Entry for July 11, 2007

The ice cream van man is back!
And not only is he back, he has followed me. As we wound up tonight's Sketchy! rehearsal in the Scout Hall, I heard a familiar little peal of tinny amplified bells - and my heart leaped, like a salmon jumping the Blantyre weir. He was outside. He had chased me across the streets of Tannochside in the fading light of a Summer evening.
And as I emerged from the Scout Hall, I saw the van silhouetted against the evening sky. In that moment, I knew that I could forgive the ice cream van man anything for just one more treat from his burgeoning freezer. I ran to him elbowing prepubescent children from the queue like so many nine pins, my useless shaking fingers fumbling for loose change as I approached his little window.
"A ninety nine please," I stammered, watching his firm hand scoop up perfect spheres of virgin vanilla. Then, as he clutched my cone in his hirsuit hand, the flake thrusting skywards like a metaphor (or perhaps, more correctly, like a simile) for my rising emotions, he turned to me and said it.
"Would you like raspberry sauce with that?"
Oh God. The seven most beautiful words in the English language. I am his forever.