Dorothy doesn’t want to be in school anymore. She hates the system – how the professors label their students by numbers and not by names, and how they grade a student’s art work based on their preferences. “An art school should be an art school; an art is an expression of one’s self, there is no need for an approval,” says usually by Dorothy. She began smoking three days ago, when she stormed out of the room when the professor scolded her classmate for showcasing his own style of painting in their class. She believes that it is her classmate’s style and he doesn’t deserve the scolding. That day, she just could not take it anymore, and decided to not attend the art institute any longer. She wants to be home, on the Southern part of the country and be in her grandma’s arms instead of being in a polluted city. Dorothy hates how people do not pay attention on each other’s company; instead, they keep looking at their tiny screens – their phones – as if their whole life depended on it.
She likes the city’s park because it resembles the South, and it does not have much people. Besides, people in the city are too busy with their lives and they do not get to enjoy what the nature has to offer. The park became her best friend when she skips school, along with her pack of cigarettes and coconut ice cream – it becomes a routine to her: to sit at the park’s bench, smoke cigarettes, and eat coconut ice cream.
One rainy twilight, during one of her daily routines at the park, a drizzle have started – causing the city people’s clicking heels and crisp suits to move like panicked ants. But, Dorothy is just seated right on the park’s bench, smoking and licking her ice cream as if nothing has happened. The rain begins pouring harder, but Dorothy still does not abandon her place, until an umbrella covered her from the rain –a big yellow umbrella held by a man in an all-black suit.
“What a weird sight to smoke a cigarette on one hand, and eat ice cream on the other,” said by the man in an all-black suit while sitting beside Dorothy.
“Who are you, anyway?” Dorothy is scared; she does not know how people from the city function, what if this man has a motive. But the man’s sad eyes and cheerful manner of speaking made her trust him somehow.
“I like your Southern accent, very gentle yet it has an edge to it – I like it.” The man do not mean to sound it as if she is mocking her, and his tone has builta reaction to Dorothy. Her brows are beginning to meet – she is mad and offended at the same time.
“Are you one of those city fellas, who mock people from provinces? Oh man, how I hate those types of fellas!”
“No, lick your ice cream; it’s melting! And for goodness’ sake, throw that cigarette away. Besides, it’s dripping wet, as well as your ice cream.”
Dorothy does not know the man, yet she finds him amusing, maybe because it is the first time she has talked to anybody since she decided to not be in school. How he talks and his reactions are so cheerful that it is almost child-like. She wonders why a man like him will dress in a sharp black suit. She thinks, he is far too studious to dress in such a way.
“Thanks for placing an umbrella over my head. By the way, the color of your umbrella overpowers the suit. A bright yellow umbrella and an all-black suit – wow,” Dorothy’s voice slowly becomes soft and calm, unlike her tone before – mad and accusing.
“Father’s wake,” the man said looking straight ahead as if nothing has happened.
Dorothy does not know what to offer this man, he may be a stranger, but Dorothy feels she is in the place to comfort him. His voice may be cheerful, but his eyes reveal his other side. She has nothing but her sketch book, pencils, cigarettes, and ice cream parlor coupons in her bag. Dorothy decides to comfort him through the latter.
“Hey, I got coupons of Aunt Celeste’s Ice Cream Parlor, want some maybe?”
“Let’s go there ourselves. I could use some right now.”
Their walk to the ice cream parlor feels heavy for Dorothy since they did not converse after their exchange at the park. A walk with a stranger is a risky thing to do, but Dorothy trusts the man. Dorothy breaks the silence by asking the man of his name, and little pieces about him. She came to know that Luke is his name; he lives at the compound near the park; he has three sisters and a bed-ridden mom. The dripping clothes of Dorothy dries up a little and Luke offers his coat to Dorothy, which she gladly accepts because her teeth are beginning to clatter. They enter the store and the employee smiles to Dorothy. “She must be a usual here,” says Luke in his thoughts.
