2© Crescentlite
Ice cream [n] a frozen sweet food made of milk or cream and sugar
Finally after a record of 10 minutes, Carmen could no longer stand the continuous buzzing around her table light.
SLAP
She killed it. Satisfied, she made her way to the bathroom. Washing the dead matter from her palm, she heard an all two familiar ringing sound.
The Ice cream man she thought.
Old Mr Cortez was a Spanish immigrant that came to LA for investment purposes but got cheated of his entire wealth. He filed for bankruptcy in 1973 before taking a job as the friendly ice cream man she knew today in the tiny neighborhood of Westview.
A pang of jealously shot through Carmen as she heard cries of joy from the neighbors' children. Carmen peered out of her window and saw an exchange of $2, $1 and even $5! She wondered what sort of ice cream would cost that much. Of course you must be thinking Carmen must have tyrants for parents. So tyrannical that they don't even allow their only daughter to have ice cream. And for good reason too. You see, Carmen Faustina was a 14-year-old girl with asthma. Her parents don't exactly have wealth amassing to millions neither, so a daily trip to the doctors would cost far too much, even if it meant sacrificing her ability to enjoy ice cream. Childhood fantasies destroyed just like that by poverty.
Old Mr Cortez seemed to sense someone staring at his provision of delicious multi flavored ice creams. Pausing his scooping for a brief moment to satisfy his curiosity, he found himself staring straight into the chestnut orbs of Faustina. Giving a kindly smile at the young girl, he thought of how she had never bought an ice cream from him ever. He hadn't even seen her eating ice creams bought from any stores for that matter. How odd. He thought. Then he went back to scooping and thoroughly enjoyed the smiles on his little customers.
Jimenez Jenina J.A smirked at her archenemy, Carmen Faustina. She knew of Carmen's asthmatic problems. She had even teased her about it. Jenina was one of those act-above-all people. One of those seemingly perfect and flawless angels who turn their backs and backstab everyone they deem fit. She had really forgotten about the reason she had set Carmen as her new target. It was something roughly along the sides of a teddy bear. Grabbing her double scoop chocolate chip ice cream top with more chips, Jenina strutted up to the window Carmen had her cheeks pressed on.
"Ice cream FALSE-tina?" She asked in an all too annoying high-pitched voice.
"Not if you have touched it. Besides, you know my condition. You are trying to make things difficult for me aren't you Acdal? [A/N: The J.A behind her name stands for Joy Acdal] Wasn't it all over a stupid teddy bear? My stupid teddy bear?! For goodness sake, it's not even your teddy bear you ripped the arm off! Why are you kicking such a big fuss out of it?! Just because I have it doesn't mean you must have it! You are just a stuck up self-centered immature person."
Jenina, shock beyond words just stared at Faustina with the melting ice cream in her hand. Shocked back to reality by the sudden coldness on her hand, she grimaced at the ice cream drooping all over her hands. She then looked up at Carmen, and smashed the ice cream into the window. Dipping her hands later into the decoration mini pond displayed on the lawn, Jenina gave a smile to indicate yet another victory and left the Faustina property with a triumph look that would have been wiped off if not for Carmen busying herself trying to get rid of the ice cream stain.
A few minutes in the commotion, Old Mr Cortez had already left with his jingle van of ice creams to another neighborhood for more business. Carmen sighed at the now empty spot where Cortez and his van stood a few minutes ago. At least the laughter of children won't bother me anymore. She thought bitterly.
The wet rag in her hand made contact with the chocolate chip stain on the window. Tempted, so very tempted she was to just lick up the ice cream. That's so gross Carmen Faustina! How could you even be so desperate! Plus it's that evil Acdal's ice cream. Even if she gives me a million bucks I will never lick it up. Ok, maybe for 2 million I might. Ahh! Look what Acdal has done to your pride. Bad Faustina. Ice Cream is not worth a lifetime of over budget medical treatments! She thought and halfway shuddered at the content in her head.
Finally cleaning off the last spot on her window, Carmen decided to take a walk along the Westview Avenue streets to take her mind of Jenina.
RING RING!
"It's the ice cream man! Mummy mummy can I get some ice cream! Please!" shouted a bubbly kid Carmen recognized as 5-year-old Alex Diego. Alex tugged at his mother's flowery dress and showed her a puppy dogface. Mrs. Diego finally gave in to her son's wishes and brought him to choose an ice cream at Old Cortez's van.
Carmen secretly made a face at little Alex. As kind as Mother Teresa could be, Carmen still couldn't stand the injustice brought to her ever since childbirth. She still recalled her first lick of ice cream at 3 before she was diagnosed with asthma. Oh the heavenly taste of the smooth creamy chocolaty flavored ice cream stuck to her taste buds like glue and erm… glue. How she had taken for granted that time she tasted her first ice cream. People said the first kiss was special. To Carmen, every first thing was special. In this case, it referred to ice creams. Then the terrible thing happened. After her third bite, Carmen started to hyperventilate very fast. Puffing for air her features were scrunched up and twisted in agony. Clutching her chest Carmen tried to scream for help and attract the attention of her parents. Mrs. Faustina screamed for her child. She had long thought asthma to be hereditary and since no one in her or her husband's family had asthma, she wondered where that could come from in the blood. Mr Faustina whipped out his cell and dialed the 911. Panicking when he kept pressing 9111 instead of 911, he finally got the right number. Minutes later the paramedics arrived and set to work on Carmen and her seizure. Due to a delay in treatment, her conditions worsen. Adding to the lethal formula her tender age, the paramedics crossed their fingers and hope she would be able to survive this first attack.
Shaking at her memory, Carmen silently cursed at little Alex while he and his mother made their way back into the house. Somehow, a sudden force of evil or attraction attracted her to the ringing sound from the van. As more and more children moved away with their tasty and colorful ice creams, licking at it like nobody's business, Carmen became more and more hypnotized by the ice creams. Unaware of her increasing proximity towards the van with every passing second, Carmen dug her pockets for coins and notes to buy her ice cream. Old Mr Cortez smiled at Carmen as she finally appeared in front of his van for the first time.
"What can I get for you young lady?" He asked good-naturedly.
Carmen stared at the wonder that as before her. Tens and tens of different flavors stood out in their full splendor and seemed to glow in her eyes. Slightly repulsed by the sight of chocolate chip because of the earlier incident with Acdal, Carmen went ahead with a vitamin C enriched Mango Ice Cream.
"And that would be $2.50 please." Smiled Mr Cortez.
Placing her wealth onto the counter top, Carmen made a count.
One rubber band, no make that two rubber bands. Marble. Folded sheet of paper. Handkerchief. Ahh, money. 50, 50, $1. Shoot I'm still short of 50!
Carmen shook her head at the ice cream man and slowly walked away. Such was Heaven's way with doing things. Mama was right, what's not yours, will never be yours.