The Bucket Dilemma
A Cozy Comedic Micro Fiction Story
I wrote this story last year for the 500-word Fiction Challenge by nycmidnight. For this challenge, I was put in a group of 20 other writers. Each group is randomly assigned a genre, an action that must take place and an object that physically appears in the story. My genre was comedy, my action was a mistake occurring and the object was a bucket.
It was my first time entering a writing competition and I’m proud to say that my story came 5th in my group and I progressed to the next round. Unfortunately, the genre in my next round was horror and I bombed haha. Anyway, I was really happy with that result on my first try. Hope you like this little story!
The Bucket Dilemma
In a suburban home hit by a toy tornado, we meet Emily, a well-meaning yet frazzled mother, and her mischievous toddler, Max. That morning, Emily found herself in a wild juggling act at the dining table. With one hand pounding the keys on her laptop, and the other shuffling through a stack of papers. It was the morning of an important work presentation, and her stress levels were skyrocketing.
In her stress-fuelled frenzy, Emily made a mistake in her work. She flailed her arms in frustration, propelling her coffee into a table-wide tidal wave, transforming her pristine pile of papers into a soggy paper mache experiment.
"Aw, f**k it!" Emily exclaimed, her usually composed facade unravelling like a ball of yarn in the paws of a mischievous kitten. To her horror, Max, who had been playing nearby, immediately perked up and echoed, "f**k it!"
Emily's eyes widened in shock. Her innocent little parrot of a toddler had just repeated the not-so-innocent phrase she'd let slip.
"Oh no Max, ah, that's not what mummy said!" Emily back-pedalled desperately, her mind racing to think of a way to cover her tracks. But Max was having none of it. With a mischievous glint in his eyes, he continued, "F**k it, f**k it, f**k it!"
Panicking, Emily's thoughts went into overdrive. How was she going to make sure Max didn't innocently drop an F-bomb in public?
She looked around the room, her eyes landing on a bright yellow bucket sitting by the door. Inspiration struck. She lunged for the bucket and brandished it like a prized possession, all the while chanting, "Bucket, Max, bucket!"
Max looked at her, baffled by her sudden attachment to the item, but his curiosity got the better of him. He toddled over, reaching out for the bucket.
"Good job, Max! You said 'bucket'!" Emily praised as if teaching her toddler a new word. Max giggled, seemingly satisfied with this newfound game.
Over the next few days, Emily went to great lengths to reinforce Max's association with the word 'bucket'. She started a bucket-themed day, involving bucket pouring games, bucket hats, and even building sandcastles using, you guessed it, buckets.
Amidst the bucket-themed fun, Emily's prudish, elderly neighbour, Mrs Thompson, dropped by for a surprise visit. She noticed buckets scattered everywhere and looked utterly puzzled.
Just as Emily was about to come up with a convoluted explanation for the mess, Max tugged at her pant leg and pointed towards the famous yellow bucket. "Mama, look, f*** it!" Max exclaimed innocently. Emily's eyes widened, and she turned beet red.
To her surprise, Mrs. Thompson burst into laughter, nearly toppling over. Relieved, Emily couldn't help but join in the laughter. Even Max chimed in with a giggle.
With buckets now cemented into Max’s vocabulary, Emily realised that shielding Max from cheeky words was like trying to stop a leaky bucket with a sieve. Instead, she was able to add a new skill to her resume: “tot profanity patrol officer”.