A little boy rolled his £2.60 into the Ben & Jerry’s machine. A steep price to pay for such a small tub of ice cream, but the show put on by the machine was worth it.
On tiptoes he pressed his hands and face against the window: let the show begin! The vacuum-like instrument lowered, the crate of ice cream opened, slowly and dramatically as if it were a treasure chest, revealing all the different flavours. It moved until it was hovering over the Chunky Monkey boxes, dropped out of sight and started to suck up the little tub. The boy’s eyes wide with amazement, awaiting his dessert.
The vacuum was ascending slowly, the lid in sight, up it came, yet, shock, horror, where was the ice cream? The machine placed the lid down, and the boy grabbed it with both hands as if to say ‘Is this it?’. He glanced back at the machine, hoping it would go back for the rest of his £2.60, but no such luck.
Tears flooded his eyes as he walked away with a mere lid in his hands. With his back already turned to the machine he heard it make a loud noise, as if laughing at his misery. The tears started to run down his face.
This is a just a daily event, or so it seems, but what a depth of despair and disappointment, that sense of powerlessness that we feel as children, very well captured. People talk of childhood being our happiest time, but even in happy childhoods there is always the potential for this crushing encounter with the injustice and unfairness of things.
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