It was a perfectly normal day. Except for the people moving in a few doors down, everything was exactly like it was every other day. Kids were outside playing, their parents sitting on nearby lawns talking to each other.

Then he came and ruined it. Everyone who has lived on this street for any significant amount of time knows about this guy. We call him the Ice Cream man. From the outside this guy looks normal, but he’s been showing up in this neighborhood for at least 20 years and he’s never aged. We have no idea who, or what, he is, but he comes around in his truck playing that jingle fairly often. So, yeah, we call him the Ice Cream Man. We're scared, not creative.

Anyway we all hear the jingle and we immediately book it back into our houses. Some ran into their neighbor’s house if it was closer. Nobody here cared about trespassing if you were trying to hide from him. My dad was talking to the people moving in a few doors down and should have shoved them through their door, ran in after them, and explained that they needed to hide. But nooooo, he just had to run all the way back to our house to risk getting caught and leaving the two clueless newcomers to fend for themselves.

"Did you tell them to hide?" I asked incredulously as he ran in and started locking the door.

"Of course not," he said panting, "I didn't have time."

"Because you were running like a coward? Why didn't you say anything before he showed up?" I asked, frustrated.

"Oh because you can casually throw that into a conversation. 'Hey, I know you're new here, let me tell you about the terrifying ageless monster handing out ice cream.' Yeah, they'd definitely think I'm sane. Also, if being a coward means I live, by all means call me a coward." He said this as if preserving the image of his sanity was more important than human life.

"What do you think they're thinking now? That you're the most rational adult on the planet? If you told them and they saw everyone else running they might just take you seriously." I spat. 

I inched closer to the window to watch, my cat, Murphy, meowed in complaint. He stared at me with his round golden eyes as if I had interrupted his nap, then began staring out the window towards the street like I was. Furiously, I watched as the scene began to unfold out on the street. Was she walking up to the truck?! That's a terrible idea!

"You're watching aren't you," my dad said as he retreated further into the house, "I know I can't stop you but you really shouldn't."

"Shhhh! I can't hear what they're saying but he just handed her an ice cream cone!" I whispered. She started eating it too. Does no one here have any common sense? Sheesh.

"Then she's too far gone. You should stop watching," my dad whispered back.

I was too engrossed to respond. The girl was almost staggering as she walked back into the house. The ice cream truck was just sitting there on the street, like it was waiting for something.

That something was the mom apparently. A minute or two after disappearing into the house she came out again, got in her car, and started following the ice cream truck as it left. The cheery jingle that probably brought joy to everyone else but brought terror to this street trailed behind them.

"It's gone," I said, at a normal volume since the danger had passed.

"You know the protocol. We stay in here until tomorrow, just in case,” my dad whispered.

"Oh is that why you didn't warn them? Didn't want to impose on them to let you stay the night instead of leaving them unawares?" Was I still mad? Yes. Obviously. Everyone on this street knew very well what would happen and nobody said anything.

"Look, I'm sorry," my dad said, "I just….." he trailed off. Almost like he realized that he could have saved them and couldn't think of a good excuse for his inaction. He sighed and walked away.

I was probably being too harsh. But what am I supposed to do? Say, "Great job dad! You got here just in time!" when he knowingly left those two out there? Logically I know he was scared, there's never a time anyone on this street isn't scared of that sound, and no one acts rationally when they're afraid.

Not that I was any better. I was too scared to tear the door open and run down the street to check on the poor girl who didn't know what was happening.

● ● ●

We had been in the house the whole day. Even though a full 24 hours had passed, nobody wanted to go outside. When the sun came up the people who went to their neighbor's house quickly scurried back to their own, but that was it. Nobody wanted to go out and play or talk today.

Around noon I heard a scream a few houses down. It was definitely that girl from yesterday. Her mom definitely wasn't back yet. I could tell because the car she left in hadn't come back yet, and their house didn't have a garage.

I was worried, but I didn't get the nerve to go out and check on her until the next day.

● ● ●

It was before noon. The girl’s mom hadn’t come back yet and seemingly no one had entered or left the house since she first went in. I managed to get the name Chloe out of my dad the previous day.

“It’s not like it matters anymore,” he said sadly. “I doubt we’ll ever actually see either of them again.”

People were slowly starting to go outside again, this time sticking closer to their own houses. I knew that if I had tried to leave the house the day before, my dad would have stopped me. But now was the perfect time to finally check in on that girl.

As I approached the front door, Murphy started rubbing up against my legs like he was trying to trip me. For some reason he didn’t want me to leave either. So I picked him up and put him down on the window sill where he had been the other day.

“Don’t worry,” I whispered quietly. “I’ll be careful.” Murphy let out a disgruntled mrow like he didn’t believe me. Which is ridiculous, he’s a cat he shouldn’t know what I’m saying. But he didn’t make any further attempts to stop me as I walked out the door.

I snuck past a few other houses until I was in front of the new girl’s house. Nobody was anywhere near the place, no curious kids snooping about, no worried adults checking in, no one. Which meant there was also no one to stop me from doing what I was about to do, which was probably the dumbest thing I had ever done so far given the circumstances.

I walked up to the front door, and knocked.