My parents had been going at each other’s throats for what seemed like hours. I couldn’t take it anymore. I tried to distract myself by playing video games in my room. Even though I was playing with my headphones on, I could still slightly hear them yelling. Hearing how loudly they would yell at one another always made me anxious. I always thought that they would carry their frustration and put it out on me. That’s why I would always leave when the yelling would start so I could avoid it completely. I looked outside my window to a blue summer sky and knew I wanted to go for a walk in my neighborhood. I set my controller and headphones down and the yelling became more clear.
“All you do is sit around watching your stupid sports and never help with anything!” I heard my mother hiss.
“Oh just shut it, it’s my day off. Can we please not do this right now?” my father replied.
I didn’t feel like hearing their bickering so I put my other headphones on with noise cancellation. Noise cancellation is such a lifesaver. I turned my phone on, and to no surprise, I didn’t have a single notification. I was definitely not the popular kid. In fact, I would say that I was the opposite. I was the one always being picked on. I barely had any friends and tried to keep to myself and yet people would still find a way to bully me. Middle schoolers can be ruthless. I did have one friend though, her name was Maggie. She also kept quiet to herself most of the time, maybe that’s why we connected so easily. I thought of inviting her for my walk but I was in the mood for my walk to be just me and my music.
I slowly walked downstairs and out the door, trying to be as quiet as possible. I didn’t bother saying bye to my parents or telling them I was going on a walk because they would have just told me to do house chores that didn’t actually need to be done. As I closed the door I felt the hot summer air instantly overcome the space around me. The scorching sun slightly seared my skin. After walking a couple of blocks in my neighborhood, I felt a trickle of sweat drip down my neck.
I wasn’t physically tired but the heat of summer was catching up to me. My shirt stuck to my skin and the sun reflected the specks of sweat on my arm. My mouth was dry and I had a thirst that was like no other. I decided I was going to walk back home so I can cool myself off with a nice cold glass of sweet tea. I was sure that my parents had stopped fighting by then and were avoiding each other. I chose to walk back the route where I would pass Maggie’s house. As I was approaching her house I saw a table in the front of her lawn with a large paper sign saying, “Fresh Lemonade $1,” written poorly in black sharpie.
I stood staring from a distance, fantasizing about how refreshing a cup of ice cold lemonade would be. As I was walking closer to the table, I saw Maggie sitting behind it with an empty box, plastic cups, and a jar of lemonade. The sun reflected off of the condensation coming from the jar. Speckles of water sat on top of it as some became heavy and slowly trickled down. I stared at the jar as the back of my throat was crying for it and my dry tongue was begging to be revived.
“Hey Albert, you want some ice cold Lemonade? You look like you need it!” Maggie asked.
“I would kill for some right now,” I replied as I dug into my pocket for a dollar bill. “How long did it take you to squeeze out all that lemonade?” I asked.
“What?” Maggie asked, raising an eyebrow. “Oh! I forgot about the sign,” she chuckled. “It’s not actually fresh, it’s just from the store. But saying that it’s fresh makes it sound better and worth the $1 doesn’t it?”
“Yeah it definitely does,” I quietly chuckled. “Except, now I’m a little disappointed…but who cares! I need a cup right now please!” I cheerfully replied.
Just as Maggie was about to grab the jar of lemonade we both heard it in the distance. Our heads perked up in unison. It was the sound every child knows. The ice cream truck.
I quickly dug my dollar bill back into my pocket. As I did this, Maggie stood up knocking her chair over and started running towards the music. I ran with her as we were trying to decipher what turns to take in order to find it. The heat got to me and I felt like I was going to pass out, I couldn’t run for much longer. Luckily the music was becoming louder every turn we made. We were getting closer.
“Just a little more c’mon!” Maggie shouted to encourage me as I was trailing behind.
We took one more turn and there it was driving down the road. When I saw the truck I was surprised and slowed down. I’ve lived in this neighborhood almost all of my life and I have never seen this ice cream truck before. It had a large vanilla ice cream cone on the roof of the truck. The truck was pink and the paint was clearly old and looked like it had been chipping off for years. I decided that it must have been a new truck for my neighborhood’s route and continued running. I suppose the driver saw us running after it because it slowed down to a stop and waited for us to catch up.
