"Ice cream," shouted pleased seven and eight year olds as they rode by. They parked at Anne Muffin's ice cream parlor. It had been a fixture for as long as Selene could remember. Anne and her partner Perro was it?
Selene felt moist in her crotch. To bad it was more from the heat of the day then any erotic desires. Not that she hadn't had any as of late. Sex and death, was it the bodies desperate attempt to live even as death approached?
Children laughed as they rode their bikes, imagining their bikes steads, or space ships, their laughter like music on the hot summer day. Selene remembered when she had been a child. Her bike hadn't been one of the modern types, but it had seemed to fly when she pedaled. A bike was everything at that age. With a bike you could go blocks easily, fast, with the wind at your back. You could attach playing cards to the center and as the spokes turned they would make the clickitty click sound.
She flinched, her eyebrows arching down as a sharp pain made itself known in her stomach. It brought her back from remembrances of the past, to the reality of the present.
"Cancer, it's spread to far at this time. You should have come to us earlier." The doctor looked at her with what seemed an accusation. It wasn't as if she and Bob had insurance. They couldn't see a doctor for any random pain.
Bob, they had been with each other for ten years. Now she needed him and he wasn't there. "I can't stand to watch you die like this, a piece at a time," he'd said while packing. He hadn't kissed her goodbye, they hadn't even made love before he left.
Tears ran down her face. Dying so young, worse to die alone. She needed Bob, and he couldn't stand to watch her die. She wouldn't even be able to say goodbye to him. "It's not goodbye, I'm sure you can beat this," he'd told her. How could she beat this? The doctors gave her no chance. If she was to try chemo or radiation therapy she'd need emotional support. Bob wasn't there to give it, she was on her own.
The scent of French vanilla ice cream penetrated her nostrils. A seven year old boy with deep brown eyes, skin like milk chocolate, stood near her. In his hands clutched a sugar cone with a scoop of French vanilla ice cream. He smiled at her.
"You okay lady?" He asked with child like innocence.
"Fine, just a hot day." she told him, managing a smile.
"You should get some ice cream." He licked the cone, his eyes widening in obvious joy at the flavor and cool creamy smoothness.
"That's a good idea," she stood haltingly as she moved from shade to open sun.
She walked over to Anne Muffin's Ice Cream Parlor. The best ice cream in town, made with quality ingredients, the old fashioned way. No one knew the SECRET ingredient or some of the special ways it was made. Anne and Perro kept that a secret. "Can't let the competition take our secret and ruin it with franchises," Perro had said.
Her breasts bounced slightly, coated with sweat as she walked to the ice cream parlour. As she opened the old style frosted glass door, the change in temperature was instantly noticeable.
Cool....it was so nice and cool. The floors an ice blue tile that shined with clean cold comfort. The walls were a creamy white color, the paint in swirls like cream, like some types of ice cream. It was just as she remembered it from child hood. Funny how neither Anne or Perro had seemed to age a day. Some people just seemed to age well, or perhaps it was best to say they seemed ageless.
"Selene, it's been so very long hon. Come on in and sit down, have a nice ice cream on the house." Anne Muffin motioned for her sit in one of the sturdy wooden chairs adjacent to gleaming Formica tables.
She sat down grateful to do so. Each step seemed to aggravate the pain.
"What will it be?" Perro came out in a white body length apron with the ice cream parlour's emblem on it. The emblem had a creamy mix of ice cream on a blue back ground. Some people claimed they could see the shapes of naked men and women in the curves of the ice cream on the emblem. There had been a religious group that tried to cause trouble by claiming it was a subliminal form of pornography. Thankfully Anne Muffin and Perro had rode that wave of fanaticism out.
"Not certain really." She said it almost in a gasp as another spasm of pain hit.
Anne Muffin seemed concerned. "It's that nasty pain from the cancer, isn't it Selene?"
She looked at Perro and Anne surprised, then realized it was as it had always been. In a small town there are few secrets. News and gossip travels fast.
"Are you planning on therapy?" Perro asked with a calmness that suggested he already knew the answer.
