It's a hot summer's day. It's four o'clock in the afternoon and you've been working in the garden since lunch. You have just gone into your house to make a cup of tea when you hear a bell ringing in the street, ding-a-ling-a-ling. The noise gets louder. You wonder what it is. You look out the window.
It's the ice-cream man in the ice-cream van! Ninety-nines, cones, choc ices, they are all coming towards you in a box-shaped, brightly-coloured car. You forget your cup of tea, and rush out into the road running towards the van as quickly as your legs will carry you. You are not the only one running. Children of all ages have appeared from nowhere, and are trying to get to the ice-cream van before you. Because you are an adult, you can run faster than them. Because you are an adult, you know you should slow down and let the children get their ice creams before you. You put your head down, and run as fast as you can. You get to the van first.
Gasping for breath, you look at the pictures of the different kinds of ice creams. They all look so good, you want to eat them all. You are hot and tired. You have been working in the garden all afternoon. You have just run the hundred metres in ten and a half seconds. You are dying for an ice cream.
Ice cream! Ice cream! Ice cream! I want an ice cream! You are not sure if it is you or the children behind you who are screaming. What are you going to have? How about a Mr Softy, ice cream whipped until it is 90% air (but boy, does it taste good!), or a ninety-nine, vanilla ice cream with a stick of chocolate in it? Ice cream, ice cream! I scream for ice cream!
Before you know what has happened, the children who reached the van after you have already been served, and more worryingly, the van is beginning to move away. You feel like the invisible man. Did the ice-cream man not see you with your tongue hanging out your mouth like a dog on a hot day? Or did he see you but think you were only there because you were looking after the children who had come for an ice cream? How can things like this happen in life?
Ding-a-ling-a-ling-ding-a-ling! The ice-cream van turns the corner at the bottom of your street and disappears. You go back into your house and start to drink the cup of tea that has gone cold.