The Sky’s the Limit: My Journey with Maryellen

We don’t need to be asked twice. Maryellen pedals so quickly she’s a blur. I’m close behind her while the other girl is running behind us yelling to give it back. Maryellen catches up with the boy first and swerves in front of him so he has to stop. The boy knocks Maryellen down and he falls to the ground, too. The bike skids sideways until it slams into a tree. Maryellen grabs the boy with one arm while he tosses something into the grass with the other. The girl and I catch up with a boy just as he disentangles himself and runs down the street. He taunts to the girl that she’ll never find it.

The girl asks if Maryellen is all right as she helps her up. Maryellen says she’s fine, but I can see her hands are scraped and dirty from the fall. I drop my bike and get on my hands and knees, searching the grass where I saw the object land. I hold up a small sharp rock that has been chipped into a point and ask if this is what the girl’s lost.

The girl smiles and says that it is. She thanks us. I ask her if it’s an arrowhead. She nods and says she found it in the woods. She’s found other ones there before, too, but this is the best specimen she’s ever dug up. She brought it home to clean it off and then her brother grabbed it and ran. She would’ve lost it if not for us. She says her name is Nancy. She says we can leave the bikes and come in to wash our hands.

I introduce myself as Sophie, and Maryellen as Ellie. Nancy leads us to her house. I feel a little weird, knowing it’s the house my grandmother lived in, too. I only visited here a few times when I was little, but I remember she had a lot of books. Nancy’s family is tidy by comparison. The house is spick-and-span. Nancy shows us her collection of arrowheads. She asks how I knew it was an arrowhead.

I tell Nancy that my grandmother collects them. She studies how people lived a long time ago. She goes to places where Native Americans and early settlers lived and digs things up, like broken old pots and stuff. Nancy is impressed. She asks if my grandmother’s an archaeologist. I nod. I’ve never thought of it as a big deal before. But Nancy thinks it’s fantastic. She says that it’s awfully hard to become an archaeologist. In fact, she wants to be an archaeologist, too, when she grows up.

Just then, Roy sticks his head into Nancy’s room. He tells her that girls are mothers or teachers or nurses or secretaries. Girls can’t be scientists. Maryellen and I both state staunchly that girls can be scientists. Roy leans against the door frame and sneers. Who’s ever heard of a lady archaeologist? He asks us to name one. Maryellen and Nancy triumphantly point to me and say that my grandmother is an archaeologist. Roy seems genuinely surprised before he slinks off.

Nancy turns to me and tells me to thank my grandmother for her. She’s given Nancy hope. Maryellen says my grandmother must be an unusual person. I nod. I don’t want to admit that I’ve never bothered to ask Gran about her work. It never occurred to me that she had to push against ideas of what girls could or could not do. I’ve always just taken it for granted that I can be anything when I grow up. Clearly it was not the same for girls in the 1950s.

When I get home, I also intend to ask Gran to tell me how she became an archaeologist. I wonder if there were people along the way who told her that she couldn’t, and if so, how she had the courage to ignore them.

When we get back outside, Nancy tells Ellie that she’ll probably need a new bike. We all turn to look at it, dismayed. The front tire is bent out of shape so that it wobbles wildly. The seat is sideways, and the handlebars are cockeyed. Maryellen says that it wasn’t a great bike to begin with. Now it’s really hopeless. I tell her that pretty soon, she’ll be tall enough to ride Carolyn’s bike. I’m sure she’ll hand it down when she outgrows it. Maryellen says she already has another bike at home. Davy gave her his when he outgrew it and got a new one. But it’s a boy’s bike. It has a bar across the middle. And she’s afraid that her friends will tease her. Girls don’t ride boys’ bikes.

Nancy says Maryellen should be like my grandmother. Don’t worry about what other people say girls can and can’t do. I agree. If Nancy can be an archaeologist, then Maryellen can ride a boy’s bike. Besides, she peddles so fast that no one will see the bike anyway. Maryellen laughs and promises that when she gets home, she’ll ride the boy’s bike. And if people tease her, she’ll challenge them to a race.

Nancy holds out the arrowhead. She says that we should all promise on the arrowhead that we will all be who we want to be, and do what we want to do, no matter what anyone says to discourage us. Maryellen and I put our hands on top of the arrowhead and promise together.

Then, Maryellen and I say goodbye to Nancy and wheel our bikes away. Maryellen does the best she can with the wreck of her bike. We turn to wave one last time when we get to the corner and Nancy calls out that she’ll never forget us, or my grandmother.

I feel my heart quicken with urgency. I don’t want to leave Maryellen, but I do want to go home and get to know Gran.