Ice cream man

So earlier today around 5 p.m. I posted this to my Facebook "Crystal hears an ice cream truck but knows if she went to chase it she would never find it." I was at my house.

At 7 p.m. I was in Mansfield, miles away from my home, shooting some photos of a fire sprinkler demo (which was more exciting than it sounds). After the demo I headed for the shiny beacon of light in Mansfield, otherwise known as the BP gas station. There was zero light aside from this gas station. As I was pulling up, I paused for a moment trying to comprehend what was before my eyes. An ice cream truck. How funny is that?

The excitement was brief, however.

At first I thought I might try to buy some ice cream, believing this happening must be a sign. But after seeing that shop looked closed up and the guy was getting gas, I decided to leave it alone. As I started to get gas, the ice cream man, who was a bulky guy with blonde scraggly hair, started talking to himself. Now, remember I'm at a gas station in a town that has maybe a handful of people in it. And it was dark. And the gas station attendant looked disinterested and spaced out. So, here is this ice cream man, who I've now imagined is a rapist, muttering to himself nonsensically. And I'm slowly plotting what I'm going to do if he attacks. I'm thinking, "I'll throw a shoe at him." "I'll scream." "I'll run." Etc. Then, I start thinking that maybe the ice cream truck noise that I heard earlier was actually foreshadowing my demise (because apparently now my life is like a novel that has foreshadowing). I held my ground, though, looking over my shoulder constantly and staying alert. I kept it pretty cool until the ice cream man finished gassing up. He lingered there for a moment, and then started stretching in the middle of the gas station parking lot, looking at me. Creepy. He then got into the back of his ice cream truck, moving stuff around. That's when I decided to stop filling up my tank and book it. As I'm scrambling, (spilling a little gas on the ground in the process) this man is just looking at me. Thankfully, another car pulled up around this time. The ice cream man looked at him and then went into the gas station. I left safe and sound, cheering that I made it out alive. Because, obviously, I was going to die otherwise ;). Oh paranoia. Gotta love it.

I later told Nick about the incident, and he told me I needed to stop putting myself in those situations and to always keep my gas tank full when I go into strange towns. Funny, I never pegged Mansfield as a strange town. It fooled me. Just like the BP gas station did. Oh darn you BP beacon of light of Mansfield. Darn you. You looked so safe with your shininess.