A hollow drum

Slid off the shopping cart and dragged my feet further down the alley until I hit a rusted metal fire door beside concrete steps. Sitting by the doorframe was an empty five-gallon plastic paint bucket, sun-bleached blue and caked with dried mortar. I grabbed the curved steel wire handle with both paws, heaved backward, and flipped the whole bucket upside down. Solid, hollow thud against the pavement. I hopped onto a cracked wooden shipping pallet beside it, gripped my metal bottle opener firmly, and cracked the steel hook right against the thick rim of the inverted bucket. Crisp, booming pop. I shifted to the flexible plastic center—deep, punchy kick that rattled in my chest. Worked a tight four-four cadence between the hard rim and the center head, letting the plastic boom bounce off the brick walls.