agnolia Blooms & Sakura Petals
By
Rebecca Anna Coleman

-2-
Chocolate Sunde

I took a deep breath. According to the army green wrist watch I always wore on my wrist the time was around two thirty in the afternoon. I'd been mowing grass, pulling weeds, and pruning bushes for a good five hours now. It was now in the hottest part of the day and I was thankfully I'd just finished the job. Dripping sweat I took a shallow breath and sat down upon the concrete steps of our front porch and peered out at the sun drenched vista that spread out in front of me.

“Well.” I said, taking a deep breath. “That chore is done.” The yard work did indeed have the desired effects on me. I could feel two or three story ideas tugging at the back of my brain and I could sense that strong desire to write coming back over me. But while I was mowing, trimming and kneeling down into the hot earth on my knees to pull out the weeds by the roots so they would not return. While I was doing all that, somebody or something had come down and planted an idea in my head.

The idea both intrigued and frightened me. Like I've told you all before, I enjoy playing video games where you can choose between either playing as a boy or a girl. And for several years I've been playing as a girl. Anyway it dawned on me that maybe I wanted to play as a girl because maybe I really wanted to be a girl and playing as a girl I was doing some form of wish fulfillment.

That led me to another question.. if I wanted to be a girl, maybe I should try to live like a girl? Like maybe go to the mall dressed as a girl? Maybe try to experience normal teenage girl things like a girl? That leads to another question. And that question was one that made me really think. Could I not only dress like a girl, but could I pass as a girl? And if I could pass as a girl could be social as a girl?

All of these thoughts swirled around my head like a swarm of angry bees.

Then I heard a melody that caused my heart to jump into my throat. It was a melody every child on our block knew by heart. A jingle that many in Greenville considered to be the national anthem of summer. It was the melody that belonged to that most stable of childhood songs. “Do your ears hang low?” the melody that every ice cream van across this great patchwork of states played to announce its presence.

And well an ice cream cone seemed like a wonderful treat. And I had a few loose coins in my pocket alone with a few crumbled up one dollar bills. And so without thinking I started toward the concrete curb. The normal spot where the ice cream van seemed to pull up and set up shop for the fifteen or twenty minutes he spent here in this little neighborhood. On a whim I reached up and removed the elastic hairband from my hair and shook it out.

I wanted to see if I could pass a girl. After all, I was wearing a tank top that was pastel blue, and shorts that were white. The shoes I'd been working in were some old sneakers I'd found on clearance down at a charity shop and by chance those sneakers were pink. So to summon it up, I was wearing a pastel blue tank top, white shorts, and pink sneakers that need a good soaking and wash.

And so feeling brave I ventured toward the curb. And just as I feared about the time I reached the curb it seemed half the kids and adults in the neighborhood had turned out to get ice cream, the line seemed a mile and half long. I took a deep breath and muttered that the line would move swiftly along. But I was wrong, the line just inched along and seemed to move slower than Christmas.

The minutes seemed to slowly tick by and the line kept moving at a snail's pace. Until at last I reached the open hatch of the Ice cream van. Leaning out of the hatch was a woman with hazel colored eyes. Her brown hair was pulled back in a tight bun and she looked tired. The woman looked down at me and then took a deep breath.

“Hey kiddo.” She said, forcing a smile to appear across her tired face. “What can I get for you?”

“I would like a large soft-serve vanilla ice cream sundae.. with chocolate sauce..” I said, taking a deep breath.

“Sure. Would you like whipped cream or chopped peanuts, or both?” She said, leveling her gaze at me.

“Are they extra?” I asked, taking a deep breath as I weighed the running total with the small amount of money I had in my pocket.

“Normally that would be an extra dollar seventy five.. but you're a cutie so I'm going to put on the house.” She said grinning.

“Okay! I'll whip cream and chopped peanuts, please and thank you ma'am!” I said my face was lighting up.

“OMG.” The girl said laughing. “Cute and you have manners. You're just a junior southern belle in training, you know that?” The sales woman said with a broad smile. “Okay.. your total comes to four dollars and fifty cents.” She said,

I felt my cheeks blooming with color as I reached down into the pocket of my shorts and pulled out a fading Hello Kitty coin purse. I'd brought the coin purse from a local charity shop. At the time I needed a coin purse to keep my loose pocket change in. The fact the purse was pink and featured the face of an iconic white cat with a pink boy did not seem to register at the moment.

“OMG that coin purse is also adorable!” The sales woman said. “I used to love Hello Kitty, heck I still do, she is totally adorable!”

Once again I felt my cheeks flush red as I unzipped the purse and pulled out a collection of carefully folded one dollar bills and a collection of small change. Slowly I counted out four dollars and fifty cents. I then handed the money to the girl who handed me a large plastic bowl that held a large chocolate sundae that was topped with what seemed like a flowing river of rich, dark chocolate sauce and fluffy clouds of whipped cream and sprinkled with brown chopped peanuts.

“Thank you.” I said blushing.

As I stepped away from the window I paused. I felt something was missing.

“Pardon me!” I said still flushing red. “I need a spoon!” I said taking a deep breath.

“Oh sorry about that!” The woman said as she reached down and pulled out a plastic spoon. “Been a busy day! Have a good one!”

“You too!” I said stepping to the side.

And then it hit me, I'd passed. Without meaning too I'd somehow passed. Well that answered one question, but left me with a few other questions that needed to answered.

End Chapter 2.