“Hi Aunt Celeste, coconut flavoured, please,”
“Bubblegum, for me,” says Luke, not ashamed to pick a flavor that most grown-ups will not pick. Luke caught the weird look that Dorothy gives him when he says his order.
“You got a lot of coupons,” Luke’s eyes go round as saucers when he sees Dorothy’s bag almost burst with coupons.
“Aunt Celeste is actually my Aunt Celeste, but you know, Grandma’s ice cream will always be the best,” says Dorothy proudly with a tinge of sadness in her tone.
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“Where’s your Grandma? Does she own an ice cream parlor too? I want to taste it!”
“Yes, back home. She has her own ice cream parlor there,” Dorothy drags Luke a little away from the counter and whispers, “to be honest, I don’t like Aunt Celeste’s ice cream that much. I only order the coconut-flavoured here.”
“Why?” asked by Luke, he cannot believe that there is a better ice cream than Aunt Celeste’s – it is his favourite! It is the whole city’s favourite.
“The task resembles Grandma’s ice cream – almost. It almost tastes like home.”
The rain begins to pour heavily again while they are eating in the shop. They have agreed to stay there until the rain will stop or decrease. Dorothy vents to Luke the struggle she is currently in – the art school, the homesickness that she feels, and her disgust to the city, while they are enjoying the strange scenery of lightning and swaying cables outside the shop.
When the rain finally decreases, they go outside as a heavy air begins to form again. They are about to end the night of venting out, laughter, and comfort in a stranger’s arms. But they are not strangers anymore as they have managed to share almost half of their lives in a span of three hours inside Aunt Celeste’s Ice Cream Parlor. Invisible glue formed on the soles of their shoes as they do not want to abandon each other and go on their separate lives. They stand on the wet pavements of Folksville, not moving an inch.
“Dorothy, I am not going to tell you to endure the system and be inside the hell – or school, if that’s what they call it – but I am telling you to think, especially of the consequences,” Luke said out of nowhere, as he feels that he has to offer some advice to Dorothy.
“I have three jobs just to be in school, Dorothy. Now that dad is dead, I do not know what to do. I’ll be stretching each fiber of me, if that’s what it takes to win this fight I am in,” Dorothy does not know what to say, she just hugs Luke tightly. It is true that the most beautiful words are left unspoken.
“Luke, I hope that you will win your fight. Thank you for this lovely night and for making up my mind – I already made up my mind.”
“Promise me, that you’ll think about it. Now, take this umbrella,” Luke stretches his hand holding the umbrella and remains it there until Dorothy will get it. Luke silently hopes that it will take long for Dorothy to reach it, so they can extend their company longer. But he realizes, they have to face their reality – they can’t just keep running from the struggles of life.
“Are you insane? The rain is pouring. I am not going to take your umbrella.”
“Who knows, maybe you will get the chance to return it. Or perhaps, put it on someone’s head someday. So long, Southern Girl,” Luke takes Dorothy’s hand and opens it to put the umbrella. He cannot take the urge to hug Dorothy tight, and Luke runs, while he hopes that she will see her again – but he thinks, he will be happier if they see each other whole as individuals and not incomplete, just like the current state they are in.
6 months later, Dorothy sits at the park but the cigarettes and ice cream are no longer in her hands. On her hands are marks of paint blotches and a phone to converse with her new-found friends. Despite of the changes and the forgotten rebellion she underwent during the past months, an image of a man in a black suit carrying a yellow umbrella remains in her mind. Luke’s image becomes too clear in her head, especially when it rains hard. Dorothy runs to the nearest tree at the park, opens her bag for the umbrella and walks to her dormitory. Dorothy always uses the umbrella whenever it is raining, hoping that Luke will see the hideous umbrella in the middle of the city, and then she will have a chance to return it. She wishes that, someday, she will be the one to put an umbrella over someone’s head – just like what Luke did to her. As she walks on the wet pavements of Folksville, she prays that he is currently winning the battle he is in.
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