabbed the shiny metal handlebar and looked up to me for approval.  I agreed and saddled up alongside her to start our little quest through the empty parking lot.

As we walked through the plaza past the gymnasium, the breakfast diner, and the materials store, we had a great little discussion about misfits and outcasts and how we should always look out for each other. She named the cart “Rickety” as it did have a penchant for wobbling along the asphalt. But, as rickety as he was, he still should be with his family, and we were just the people to bring him there according to my little one.

I explained to her, as best a father of 39 can to his daughter of 9 years, that we are all called to help each other through this life; those that are like us, and those that are not.  We must always look out for those in need, for we all stumble sometime.  Kindness is what matters.  Having a helpful heart, despite the circumstances and the opinions of those around us, we must do what we know to be right. It is a big lesson; a lesson that some people sadly never seem to learn, yet one that is so very key to our human experience. Perhaps some might think it is too big a lesson for a small child and a red shopping cart named Rickety, but I feel it is a lesson that knows no age limit. Plus, who knows when I might have time to teach it again?

As we strolled up to the closed liquor store behind the red frame and the shimmering handlebar of the once lost shopping cart, we corralled two more strays that went unnamed, and returned them all to the front of the store, parking them beneath the still glowing neon signs.  The other carts all sat inside the glass windows staring out at us thankfully.

My daughter pushed on the handle of the cart once more, saying, “There you go. You’re home now.”

Tim Burton’s work with Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through The Looking Glass was very well done, but the story of Rickety is the one I will always remember fondly.