Host, Please Be Honest! What Exactly Are You?



Ice cream man! 

Ice cream man!

Yay! 

It's the ice cream man!

(^□^)

–-----

The familiar music flooded the street, causing the children to plunge forward with smiles and jumpy hair. 

Ah, youth... 

It was indeed a beautiful thing. 

These children already knew the schedule for the ice cream man, purposefully playing outside in wait. 

Shucks.

Why do you think modern children like themselves would want to play outside rather than indoors with the President Barbie collections, computers, MMORPG games and so on? 

What are they? In the 80s? 

Look... they could ride tricycles, jump rope, and roll around in the grass.

But doing it for so long gets too boring. 

Do you know how long some have playing outside? 

It's over 2 hours now because they just didn't want to miss the ice cream man.

Don't ask them why their bodies often disagreed with them if they waited indoors.

You could say it would be smart to sit and wait for the beautician melody to play before going out. 

But many times the children found themselves asleep, only to wake up a few minutes or an hour later when the ice cream man has already gone. 

Sorry. 

Their small bodies were prone to sleep with the least comfortability it found. 

If the house was too warm, they slept. 

If it was slightly colder, they also huddled onto their favorite blankies and slept. 

Also understand that before the ocean cream man's drive-through schedule, as children, they have already jumped, danced, moved and played a lot in the early mornings after breakfast. 

So after lunch, many seriously get tempted to take a nap. 

But as they say, when there's a will, there's a way. 

Many purposefully made plans with the neighbor children to meet outside and play immediately after lunch. 

That's right. 

They found a way to beat the system. 

They sometimes played tag, and other times role-played as villains and superheroes in comics.

Welp. 

This has gone on for long on the days when they knew the ice cream man typically drove by. 

After sitting on the curb and eating their ice cream together, they finally break apart and head back home to nap. 

Their plan was sleep-proof, ensuring they never missed a single Ice Cream day.

As for where they got their money from, it was of course their allowance. 

Depending on the chores they do around their homes, their parents would sometimes give them pennies and even a Vyn bill instead.

In a month, some got 10 Vyns and others got a crips 15 Vyn bill. 

A cone of delicious ice cream costs 1~1.75 Vyn, depending on what they add on top of their ice cream like sprinkles or strawberries. 

Yay!

Can you imagine how many ice creams they can get with their monthly allowance of 10 Vyns? 

The ice cream truck drives by only once a week. 

So that's 4 times a month. 

.

Some spent 5 Vyns on ice cream a month while others spent 8 Vyns on Ice Cream.

But no matter what, most children always saved a fraction of their allowance. 

Some preferred to hoard them and head to comic stores to buy comics, and others preferred buying small action figures.

But some were extremely lazy, not wanting to do chores for the first week of the next month.

How exactly does that work? 

Their parents told them that if they didn't want to do chores like organizing their rooms and doing simple things like putting their toys away… then they have to pay them, the parents, to do it for them. 

Like so, the children would give their parents 2~4 Vyns, which represents what they usually received per week. 

It was funny that these children would save their last month's allowance just to pay off their parents so they don't have to work or do any chores during the first week of the next month.

These children thought they were being smart, but they were losing a lot more money than they thought since they were only getting paid for 2 weeks in a month. 

Week 1, they don't get pay. 

Week 2 and 3, they do receive pay. 

In week 4, they save everything just to hand it back over to their parents the upcoming week of the new month. 

It was silly how they thought they were winning. 

Many also envied them for not getting to do chores. 

Children were just like that, and quite frankly, the parents of these children wanted them to learn valuable lessons in life. 

There will be a time they realize they are losing.

Doing their chores only took at most 2 hours a day to do, sometimes taking 15 minutes.

Their peers gritted their teeth, did their chores and made twice more money than them, while they sat back and lost more.

.

On the flip side, it also depends on what one considers to be Losing. 

Some people don't value money that much, only valuing comfortability and freedom.

Their children resourced their staff (parents), so they could have a break perhaps for their mental health.

Growing up, it depends on how content you are in life.

Maybe these children are satisfied with how much they get per month.

It is also commendable that they were able to save enough to pay off their parents for the following week, as well as budget and save enough to also buy ice cream without fail in the week they don't receive pay.

These Parents have heard that many of those who did their chores and got paid all 4 weeks, ended up saving little to nothing.

Yet, their children who seemed lazy were the ones to sit down, plan out and manage the staff (parents) in their companies (homes) while also having the freedom to do as they liked doing that first week.

Heck.

If they were millionaires, they would be on yachts and luxurious sites.

But as children, the things they did were at games online and did so many things without their parents nagging that the other neighboring children always envied them as being lucky.

These children were so smart that they could quickly come up with solutions that made their lives better and relaxed. 

Everything boiled down to management. 

It honestly depended on how one saw it. 

These parents did not know whether to smack the laziness out of their beat of their children or commend them for their intelligence.

If this question was thrown to the masses online, which child group would most parents prefer?... The one who was diligent and hardworking but hardly saved or the one who was lazy but learned management on his own, saving even more than his peers. 

Honestly, it was a tie because both had good and bad traits that needed tweaking. 

----

Wow! 

"Ice cream man! The Ice Cream Man is here!"

Immediately abandoning their toys, scooter, tricycles and jump ropes, the group carried their little legs with some stumbling but not caring.

Usually, they would cry but how can they care about this little pain when the ice cream truck was here?

Please! Get your priorities right, okay? 

"Big Ben! Big Ben!"

One of the children called out behind another chubby fellow. 

Pausing, the chubby fellow turned to look at the skinny guy beside him.

"What is it this time? You want me to cover you again?"

"Please, big Ben!"

The chubby guy thought for a while before agreeing. "I can do it, but I've already covered you 4 times now. My dad said sometimes, even if one is a friend, we must have a clear line between interests. So what's in it for me if I cover you this time?"

"Well, what about my Galactica Android comic edition, Issue K101?"

"Not enough. Forget about the ice cream."

"No. No. No! I'll also throw in my Blue Alien Prince Motzar from the planet Xelongang too! I know you like it very much." 

"Okay, deal. This also covers the cost of the last 4 times I covered you. Now, we shake hands. I've seen my dad do that whenever he and his friends agree on something."

"Me too! I've seen them do that too."

Fat Ben shook the skinny guy's guy's hands happily, thinking of what goodies he got from the exchange.

As they stood behind the line of children grabbing ice cream, the skinny got couldn't help sighing like a deflated balloon. 

"Big Ben, you are very lucky and rich! I heard you have a secret stack of more than 81 Vyns stored in your home. How did you do it?"

"The question should be for you. You vet all 4 weekly allowances and you still fall short of getting your ice cream? Our money goes to 2 things. Toys and ice cream. You have to balance them up and make sure you save half of what you get every time."

"I–"

"Let me ask you this. Must you always get the most expensive ice cream? Sure it tastes great, but don't you have strawberries, and other things are home? Why don't you just see the ones in your fridge rather than paying extra for uncle ice cream man to use his?"

Big Ben didn't understand why his buddy who made twice more than him in a month, was always broke. 

He on the other hand had been saving his allowances for 2 and a half years now.

Every birthday, his allowance goes up by 1 Vyn. 

At present, he was one of the richest kids on the block.

Sigh…

Reaching his turn, Big Ben was just about to order when his eyes caught wind of something mysterious.

Eh?

Was it his imagination or did he see a worm swim in the ice cream his friend was holding? ('□_□')

He must have seen it wrong, right?