Hi Felix! Thanks a lot for reading. Happy that you enjoy it. The comparison to Toshikazu Kawaguchi is humbling, to say the least. 🙏 Glad to have you on board. Hope you find it interesting and entertaining. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions or feedback. Again, welcome!
Thanks, Jim! Yeah, that is an excellent point. I deliberately tried to leave it ambiguous. Is it a regular or special ice cream truck? If yes, cool. If it’s special flavours... what will Mother choose, will Jimmy be able to prevent disaster? I find it appealing when stories leave the ending up to the reader’s imagination.
Yeeeeeeees, I heard this JUST AFTER I wrote this comment. I was like... whaaaaaaaat the heck. I would have said Outer Limits or Twilight Zone but I thought the cool kids might look at me funny.
What a fun (?) little story! My favorite ice cream flavor is pumpkin seed oil. Believe me, it exists (local specialty) & it's divine. Now I wonder what sort of effect it would have if sold at your ice cream truck...
Thanks, Vanessa! I have to take your word on the pumpkin seed oil. I do like pumpkin soup. I wager there are many flavours one could experiment with. One for each month. Would be cool to see the truck move across Substacks with different effects. ;)
Thanks, Nathan. Your favourite flavour, yet! Initially, I wanted to call the story "Favourite Flavour" but changed it to "Special" last minute. This here is as raw as they come I would say. Thanks for catching the past tense sentence. Fixed in the web version.
Thanks, Nadia! I toned down the mother a notch during proofreading as I found it too extreme given the “niceness” in the final bit. Means a lot that a reader finds the characters and what they say believable, esp. when that reader is a professional editor! 😅
Obviously, but e.g. when Jimmy wants to go home the mother calls him stupid. I removed that. Also she was too warm in the final but in the first pass say “oh, Jimmy what’s the matter, I’ve only been gone for a minute” something along those lines, so yeah, trying to get the characters to behave believable, magic ice cream or not. 😅
Great story! Reminds me of When The Coffee Grows Cold, which I also enjoyed. I think I'll subscribe!
Hi Felix! Thanks a lot for reading. Happy that you enjoy it. The comparison to Toshikazu Kawaguchi is humbling, to say the least. 🙏 Glad to have you on board. Hope you find it interesting and entertaining. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions or feedback. Again, welcome!
Excellent story. I love the twists and turns. Trying to decide if it's a happy ending or not. :)
Thanks, Jim! Yeah, that is an excellent point. I deliberately tried to leave it ambiguous. Is it a regular or special ice cream truck? If yes, cool. If it’s special flavours... what will Mother choose, will Jimmy be able to prevent disaster? I find it appealing when stories leave the ending up to the reader’s imagination.
Eeeeeek. Black Mirror all the way. Loved it.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. Black Mirror season 6 started, too!
Yeeeeeeees, I heard this JUST AFTER I wrote this comment. I was like... whaaaaaaaat the heck. I would have said Outer Limits or Twilight Zone but I thought the cool kids might look at me funny.
😂 I have yet to see Season 6. Maybe tonight!
Same, same!
What a fun (?) little story! My favorite ice cream flavor is pumpkin seed oil. Believe me, it exists (local specialty) & it's divine. Now I wonder what sort of effect it would have if sold at your ice cream truck...
Thanks, Vanessa! I have to take your word on the pumpkin seed oil. I do like pumpkin soup. I wager there are many flavours one could experiment with. One for each month. Would be cool to see the truck move across Substacks with different effects. ;)
Hehehe, excellent. The leading visual sorta gave me the exact vibe I felt as I read through this.
Snappy, clever, a good twisting tale.
Bravo on the flash fiction. This could be my favourite one yet. (Which is me saying: write more write more write more!)
If it was cold and wet here, I'd now be going looking for ice cream. Normal physics-obeying ice-cream though, that *I* have to pay for...
Thanks, Nathan. Your favourite flavour, yet! Initially, I wanted to call the story "Favourite Flavour" but changed it to "Special" last minute. This here is as raw as they come I would say. Thanks for catching the past tense sentence. Fixed in the web version.
Enjoy the "normal" ice cream. 🍦
Special Flavour is definitely the winning title!
Oh, but that one is a vile story! Right down to the rotten tooth fairies... 😎
I will have to see if I can get it to work... next week is Spherean turn, more pods!
Just catching up with this one, Alexander. Thought it was excellent and finished with that note of ambiguity that all great short stories should have
Brilliant stuff 👍🏼
Thanks, Daniel! Glad you liked it. And yes, leaving a bit of an open, ambiguous end is what I like, too.
Very fun story. I love the Twilight Zone vibes.
Thanks, Bill. Looks like we both had ice cream on our minds at about the same time!
That was fun
Thanks, Tom! Glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks, Nadia! I toned down the mother a notch during proofreading as I found it too extreme given the “niceness” in the final bit. Means a lot that a reader finds the characters and what they say believable, esp. when that reader is a professional editor! 😅
Obviously, but e.g. when Jimmy wants to go home the mother calls him stupid. I removed that. Also she was too warm in the final but in the first pass say “oh, Jimmy what’s the matter, I’ve only been gone for a minute” something along those lines, so yeah, trying to get the characters to behave believable, magic ice cream or not. 😅
oh definitely, bless the children, grown-ups take heed and forgive for life is far too short to hold grudges...
🤣