Monsters: After Dinner Conversation, #14

By Ana Carolina Pereira

Synopsis - There are monsters in the neighborhood, but sometimes you need to go outside for ice cream.

After Dinner Conversation is a growing series of short stories across genres to draw out deeper discussions with friends and family. Each story is an accessible example of an abstract ethical or philosophical idea and is accompanied by suggested discussion questions.

Podcast discussions of this short story, and others, is available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Youtube.

• Language: English
• Publisher: After Dinner Conversation
• Release date: Nov 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393218128

Book preview

Monsters

After Dinner Conversation Series

THE ICE CREAM TRUCK rolled down the street where the Pinketts lived. It passed slowly and kept on going, towards the park that was three blocks away, its siren song got lost in the distance like a popsicle melting in the heat of that summer day.

Nancy was lying in bed with her daughter Carrie Mae. Both dozed under the canopy of the child’s four-poster bed. The canopy curtains were white with pink lace flowers and they matched the motif of the wallpaper, a repeated pattern of a delicate bouquet of roses. Most things in the room had touches of pink and white. Outside, a blue jay landed on a branch of the oak tree that stood next to the house, chirped its heart out for a few seconds, and then flew away. It was a soft and sweet afternoon in a strawberry vanilla little girl’s room.  

Activated by the truck’s music, Carrie Mae got up from the bed and began to jump. Her two thick braided ponytails, which Nancy had made for her in the morning and tied with brightly colored elastic bands, bounced lively in all directions.

Did you hear, ma? An ice cream truck! Buy me an ice cream. Pleeease.

Nancy had not seen her daughter so happy since they had moved to that house, just two weeks ago.

"All right, Carrie Mae. Let's see what the ice