Haunted Ice Cream Parlor (A Cozy Sleep Story)

         It’s been a very hot week, so hot that you’ve begun to feel lethargic and uncomfortable. You love summer, but this has been a bit much. You settle into bed at the end of yet another, long, hot day, but you are having trouble falling asleep no matter how you adjust your fan.  

You take some deep breaths, trying to relax and empty your mind of the days wants and tomorrows plans, but all you can think of is how good a bowl of nice, cold ice cream would be. Hmmm, ice cream...... 

You close your eyes only to open, finding yourself on a humid city street you know well, but this version feels different somehow. You ponder this as you walk, but a side street, more like an alley, catches your eye. “Well, that’s new,” you think as your feet guide you down the narrow street paved with cobblestones and lined with shops you have never heard of, at least, not in the city you know.  

A pale blue sign creaks in a light breeze, causing you to look up. It features an ice cream cone topped with a friendly looking ghost wearing a cherry for a hat. You had been craving ice cream, why not indulge?  

You push the blue door open and a cheery bell signals your arrival to those inside, except there is no one inside that you can see. You look around at the glass display cases, filled with chocolate, bubble gum, gummy candy in various shapes and flavors. There’s white mango ghosts, strawberry and scream strawberries, and other spooky shapes and flavors. They remind of candy served at kid’s Halloween parties.  

Above the candy counter, on a chalkboard is the ice cream menu. The ice cream also has delightfully spooky themes, blueberry and scream, haunted campfire sundae, Sasquatch tracks, and many others. Any flavor can be added to a milkshake or sundae, the chalkboard explains. The toppings list seems to magically appear in bright orange chalk, among them sprinkles shaped as cats, ghosts, and pumpkins. 

Everything looks so good you don’t know what to order, or who you’d even give the order to. Just then, you notice new writing on the chalkboard asking you to seat yourself. You obey and choose a huge, black armchair with a domed back and sides that cocoons you inside. On the small table before you, is a dish your favorite ice cream and toppings along with a goblet of ice water and a bag of candies. You look around but the parlor is still empty, howbeit a bit chilly, which is a welcome reprieve from the heat.  

As you savor the ice cream, you notice that it has begun raining, you watch from the window as it bounces off the cobblestones and lightning flashes ahead. You grow sleepy as you finish the frozen treat and curl up into the chair. You find a blanket draped over the arm and wrap it around yourself, comfortably tired at last.  

Sweet dreams, sleep well.