the perfect scoop

The Perfect Scoop

One blistering hot July afternoon, the sun's scorching rays heated everything. Cool, delicious ice cream ensnared everyone's thoughts, making them crave the sweet treat . On this afternoon, Todd's mom decided to treat her three kids to smooth, creamy Houseman's Ice Cream
.
When they arrived, the rowdy children leapt from the burning hot mini-van and sprinted to the counter. Todd, the youngest of the three, walked very slowly, avoiding cracks in the cement that his older brother told him could, “Break his mother's back.” Once he reached the window, an apathetic teen girl, bored with the monotony of selling ice cream, took his order: two big scoops of cookie dough ice cream, with candy eyes. Todd's voracious eyes followed the girl's movements to the steel ice cream bucket doggedly. Mouth watering, Todd watched her slowly scoop the delicious ice cream from the enormous steel bucket into a crunchy, golden brown waffle cone.

Todd eagerly took it form her, gingerly cradling the cone in his small cupped hands. He turned and studied his surroundings, watching for any signs of movement that could injure him or his precious, wonderful ice cream. After taking a few steps, Todd noticed how hot the cement was through his flimsy blue flip-flops, so he walked faster. As he started to sit at the old, leaning picnic table with this siblings, Todd's flip-flop wedged itself between the curving table leg and the ground. Tripping, Todd held his waffle cone up high, saving it from splattering across the ground. He bent down and tried to free the sandal while keeping his ice cream level. When he finally released his flip-fop, Todd happily sat down, ready to eat his much needed dessert. Todd got ready to give his dripping ice cream, in a now soggy waffle cone, a gigantic lick. As he exuberantly licked it, the melting ice cream slipped from the cone and plopped with a soft squish onto the rough cement.

Todd cried out in despair as his siblings laughed hysterically. His wonderful ice cream now saturated the cement, causing the quickly melting ice cream to quietly sizzle. Todd stared at the white puddle between his feet for a while in complete anguish, grieving the loss of his perfect ice cream. His mother soon came and tenderly wiped the sobbing seven year old's face. Taking her teary-eyed son back to the shop window, Todd's loving mother bought him another two scoops of cookie dough ice cream, along with a plastic bowl this time.

Making sure to leave the eyes for last, Todd gleefully ate his wonderful ice cream with a clear plastic spoon. He had already almost forgotten the terrible ice cream incident. As punishment for laughing at Todd's catastrophe, his irritated siblings rode in the back seat while Todd triumphantly rode shot-gun the entire ride home.