"Yum"
The ice cream truck accelerated onto the freeway. Rubber rotated on the surface at an increasing rate. The chime was silent. The engine roared. A fridge hummed.
Children made dentists wealthy. They didn't have the pain, or the expenses - yet - but that would come with time's incessantly advancing parade, and cavities, best formed in childhood.
The governor stopped the truck's acceleration, and the engine settled into a steady beat. The driver gripped the wheel, and avoided looking into the sunset. They were at speed, and the other vehicles weaved a path.
Headlights began to warn, and rain fell from the sky in lonely summer droplets.
The truck smelled like Vanilla.
The driver yawned, their memory full of cash register actuators, and cold hands. The heater was off.
An exit loomed, and the truck veered gently toward an arterial route. Sugar moved, sweet, and fueled biological inevitability.
The truck didn't feel the driver's pain. It continued through an intersection. The product vibrated. It lurched forwards. Somewhere, a belt snapped. Chain broke.
Metal deformed. For a moment, the engine roared, then it fell to silence, starved of fuel.
The ice cream had spoiled, splashed about the cabin, covering the inside of the windshield in flavour.
Before the driver died, he put a hand to the wind shield, then to his lips.
"Yum", he spoke, a single last word.
Ai gen image
Originally written as part of an in-person writer's meet, by hand - presented here, in text. The ending got a good laugh from the others present.
Make this into a film, 5 minute film with a weird setup...
Then... in the ending credits you put a big banner that reads:
"In loving memory of my parrot"
Then you submit this to one of those French film festivals and make the monies.
I don't think there's creative integrity in submitting to French film festivals, but I do think I'm the type for avant-garde cinema.
I mean, the parrot is an interesting angle, could have a chirp occur as the truck makes contact, and then the mournful calls of a pelican in the background as the camera pans across the ruined radiator, leaking green fluid, as though it was lime syrup or something...
Dude, you are talking my language...
Then another truck slams into the first, the signage on the side "Fish and Chips". A flock of sea gulls swarm. Fade to black. Applause.
fin
This story hits different. Like the 'Yum' at the end is powerful because it shows that even when someone is dying, they can still feel something.
I think that when someone is dying, they're likely to feel everything, super intensely, for but just a single moment - or perhaps it is just like another moment in life. I dunno - no one has ever told us!
cool line, I like the imagery it creates - overlaying the highway with the blood pathways.
I didn't intend for that angle, but I a glad it was read that way!
Look I've worked in an ice cream shop and the stale smell of ice cream is nauseating. Like, gross .. stale, sickly milk. I couldn't think of a worse way to die, but he clearly was in his happy place...🤣
It was their first day on the job. Also their last.
You make short stories what they should be. Gripping. Scintillating. Beautiful. Felt this deeply!🌺
If you ever hear an icecream truck, think of this story :D
Most definitely will.😂
This is gorgeous! The imagery kicks like brain-freeze in the best way
Thank you! Just hope it doesn't hurt your teeth!