Ice cream memories

Margie was asleep when I arrived. I let myself in and waited where she would see me when she woke up. She woke slowly, and when she could focus her eyes, she was thrilled to see me. “You’re here! My buddy! Let’s go get ice cream,” she grinned, struggling to sit up and reeling with dizziness. ”I’ll treat.” 

We’re still under a heat dome, so walking six blocks to get affogato was out of the question. Instead I led her to the little market across the street from her apartment building. They have a coffee bar and a few tables, and I took her to their freezer and pointed out the ice cream. She picked a mint chocolate ice cream sandwich. I asked if she liked eating ice cream as a child.

“Oh yes. There was a truck that would drive slowly around the Bronx with a what-do-you-call-it.” Music from a loud speaker? “No, no.” She mimed, a hand pulling something down from above her head. A bell? 

“That’s it. A bell. Ding-a-ding, ding-a-ding. You’d hear it coming, and it was so exciting! Most of the time my mother said no, but now and then she said yes, so it was always worth a try.”

Did they have mint chocolate ice cream sandwiches on the truck? 

“No, nothing so advanced. They had vanilla, the guy who drove the truck and rang the thing” she mimed pulling the bell rope, “would scoop it out and put it in a paper cup. If you were lucky they might have chocolate. I always went for chocolate if they had it. It was such a…what’s the word?” Luxury? Pleasure? “Yeah!” 

She luxuriated in the ice cream, and then she stared into her cup of cappuccino as if she was watching a movie. She looked up suddenly as if the movie had taken a bad turn. “I know Bernie died very young. But how did he die? Do you know?”

I hesitated, knowing it would cause her grief to hear it, but she said she wanted to know, so I told her. We sat quietly with the terrible news. After some moments, she came to the phrase that always gives her comfort. “He was such a sweet guy. Just like our father. I loved him.” 

And he loved you, I said. Her face became radiant once more. “That’s the thing to hold onto. That part.”

Update: just added an extra for those who are not familiar with ice cream sandwiches.