Isaac and the Ice Cream Tree

Isaac didn't just like ice cream. He was OBSESSED. He loved it in a bowl. He loved it in a cone. He would have eaten it out of a dirty boot if his mom let him. (She didn't.) But today was a DISASTER. Isaac opened the freezer and gasped. EMPTY! Just one old ice cream stick sitting there on its own. Isaac stared at the stick. He stared at the garden. PING! A lightbulb went on in his head. "If apple seeds grow apple trees," Isaac whispered, "then ice cream sticks must grow..." He grabbed a spoon and ran outside. SCOOP! DIG! PAT! He planted the stick next to the roses. He watered it with a cup of milk. Just in case. "Sleep tight," he said. The next morning, Isaac woke up to a weird sound. CREAK. POP. SQUISH. He looked out the window. "WHOA!" Right in the middle of the garden stood a GIANT tree. But not a normal tree. The trunk was made of crispy, crunchy waffle cone. And instead of leaves, it had SCOOPS. Big, round, colorful scoops hanging from every branch. Isaac ran outside in his pajamas. He bit the trunk. CRUNCH. "Waffle wood!" Isaac cheered. A blue scoop dangled right above his nose. PLOP! It landed in his mouth. "Bubblegum!" Isaac mumbled happily. He ate a red one. Strawberry Slam! A green one. Minty Madness! A brown one. Choco-Chunk Explosion! SLURP. GULP. MUNCH. Isaac lay on the grass with ice cream all over his face and a big dopey grin. He couldn't WAIT to tell everyone. "I've got an ICE CREAM TREE in my garden." Nobody at school believed him. "Prove it," said Maya. So after school, Isaac brought them all home. Maya. Sam. Tom. Lily. And a bunch of kids he'd never even talked to before. They saw the tree. They went WILD. Maya stacked her scoops ten high. The tower wobbled and wobbled and... SPLAT! Right on her head. Sam and Tom had an ice cream fight. Scoops flying through the air like freezing cold snowballs. SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLOOSH! Lily slid down the waffle trunk like a slide. WHEEEEE! CRUNCH! Isaac grabbed the paddling pool and filled it with scoops. "ICE CREAM POOL!" he shouted. SPLASH! Everyone jumped in at once. "COLD COLD COLD COLD!" It was the best day of Isaac's ENTIRE life! Biscuit the dog licked Isaac right across the face. SLURP! "BISCUIT!" Isaac grabbed a scoop and threw it across the garden. "FETCH!" Biscuit took off after it. CHOMP! Isaac laughed and reached up for another scoop. But the branch was bare. He looked up. The scoops were gone. The branches were drooping. The waffle trunk had gone soft and soggy. CREEEEAK. CRACK. A branch snapped and hit the ground. The last scoop slid off the last branch. SPLAT. Nobody said a word. One by one, the kids went home. Isaac sat in the sticky garden by himself. His magical ice cream tree. Gone. "I should have looked after you," he whispered. He cleaned up the mess. He watered the soggy stump with a cup of milk. Just in case. The next morning. Nothing. The next morning. Nothing. The next morning... A tiny bud. It popped open. One single, perfect, vanilla scoop. Isaac smiled. THE END.