1. Daniel used the hose to make rainbows in the sun.
2. “They’re not real rainbows,” said Claire.
3. “You’re a real rainbow,” said Ethel.
4. “Am not,” Claire said.
5. “Am,” said Ethel.
6. Tina used the hose to make rainbows in the sun.
7. Repeat to fade.
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Notes:
1. Written on June 28th, 2022
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A Winter’s Day
“It’s cold,” said Tina.
“It’s really cold,” said Claire.
“It’s too cold,” said Ethel.
Daniel’s teeth chattered and his face went blue.
“I told you all it wasn’t the weather for ice cream,” Agnes said with a sigh, as she paid the ice cream van driver and ushered the children back inside.
A Winter’s Night
Sixteen hours of dark, and all of it silent. Softly floating snow making rainbows as it falls, the colour of moonlight, the colour of streetlights, the colour of headlights, the colour of fairy lights put up for Christmas and never taken down.
Three months later and they still don’t look out of place. Winter deadens time like snow swallows sound. Purgatorial beauty.
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Notes:
1. Written on June 11th, 2021
2. A sequel to Tales From The Town #15: Summer
the grass grows long
beneath the
rains of summer
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Notes:
1. Written on July 30th, 2021
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A Summer’s Day
“It’s hot,” Tina said.
“It’s really hot,” Claire agreed.
“It’s too hot,” Ethel insisted.
“It’s not hot enough,” said Daniel.
A Summer’s Night
It was dark outside. Really dark. You couldn’t see a thing. But you could hear it all. It went on and on. It would not stop. Don’t they ever sleep out there?
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Notes:
1. Written on May 6th, 2021
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Agnes was in the kitchen when she heard the music in the distance. A chill ran down her spine. She closed the laptop and waited for what was sure to come.
Footsteps on the stairs. Doors flung wide. A swarming crowd of desperate faces, raised from some winter-long hibernation.
“Mum! Mum! Can we have some money?”
“For ice creams!”
“From the ice cream van!”
“We’ve got a freezer full of ice creams,” Agnes said. “Can’t you have one of those?”
“But they’re not the same!”
“They’re exactly the same,” Agnes said.
“They’re not.”
“The ice cream van has more.”
“And they’re bigger!”
“And colder!”
“They are not colder.”
“They are!”
“And they might have some new ones!”
“Last year they had some we’d never seen before!”
“They were horrible!”
“Well, our ones aren’t horrible,” Agnes said. “I got the ones we all like.”
“But we’ve been good, Mum!”
“Really good!”
“You said if we’d been good we could have an ice cream!”
“From the ice cream van!”
“I don’t remember saying that at all.”
“Well, you did!”
“You definitely did!”
“Okay, okay,” Agnes said, fishing out some small change from the pockets of her jeans and dropping it into their grasping mitts. “But don’t just buy the ones we’ve got in the freezer!”
Footsteps in the hall. Doors slamming shut behind them. Cries of excitement fading out down the street.
Agnes sat down at the table and sighed. Of all the things in all the worlds, the continued existence of ice cream vans was the thing she understood the least.
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Notes:
1. Written on May 4th, 2021
2. With thanks to Arab Strap for the title.