taking a walk down to Riga's for some apple juice, i stopped to stare. at the sidewalk/ a man and his ice-cream cart/ jingling away - was stopped by a police officer. the officer proceeded to badger the ice-cream man about his permit. the man did not have one. the officer said, "then we're going to go over to that dumpster there and you're going to throw all that ice-cream away" / the man's face was all long and sad. i continued to watch as they walked to the dumpster across the street.
the man begged the police officer, "por favor, i need the money. if i don't sell ice-cream i won't be able to buy food for my kids. just this once, por favor."/ it was like a movie. the officer said "i really can't care. i have to do my job".
i thought the ice-cream man was going to cry, as he took the ice cream bars, one by one, and dropped them into the dumpster/
all chocolate and vanilla, strawberry ice, sherbert, sno-cones, and sundae cups, melting into the trash.
the police officer seemed satisfied. the ice-cream man turned and walked away, his empty ice-cream cart bells still jingling.