As we walked up to the window we passed a poster on the side of the truck with a vanilla and chocolate cone. They looked like 50’s retro cartoon characters, with exaggerated eyes and stick arms with white gloved hands. Under their feet, in bold blue letters it read ‘Best Ice Cream in The World!’
There was no ice cream menu anywhere on the truck. Did they only sell vanilla and chocolate? I thought to myself. Maggie handed me her money for the ice cream and took a step back to let me order. We stood waiting for what seemed like 5 minutes. I looked back at Maggie with a face saying, what’s taking so long? Then, we heard the window click and slide open.
When the window slid open, my face got rammed with freezing cold air. Sparkling snowflakes flew out of the window, melting as soon as it hit my skin. You could hear the sound of the cold air whistling in the summer heat. How cold was the ice cream man keeping it in there? Literally everything was frozen inside the truck. From the counters to the cash register, if there was anything inside that truck, it was covered in ice.
I was quietly greeted by a tall, lengthy man standing with perfect posture at the window. He had on a retro outfit that looked like it was from the 50’s. A paper boat shaped hat sat on his head; he also wore a perfectly clean white apron. He stared down at us with an abnormally large smile. I could see my reflection on his bright clenched teeth. His clean shaven cheeks sunk into his face and he had large cheek bones. He simply stared at us and didn’t say a word.
“Um…” I stammered as I looked back at Maggie to see her reaction. She pouted her lips and shrugged. I turned back to the ice cream man and told him, “One vanilla and one chocolate please.”
Without saying a word or removing his smile, he turned around and started to put our ice creams on a cone.
“What the heck is going on?” I mouthed back to Maggie.
What kind of ice cream man was this? I thought. He didn’t introduce himself or even ask us what we wanted.
The ice cream man turned back around with a vanilla cone in one hand and a chocolate in the other. He stuck his arms out of the window to hand them to us.
“How much is that going to be sir?” I asked as I looked down to grab our money.
“It’s free!” I heard a high pitched voice in front of me exclaim.
I looked up to see the ice cream man still wearing his large smile. I was caught off guard that he actually spoke. I looked at him and could see his eyes become watery as one tear escaped his eye. Yet he still wore that smile. What’s wrong with this guy? I thought to myself. I went to grab the ice cream from his hands, when I saw his arms dripping. His arms weren’t dripping from sweat though, they looked like they were melting. His skin was dripping off onto the street and his arms became disproportionate. They looked like candlesticks dripping with melting wax.
I instantly took the ice creams out of his hands to help him with whatever was happening. When I took the ice creams, he pulled his arms back into the truck and wiped his eyes.
“Sorry!” he said. “Me and the heat don’t work together well,” he nervously chuckled. Through his smile he encouraged us, “Eat up! It’ll be the best ice cream you’ve ever had!”
I passed the chocolate back to Maggie since I knew that she liked it more than vanilla. The ice cream man stood at the window and continued to stare at us smiling. I felt so uneasy about the situation and wanted to leave.
Just as I was about to walk away with Maggie, I heard the familiar high pitched voice, “Well? Aren’t you going to eat your ice cream? You don’t want it to melt in this summer heat.”
“Are you going to watch us eat it?” I asked in an awkward tone.
“I just want to know how you guys like the ice cream, that’s all!”
I looked back at Maggie who reluctantly took her first lick of her ice cream. I took a step back and did the same. The ice cream man was right, this was the best ice cream I’ve ever had. The ice cream was so light yet creamy. So sweet and soft to the tongue. It was perfectly cold in the summer heat. My taste buds were dancing with joy. I couldn’t keep myself from devouring the ice cream. When I realized I had finished the ice cream I wanted more. I looked over to Maggie and she was also devouring hers. Chocolate covered her mouth as she kept eating.
I looked back to the ice cream man with begging eyes, “Can we please have another one? I’ll pay for both, I promise!”
He no longer had his large smile, it turned to a slight grin.
“Sorry kid, that was the last of the ice cream,” he shrugged.
“Please, there’s gotta be some left!” I desperately cried.
“Yeah, just a little!” Maggie added after finishing her cone.
“I’ll be around again soon. Come find me and I’ll give you more for free,” he winked.
“Why are you giving out ice cream for free?” I questioned him.
I wasn’t complaining one bit, I was just confused as to how he made money by doing that. The ice cream man ignored my question and closed the window. When he lifted his arm to close the window it was no longer melting. In fact, his arm was whole again, as though it was never melting in the first place.
