Cherry Popsicle Day, sequel, A Second Chance

Ashley put away her phone, wiping her tears off the screen. Johnny’s last letter and the poem he had wrote for her was bringing on a flood of memories and emotion. Johnny had asked her to remember only the good times and she was there now…at 15 years in the past…Wednesday, August 26, 2000, the day they met.

It was a hot Florida afternoon, and she was working behind the sales counter of a 7-eleven, listening to the radio. The song “I Think I'm in Love With You” by Jessica Simpson was playing when he strolled in, plain white t-shirt, red surfer shorts, and white deck shoes, wavy brown hair in a bit of a mess. No one else was in the store, as the Manager had gone to the bank. She turned her head to avoid his regard, being struck from the second the door opened and trying hard not to give in to the temptation of gazing. “Hi there! You look terrific!” He exclaimed cheerfully as he glided past the counter, and her face suddenly matched the cherry Popsicle in her hand. He headed to the back of the store, picked up an aerosol can of whipping cream, and inhaled the N₂O inside, putting it back on the shelf afterwards. He got a cold black cherry soda out of the fridge and came back to the counter, putting a Franklin down.

“I’m sorry I don’t have anything smaller.” He said gleefully, letting out a laugh.

“I don’t have enough change to take that, you can have the soda, it’s on me.” She had just put all the extra cash in the safe as the rules obliged, in case of robbery. Now her eyes couldn’t leave him. “My God” she thought, “He’s an angel, but he’s a devil at the same time.” She didn’t have any idea how right she was. Her Popsicle was starting to melt at the same time as her heart.

“That’s really sweet of you! Hey, that’s a cherry Popsicle, isn’t it! My favorite flavor!”

“Did you know that it’s National Cherry Popsicle Day?” She was leaning across the counter towards him, pulled as if by a magnet.

“Really? I guess I’ll have to treat myself to one then!” The magnet leaned forward too, meeting her halfway. Before she knew what was happening their lips were pressed together, and his tongue was flirting with hers. Somehow, what was left of the Popsicle got in between them, melting between their hearts and leaving a red stain on the front of her knee-length sleeveless white cotton dress at the same time as his white t-shirt. Her long blond hair floated around them with the soft cool breeze of the AC behind her. They mingled for a brief instant, lost in time, before he stopped and smiled, gazing serenely into her eyes…the prize had been won without any effort, not too fairly, but at least frankly.

“Damn, that was one sweet cherry Popsicle! Guess I’ll have to pay for your dress. You can keep the change” He pushed the $100 bill towards her and pulled his stained t-shirt off over his head, putting it on the counter. On his chest a mermaid was clinging to an anchor. “Didn’t see no ‘No shirt, no shoes, no service’ sign on the door. What’s your name little Popsicle?”

“Ashley, Ashley King. What’s yours?”

“Johnny.”

“I haven’t seen you before. Do you live around here?”

“We just moved from Virginia. My father had to move here for his work, he’s the Lieutenant Commander on a Navy SEAL team.” His head was high and his voice filled with pride.

“What year are you in?”

 “I’m a sophomore.”

“I’m a freshman, are you going to John Leonard High School?”

‘Yeah, say, what’s that goody-two-shoes shit on the radio? Can you change the channel?”

Spellbound, she’d do almost whatever he wanted. She was sure that she was already as good as fired because of the security cameras. She started searching other stations…she fell on the song “My Own Prison” by the group Creed, No.1 in the Pop charts.

“Yeah, that’s better! That’s a good one! Better than that lovey-dovey shit.”

She didn’t like that song so she kept searching with the tuner… it stopped on “Absolutely” (Story of a Girl) by the group Nine Days…they looked at each other and their eyes and smiles agreed. “Incredible” she was thinking, “He looks almost like the lead singer John Hampson” (she had a poster of Nine Days in her bedroom). He could tell that she was admiring him, and he was used to it.

She spoke in a hush, almost a whisper “You know I’ll get fired for that.”

“But it was worth it, wasn’t it? Johnny came back matter-of-factly.

“What did you do with the whipping cream? I don’t get it.”

“Ha ha, didn’t you know that they pressurize whipping cream cans with laughing gas?”

“No, you’re kidding.”

“It’s true! Guess they discovered it improved sales! You can look at the ingredients; it’s marked N₂O as propulsion gas, that’s Nitrous Oxide, laughing gas. If you shake up the can it comes out in the whipped cream, but if you don’t shake it, you just get the gas!”

“But now the can you got the gas from won’t work!”

“So what?”

“That’s not alright for the person who’ll buy it!”

“OK, I’ll buy the whipping cream next time. That suit you? You need to lighten up girl, maybe you should try inhaling a bit of gas? When do you get off work?”

She was expecting the question, and her eyes were on the clock even before he asked. “I’m off in a half an hour, at 5. I work 8 to 5 with an hour for lunch, or I should say ‘worked’. The manager should be back any minute.”

“Do you want a ride home? I can wait outside in the car, it’s not too long.”

“You drive?”

“Yeah, I just got my license. I’ve been driving with a permit for a year. My dad bought a car for me to use ‘cause I’m careful. He trusts me. He says that if I take good care of it, the keys are mine when I turn 18.”

“I don’t have my permit yet. But I’ll get it soon. Maybe you can let me drive?”

“I don’ know…women drivers…” he laughed kiddingly. “Sure, maybe, but you know you have to have a licensed adult next to you when you drive with a permit, and I’m only 16. You’re 15, right? We’d have to be careful not to get caught, that’s all.”

