Rainbow Tree

A chunky man yelled at the children through the megaphone. I stared for a while before I realized the dirty white van sold ice cream. A few pictures were ducked taped to the dark windows. Ice cream isn’t my favorite, but I had a craving that day, and the makeshift van was alluring. The truck had three options: orange sherbet, rocky road, and rainbow tree. The rainbow tree didn’t have a picture, only dull writing done with a sharpie.

“Can I get an orange sherbet?”

“Sorry buddy, we’re out. But we still got loads of rainbow tree!” he howled. I looked around to see if anyone had an ice cream that might look like a rainbow tree, but everyone seemed to be eating an orange sherbet or rocky road.

“What does it look like?” I asked.

“You see it, you buy it.” he said.

“What?” The chunky man kept grinning. I told him I’d buy it. He slipped to the back of the van and clunked around for a while before he returned. I paid him for the ice cream and sat on the park bench. The wrapper was completely white, except for the name written in black. I felt all focus shift to the rainbow tree I had in my hand.