The ice cream truck then drove away, without playing its music.
“Did you see that?” I asked Maggie as she was licking around her lips.
“See what?” she asked.
“The ice cream man’s arms!? And don’t get me started about that smile of his.”
“Yeah, that was so strange! He must have some sort of disease against the sun. Also sure his smile was strange but who cares? In the end, we got the best ice cream we’ve ever had and probably will ever have,” she said with hyper eyes.
“Also are we just going to skip over the fact that he handed us free ice cream and then drove away?” I asked.
“Albert, who cares!?” Maggie groaned. “We just had the best ice cream and it didn’t cost us a dime. Can you please just be happy about that?”
“I was just concerned is all. That’s not normal for people to do that. But I suppose you’re right, I should be happier about it. After all that was the best ice cream ever!”
“See now you get it!” Maggie punched my arm. “You have to come over tomorrow so we can find him again. I would kill for more, it’s so sad that in such a large truck, he only had enough ice cream for two cones.”
“I can’t get over the fact how cold he kept his truck inside!” I said.
“Hey, it’s none of my business how cold he likes his truck. As long as he keeps handing out that ice cream of his, that’s all I care about,” Maggie shrugged.
“Let’s go back to your place and I can still pay for some of your lemonade!” I said.
Although the ice cream was delicious I was still dying from the summer heat. The sun seemed to burn even worse.
“Okay, let’s go!” Maggie agreed.
I still found it so odd that he drove around a neighborhood to hand out free ice cream. It just didn’t make any sense. I knew Maggie would be annoyed with me if I brought it up again so I continued walking. Because of the heat I was slowly laboring behind Maggie. After what seemed like a day’s journey, we finally made it back to Maggie’s lemonade stand.
When we made it to Maggie’s stand, I saw that her arms were melting. Just like the ice cream man’s were.
“Maggie!” I shouted startling her.
“What!?” she jumped.
“Your arms!” I stammered.
“What about my arms?” Maggie asked as she turned her head to look at one.
Just before she looked at her arm, a little girl called out, “Hey! Are you guys the owners of this lemonade stand?” she asked as she walked over to us.
Maggie instantly looked over to her, “Yes it is! Would you like a cup of my fresh squeezed, ice cold lemonade?” She pitched, as she lifted up the jar of lemonade and gave me a sly wink.
“Yes please!” the girl giggled.
When Maggie grabbed the ice cold jar of lemonade her arms shifted back to normal.
As Maggie was pouring the girl a cup of lemonade she looked over to me, “What were you saying about my arms again?”
“I–”
“Yeah what about her arms?” the girl questioned. “They seem perfectly fine to me!”
“Maggie, your arms were melting!” I shouted.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I didn’t feel a thing. Here, take a cup of lemonade. I think the summer heat’s getting to you,” Maggie scoffed as she poured me a cup.
I took the cup with a shaky hand and drank it.
“Did you hear the ice cream truck a little earlier?” Maggie eagerly asked her new found friend, trying to start up a conversation.
“No, I didn’t hear anything,” the girl shook her head while taking a sip of lemonade.
“You must have missed it! There was an ice cream truck that me and my friend, Albert here, had to go track and find. And when we found it, it was like finding buried secret treasure!”
The little girl’s eyes lit up with excitement, “What do you mean?”
“It was the treasure of ice cream. This ice cream truck had the best ice cream in the entire world. No other place has it like this!”
I could see Maggie’s mouth practically drooling.
“Woah…” the little girl muttered, staring up at Maggie.
I pitched in, “I think someone’s obsessed–”
“And it was free!” Maggie cut me off. “Meet us here tomorrow at 1 and you can come with us when we find him again! He said he would be coming soon so that should mean tomorrow!”
“I can’t wait for tomorrow, it’s going to be all I think about!” I squawked.
I hung out with Maggie for a while longer until it got dark. Then I made my way back home. Luckily when I got back home, my parents were over their “yelling stage” and were in their “avoiding each other stage.” The house was going to be nice and quiet and I could finally relax. I walked upstairs to my room and plopped onto my bed, grabbing my gaming gear. I played video games until I glanced over at my alarm clock and it read, 12:16 am.
I should go to bed, I thought to myself as I shut off my TV. I quickly changed into my pajamas and crept under the covers.
