This is my story for It’s Story Time posted 4-30.
Joey couldn’t stop looking down at the gold medallion hanging around his neck. He was temporarily blinded by the flashing lights; deafened by the cheering crowd.
The most beautiful woman he had ever met placed her hand gently on his shoulder. Her million dollar smile was more powerful than the medallion. “Tell us Joey, what are you going to do with your prize?”
Joey grinned, not realizing perhaps not caring that his teeth were stained from all the fruit he had just eaten.
“Git that ice box fixed.”
“Ice box?” She asked confused.
Joey couldn’t stop smiling. A man with his fine tailored suit asked, “Joey what do you have to say to the folks back home?”
“Nittin’, they ain’t got no radio to hear us.”
“They can watch us on all social medias.” The beautiful lady smiled.
Joey just kept smiling, holding up his medallion.
The man asked, “tell us a little about your home and family.”
“Awe shucks, ain’t much to tell. Momma said we lived under the wrong set of stares across them tracks.”
The man and woman just looked at each other. Dumbfounded the male announcer asked, “what do you do for a living Joey?”
“Got the best job ever.” He beemed even brighter than he was. “Well till ice box busted. Now gittin’ fixed for best job ever.” He waved the medallion with excitement.
Again the man and woman just looked at each other. Then she asked, “when you get the ice box fixed, what will you be doing?”
Joey through back his head laughing, “workin’!”
Four months later:
“Stew, it’s hot as hell out here. What are we doing.”
“Our viewers are demanding a follow up piece on Joey.” He answered. “Give the people what they want.”
“Did we have to do it on the hottest day of the year?” She bemoaned.
“This shouldn’t take long.” He reassured her.
“Then I can take a shower.”
“This address is in the middle of freaking no where.” Stew commented as the pavement turned to dust. “Holy shit,” he looked over the steering wheel at a beautiful set of stairs. They were just hanging out in the middle of nature. Abandoned by human hands. Flowering vines covered them. Birds darted in and out. This place looked cool and inviting.
“Wow!” She commented on the beauty of this place. Looking down at her phone, “this isn’t it.” A ping of sadness filled her.
“What a shame.” Stew moved the SUV forward. This amazing scene was gone as abruptly as it had appeared. They bounced across a set of train tracks. Drove what felt like twenty more miles to a desert. Everything was dry and hot. Heat radiated off the ground like an angry Karen at Wal-Mart on Black Friday.
“What is this place?” As she spoke another set of stairs materialized before them. They were old. Dusty. And looked like they would burn you if you touched them.
“Hot as hell.” Stew reaffirmed as he adjusted his sunglasses.
As they walked toward the stairs, they heard children playing and laughing. The ground shook violently as a train roared down the tracks. “What a nightmare!” She cried.
Under this massive set of stairs they found the laughter. Soft whimsical music was playing from a truck that looked rusted to the ground. But the oversized ice cream on top of the truck was twirling as the music played. Children came running, screaming and cheering toward the truck. Many followed by their parents. No one paid any mind to the well dressed, obviously out of place strangers. Everyone was hyper focused on this truck.
The window in the truck flew open, was hooked in place as a voice they thought was Joey shouted, “ice box fixed!”
The crowd around the truck went wild chanting, “Joey, Joey, Joey.”
“An ice cream truck.” The lady said in amazement. Forgetting the heat and how confused she was about their location?
Stew pulled out his phone, pointing it at the lady who stood in the perfect spot to get the happy people bombarding this truck.
She smiled her camera ready smile, “Hello. Tammy Taylor along with Stew Strump coming to you live from,” she thought for a moment. “Hell, I don’t know where we are.” She shrugged. Giving a moments thought to that beautiful set of stairs they had passed. “The wrong set of stairs on the wrong side of the tracks. A lot of our viewers have been asking for a follow up piece on our Champion of Champions food eating competition winner Joey. Many of us, couldn’t put the pieces together as to what game Joey was really playing. As you can see and hear from the happy people behind me, our grand champion used his prize money to fix his ice cream truck.” She turned allowing Stew to get a close up of Joey handing ice cream out the window to happy people. “I think folks, Joey was right. On this, what feels like the hottest day of the year. He has the best job ever, being the driver of an ice cream truck.”
Poetry & More 