"No, what's the point? The cancer has spread and to try and fight it at this point doesn't have much of a chance. If I was to try I'd need....."
"Support, we know about Bob leaving." Anne Muffin interrupted her. Everyone in town knew, of course they would. No need to hide it. Selene had given up, she was just waiting to die now.
She couldn't stop the tears, they fell from her eyes and she tried to wipe them off, "something in my eyes."
"It's all right Selene. Everything is going to be fine. Here, we have a great remedy for the pain. It's just what you need."
Anne Muffin handed Perro a paper cup of ice cream. "It's your favorite hun, coffee...espresso coffee ice cream. Only this is a very SPECIAL batch just for you. We thought you might drop by."
"If not, we were planning on inviting you in." Perro smiled a friendly smile that made his face light up like the sun. He handed her the small bowl of ice cream and a spoon.
Selene took the ice cream and slowly ate the top part that had partially melted. She liked that best, creamy and cool but not to cold. It melted in her mouth, the creamy smoothness combined with the strong Espresso coffee flavor and sweet cream.
She finished the ice cream quickly. It did make her feel better. Her body felt relaxed, the pain faded and she sighed, muscles in her face relaxing. She felt happy, content, a cool smooth protection enveloping her from outside worries.
Perro was helping her up. She found herself being lead to the back of the counter, to the back room. In the back where they made the ice cream, no one but Perro and Anne Muffin were allowed.
Bags of sugar, raw spices, ground vanilla bean, bars of chocolate in a cool temperature controlled room. A big vat to one side with what strangely resembled a padded plastic covered bed that had a way to be tipped toward the large vat.
"Here now, let's get those clothes off you and make you nice and comfy."
Marie Muffin and Perro sat her down on the strange bed and started to undress her. For some reason this seemed perfectly normal. She wanted to be undressed. She had a image of herself lying on the bed naked, being looked upon and the feel of their palms on her, their fingers moving down her body.
Naked, she laid down on the strange bed. She spread her legs her crotch hair cooled from the cool room, curled in soft fuzzy comfort. She felt moisture, lubrication awaiting a lover.
"That's good Selene, you see this way there's no pain, no sorrow. Why your death even has a benefit in bringing joy and nourishment to others." Anne was fondling her left nipple to stiffness.
She let out a moan as she felt Perro spread her legs farther, he had removed his pants. His member was fully erect as he moved into her slightly, ever so slightly and then out again. Selene moaned and wanted him IN her.
He was teasing her, she tried to sit up to grasp him to her, but Marie Muffin held her back. Marie Muffin stroked her hair, kissed her check gently and murmured to her "Now just take it easy, that's part of the fun. We don't want to rush this. We want you to be the best ice cream there is. Some of it we'll make in your favorite flavor. Espresso ice cream and it's all you that goes into it. Your joy, your pleasure..." She started to play with Selene's nipples again.
Perro moved into her, this time farther in. She tried to move her pelvis up towards him, to get him into her. His warm body, the smell of his perspiration as he went into her, his groans joined her own. She moaned in ecstasy as he came into her then left, then once more deeper into her. The pleasure brought her higher and higher, all the while Marie Muffin was kneading her breasts, tickling her now erect nipples.
She came in the height of passion again and again, deeper, higher, more with each thrust.
She felt liquid on her back and seemed to be shrinking, dissolving into the table. Marie Muffin tipped the table toward the vat and she realized what the SECRET ingredient to the ice creamwas.
With one last burst of pleasure she broke away and floated up. Looking down she saw a liquid collapsing form, what remained of her flow into the vat. The liquid had sparks of light like stars in it. Perro pulled his pants up and Marie started mixing a few ingredients into the vat, catching some of the liquid before it entered the vat in bottles for other special ice cream delights.
Selene found the room seemed to disappear. A strange new universe awaited her, with no faulty body to hold her back.
The special ice cream of the day was Espresso and cream, but all of the ice cream was good. The little girl with freckles, Wendy, had saved her allowance for just such a day. A hot day with the BEST ice cream, Marie Muffins ice cream with a SPECIAL SECRET ingredient that made it just the best!