My head fell and sunk into my pillow as I closed my eyes and quickly fell asleep. I had an amazing dream about the ice cream that we had eaten earlier. I was in a world where everything was made of that ice cream and I could eat it however and whenever I wanted.
In my dream I also saw the ice cream man. He would slowly walk towards me staring down at me with that large smile of his. I would try to run away but every turn I made he was there. Just before he was close enough to reach for me, I jolted up in a sweat. With my heart pounding, I looked over to my pillow and saw that it was drenched. Not only was my pillow soaked but so was the entire bed. I wonder how badly I was tossing and turning. I thought to myself.
I looked over to my alarm clock and 1:15 am shone brightly red. Just as I started to get up to change my sheets, I heard faint music. I sat down on my desk chair and listened closer and realized that the music that was playing was the same as the ice cream trucks. Why was the ice cream truck out this late? I thought.
The music was getting slightly louder as it seemed to be reaching my house, until out in the distance it stood still. It only sounded a couple of blocks away. The music in the distance was like a lullaby and I started to drift off back to sleep. Suddenly the music stopped and I opened my eyes.
I tried to focus and see if I could hear it again. When I was studying the air I couldn’t hear the ice cream truck’s music anymore. But instead I heard what sounded like a truck driving up to the front of the house outside my window. I got out of bed and crept open my blinds. I could see the ice cream truck parked outside of my house with the engine still running. A cloud of freezing fog sparkled around it through the bright moonlight.
Why was the ice cream truck here? I thought.
There was a dim light peering from the back of the truck.
After seeing the truck, my stomach grumbled. I craved the ice cream that was in that truck. My tongue wanted to jump out into the truck and drown itself in its ice cream. Maybe he came back because he has more ice cream! I excitedly told myself.
I quickly put on a shirt and slowly creaked my bedroom door open, hoping none of my parents heard it. I crept down the stairs and with steady hands I slowly opened the front door. When I walked outside, I could feel the cold air that came from the truck cutting through the heat of the summer night.
I walked cautiously to the back of the truck to where the light was coming from. The back of the truck looked like that of an ambulance and I could see through the two windows the ice cream man sitting down looking occupied. He was eating ice cream! I could see him slowly eating from below him with a spoon.
My cravings overcame me and I became jealous that he hid the ice cream. I caught him! I thought. He doesn’t have enough ice cream for us because he just eats it all!
Angrily, I quickly grabbed onto one of the handles and ripped open the door.
What I saw made me fall back in absolute terror.
Maggie was helplessly puddled on the floor. She looked like a large pile of melted ice cream puddling out of a tall makeshift microwave that somebody could fit into. The ice cream man was hunched over Maggie’s melted body eating her. He scooped some of Maggie onto a spoon and stuck it into his mouth. He kept the spoon in his mouth for a short while, savoring its bite.
When the ice cream saw me he dropped the spoon and instantly stood up, his back stuck in a hunch. I could hear muffled cries coming from Maggie through the puddling sounds of her melting. They sounded like she was saying “help me.”
That once creeping smile that the ice cream man always wore was nowhere to be found. Instead he had a look of rage, veins popping out from his forehead and an exaggerated frown. His teeth were rugged and no longer white. His bottom jaw pushed outward and drool dripped down his newly rugged chin. He heavily breathed and grunted as he walked hunched over towards me. I struggled to stand up and watched in horror as he walked up to the end of the truck.
The ice cream man stared down at me for what seemed like eternity. He snorted at me and then slammed the door shut. I then heard the sound of the emergency break release and the truck sped off. The heat from the exhaust bounced off my leg and got rid of the surrounding cold the truck had left. Thoughts raced through my mind, Who was I going to tell? How did Maggie get like that? But my most alarming thought was, Why is my leg melting right now?
Somehow I couldn’t feel anything happening to my leg. I remembered how the ice cream man kept everything in his truck frozen and when Maggie had touched the ice cold jar of lemonade her arms shifted back to normal. I quietly ran inside and put ice cubes in a bag. Well, here goes nothing I shrugged and applied it to my leg. My leg then shifted back to normal almost instantly.
Of course this had never happened to me or Maggie until we had eaten that mans ice cream. I should have just stuck with buying Maggie’s lemonade.
If you ever see your ice cream man start to melt, please… don’t eat his ice cream.