I like how I bring smiles to everyone’s face, be it a kid or an adult. I am welcomed everywhere. In any neighbourhood I go, the kids run towards me, all happy and excited. I love the attention that I receive, and I can tell you with full confidence that I am the most famous ice cream truck in my neighbourhood.

Today, like every day, my owner will take me to the closest park, which is also my favourite spot as well, because I get to interact with so many kids and their parents and be the cause of smiles on their faces. However, things have not always been the same. A couple of years back, the whole world was suffering and countries started to go into lockdown.

People stayed indoors, shops and recreational places closed down. Social distancing was the new normal during the pandemic of Covid-19. At first, it didn’t affect me as much, but soon people stopped visiting me. I grew lonelier with time and the situation of the world got worse. I never imagined that one single virus could have affected my popularity that much.

People started ordering ice creams at home and eating them with their families, rather than coming to me and standing close to me while ordering and eating their favourite ice creams. Eventually I was tossed up in a warehouse all alone, with no stack of ice cream stored in me. How can they forget me so easily?

However, I did make a friend in that warehouse. After a few days, another ice cream truck was brought there, just like me. No longer was I alone, I finally had someone with whom I could share my thoughts and be understood.

Although we were different from the outside, I was blue coloured with white spirals and it was green with yellow circles, both of us understood each other. We discussed our life before this pandemic, and it brought back good memories for both of us. It turned out that we visited the same neighbourhoods and served similar kids a lot of times, but never got a chance to meet one another. Maybe fate did this to me to tell me that I wasn’t the only good ice cream truck that was loved by people.

So, two things happened during this pandemic — I was no longer overconfident about my abilities and found a good friend. Even though we had each other’s company, we wanted the world to reopen so that we could return to our normal way of life.

Eventually, the world started adapting and slowly businesses opened. People started going out and socialising. Then one morning I woke up due to the sunlight hitting my eyes. The warehouse doors had finally opened. After what felt like a decade, we were finally going out.

I am glad I was able to make a friend during this pandemic. Even though I always wanted things to go back to the way they were, it made me a bit sad when it was finally happening, as I had to leave my friend after spending months together.

We bid farewell to one another. I saw the other truck go in a different direction from mine, but hopefully while we are making our rounds of the neighbourhoods, we will get a chance to meet again.

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 12th, 2022