“The Inside Scoop” by Michael Stahl

It’s barely eleven a.m. on a sunny May morning in Astoria, Queens, and already somebody wants ice cream. Though he hasn’t actually reached the beginning of his route yet, Gus Elefantis, fifty-two, notices a little boy in a stroller eyeballing his approaching Mister Softee truck. The dad looks too, nodding at its driver. Elefantis, well over six-feet tall, big-bellied and bald, turns the wheel and applies the brakes. “I can’t say no to the kids,” he admits through a noticeable Greek accent, one that’s commonplace in the neighborhood. He didn’t even have to play the iconic Mister Softee jingle to score his first sale of the day: a small vanilla cup with rainbow sprinkles. Elefantis jokes with the kid’s father about how early it is. The dad couldn’t say no either. After a laugh and well wishes, Elefantis is back in the driver’s seat. Jolly, he says, “Off to a good start!”

Actually, Elefantis’s day started two hours earlier when he and his wife, Lola, forty-two, drove from their Astoria home to the nearest Mister Softee hub in Long Island City to begin cleaning and stocking his truck, which he parks overnight in a lot alongside dozens more blue and white vans of joy. Elefantis has owned and operated his mobile Mister Softee franchise since 1987, servicing the same exact route through the Upper Ditmars section of Astoria from Steinway Street to LaGuardia Airport–a route that was included with the purchase of the truck. Watching his wife wipe down the sink, the refrigerator and the slushy machine, Elefantis explains that Lola has cleaned the truck since they were married twenty years ago. “She’s the best at it,” he says. “I’ve tried to clean the truck plenty of times before, but I’m no good at it. When Lola cleans, it is spotless.”

Nobody can resist Mister Softee…

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Originally published at narrative.ly. Click the link to read the complete story.