“Just turned 15 last month.”

He turned to leave, picking up his t-shirt. “See you at 5, Popsicle.”

“See you Johnny, you will wait for me, won’t you?” She questioned with a bit of disbelief. She felt like walking out with him, but that would be considered misconduct. It was bad enough already, but she didn’t care. Her heart was a feather floating high into the clear blue sky. When she left the store she found him waiting, parked just outside, and she gasped… “I must be dreaming!” she thought. When he spoke of a car she had imagined an old used one…and he was behind the wheel of a cherry red 2001 BMW 330i Convertible with black leather seats, the group Ultra Naté “Desire” pulsing at high volume from the CD player.

He too had been struck, and he would stay true. He got out of the car and came to meet her. This time the magnets’ attraction had no counter between them, and their kiss knew no limits.

The stain on Ashley’s dress could have been removed easily with bleach, but she decided to keep it like that, with the stain, as a souvenir of their first kiss. She took it to the cleaners and made a very strange request. She told them to clean the dress and to be very careful not to remove the stain. If the stain was gone when she picked up the cleaned dress, she said she would refuse to pay.

Ashley and Johnny went steady through the rest of high school, and everyone knew they were hooked on each other. Ashley had never broken the law before she met Johnny, now she let herself go a bit and admired herself for daring to be a rebel like him. When she thought of herself before she saw a timid little “good-girl”, and she felt like she was more of a woman for her daring. Even if Johnny was a rebel he never did anything really criminal, he just liked to have fun, and sometimes it just happened to be against the law. He had a big heart and loved his Ashley immensely.

Every August 26^th they celebrated National Cherry Popsicle day more than anyone else in this world. Johnny too had kept his stained t-shirt as a souvenir of their first kiss, and even went so far as to wear it for the occasion.

Johnny graduated in 2003 and decided to wait a year for Ashley, they planned go to college together, but didn’t know where. While Ashley was in her senior year Johnny got a job as a service station attendant at Chevron, and they moved in with Ashley’s older sister Laura to live together. She had a two bedroom apartment and so they shared a room. It was the beginning of their difficulties. Going steady had been great while they each lived with their parents, but now while living together they started to really discover each other.

Over the couple of years together in High school, Ashley had seen Johnny go off the wall for nothing a few times, becoming hard and aggressive; a radical difference from his normal happy fun-loving nature. He always asked for her to forgive him afterwards, and he was sincere, so she always did. Living together, his aggressive fits became more and more frequent, so she became really worried about him and spoke to his parents about it. They liked her a lot and were fairly understanding and easygoing, despite his father being a Navy SEAL. She discovered a secret that they had promised Johnny not to tell her. Now they felt obliged. He had been diagnosed as being Bi-Polar just the year before, in his senior year. Armed with her new knowledge, she had a long serious talk with her lover, and he promised to get help with his condition. Nevertheless, the situation worsened, and Laura finally put Johnny out. He left without making a fuss, but came back several times in the middle of the night in drunken fits, banging on the door and screaming “Ashley I love you! I want to marry you!" She felt sorry and wept for him, but it was clear that their love affair was finished. He stopped coming around after a while.

The years passed. Ashley finished her BA in Finance in 2008 and came back to live with her parents in Greenacres. Her bedroom hadn’t changed since her years at J. Leonard High School. The poster of Nine Days was still on the wall, and seeing the singer John Hampson made her sad and nostalgic. The walls were covered with snapshots of all the wonderful moments spent with her Johnny. It seemed to her that everything in her room had memories attached to it; The Pink Panther stuffed toy on her bed that he had won shooting targets with an air gun, and the countless gifts he had given her everywhere she looked.

One hot summer’s day, as if in a dream, her eyes beginning to water, she got her stained dress out of her wardrobe, where it had been hanging in a protective bag for 8 years, and collapsed on her bed. She was lying on her bed with the dress clutched close to her heart when the doorbell rang. Her bedroom overlooked the street and she looked out the window to see a cherry red 2001 BMW330i Convertible parked in the street.

“Mom! Don’t answer the door! It’s Johnny!” she screamed.

“Do you want me to call the police?” her mother yelled back.

“No, I want to answer the door myself, thanks, I’ll be right down.”

Her heart pounding and her head swimming, she slipped the dress on and stood in front of her mirror. She quickly checked her hair...her eyes, no her makeup hadn’t run…she looked alright. She almost tripped as she rushed barefoot downstairs.

Johnny’s smile pierced her the same way it had 8 years before. He was wearing his stained white t-shirt and had two cherry Popsicles in his hands, one of them stretched out to offer her.

“I see you didn’t forget either!” he said cheerfully, seeing her white cotton sleeveless dress. “You look terrific! Happy Cherry Popsicle Day!”

“Come in, let’s go upstairs.” She took the Popsicle with one hand and his hand with the other, leading him in the door and up the staircase. Her longing was deep. She had dated some men since their separation, but she had not felt a strong attachment to any of them. Her body and soul desired the affection she had known with him. Once in her room, the door closed behind them, they enlaced, the two red stains came together and the two Popsicles dropped on the floor, left to melt as the lovers melted. It had been so long. Johnny too had not known love since their parting.

Johnny had come at just the right time, and he had won his second chance, not too fairly, but at least frankly.

This story is the sequel to the Short Story "Cherry Popsicle Day”, submitted August 4, 2020 for Contest #53 in response to: Write a story that begins with someone's popsicle melting...