Part 7/8C: The Day The Ice Cream Melted
The soothing, childlike music filled the street and children ran from all around towards the ice cream truck, like moths to a flame. The Ice Cream Man slowed and pulled over, and extended the Stop Sign that would let people know that there were children present, and that they must yield and protect the small lives that would soon blossom and meet their futures, however bright or disastrous they might be.
"I want a Guile ice pop!" said one of the smiling children as he clenched a few singles in his hand. He was a lucky boy. His family could afford to shower him with gifts, while other children are forced to live in squalor and suffer. "Coming right up, Jimmy!" said the Ice Cream Man. His work had left him penniless, but it brought him joy. Much more joy than that god forsaken shit hole he used to work at, he thought. As he negotiated the freezers looking for the object of the happy and lucky child's desires, The Ice Cream Man thought of his old life. It was hell. Thank god his wife and son didn't know about it.
"Here you go!" said The Ice Cream Man as he handed the happy and lucky child the Guile ice pop. "I guess some kids still believe in heroes." The Ice Cream Man thought to himself. He smiled, but he knew there were no heroes in this world. Not anymore.
Walking into his house, The Ice Cream Man thought about his wife. He would do anything to save her from the perils of his old life that are still out there, lurking beneath the surface. One of these days, he thought, the Earth will open up and swallow him whole.
"Hi honey!" said The Ice Cream Man's wife as he entered his home. And it was a home. It was made of warmth and of love, and of the other things that exist that no words can describe. "Dinner is almost ready." She was a good wife. And then there was his son, the little tiny version of himself, tinkering with things that little boys often do, waiting for his father to return home. He always came home.
The dinner was meager, but it was enough. The Ice Cream Man had everything he ever wanted. Life was good. Not perfect, but good. The Ice Cream Man looked at his wife. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, and he knew he would do anything for her. The thought of his past coming back and hurting his family haunted him and filled him with an unspeakable rage; the kind that kills. Every night he stayed up and waited until his family fell asleep, and then he would try to stay awake. Fever, frenzy, cold sweat dripping and his heart racing faster and faster. When would they come?
This night was no different. The Ice Cream Man wondered how much longer he could take it. Would he be the one to tell his terrible secret? Or would someone get to them first? He sharped his mind's knives, killing them over and over again, only to revive them and do it twice more. He stared blankly, vacantly at the walls of his bedroom with blood in his heart. Then he looked down at his beautiful wife, and thought about his perfect son and it all washed away. It all washes away, eventually.
"Are you sure you don't want any breakfast?" The Ice Cream Man's wife asked as he made his way out the front door. "No thanks, I'm running late." He grabbed his hat. It was a soda jerk hat with pink stripes and an anthropomorphic ice cream on it. It was a beacon of summer time fun, and The Ice Cream Man wore it proudly. "I'm going to be working at the prison today." he said.
When The Ice Cream Man started to drive away, he realized he forgot to tell his wife and son he loved them before he left. He checked the rear view mirror. The hat. He would wear it until the day he died.