legends · 3 min read ·
Ice Cream Van Route
An ice-cream van driver serves customers at houses nobody lives in on an estate that was never occupied.
**Dorrin's Ices of Brindle — Route Sheet, Van 3 (driver: Kit Doran)**
*Chime: "Greensleeves," 40 seconds. Stops: 3 minutes each. Season: April–October.*
- **Time · Stop · Notes**
- 14:00 · Park Gates · Usual
- 14:20 · Fenwick Rd (south end) · Usual
- 14:45 · The Green · Busy
- 15:10 · Larch Close · Quiet
- 15:30 · Watling Way · Usual
- 16:00 · Old Mill Lane · Usual
· · ·
**Driver's note (K. Doran, 28 September)**
Last week of the season. Chime working. Took £118 at the Green, £22 at Larch Close, none at Watling Way.
Noticed at Old Mill Lane a customer I'd not seen before, a woman in her seventies in a headscarf, who bought a 99 with a flake and asked for it in a cone with the flake pointing left. She paid in coins from a leather purse. She said: "I've been looking for you all summer."
I said I'd been on the road since April. She said: "Not this road."
· · ·
**Driver's note (K. Doran, 2 October)**
Season over. Van to be laid up on the 5th. Took it out for one last run on the 3rd, to say goodbye to the regulars.
The chime played at 14:00 as usual. Play began, and carried on for three minutes without a gap, the tune running into itself. I stopped the van and pulled the plug. It went on. It is a mechanical chime with a small cylinder. It does not have enough cylinder for three minutes.
I noticed I was somewhere I did not recognise. A suburban road, a row of semis, pebble-dashed, with front gardens. I had not turned off the route.
· · ·
**Chime log (Van 3, automatic recording, 3 October)**
14:00:00 — Chime started.
14:00:40 — Chime repeated.
14:01:20 — Chime repeated.
...
14:09:20 — Chime repeated.
14:09:41 — Customer at window. Voice, female: "Two 99s, please. One for me, one for the gentleman."
14:09:44 — Voice, male, low: "Thank you."
14:09:50 — Transaction logged: £4.20.
*Note: the driver's cash tin shows £4.20 extra at the end of the shift. The driver did not serve a customer.*
· · ·
**Driver's note (K. Doran, 6 October)**
I looked at the road on the map. It is a real road: Brindle Way, on the new estate at Harcourt, ten miles from my route. No one lives in four of the houses. The sale boards are old. The houses have been built but never lived in.
At each of those four houses there was a little queue outside, by the van. People of all ages. They were quiet. They stood in the road in the sunshine with their hands at their sides. When I opened the hatch they came forward one at a time, and asked for something, and held out coins. None of them looked at me. They looked at the van.
I served them all. I was pleased to. I have never been so busy.
· · ·
**Driver's note (K. Doran, 10 October)**
I have laid the van up. It is in the yard behind the depot with the engine off. I do not go near it.
But last night at 14:00, which is when I was used to be on the road, the chime started. The tune carries across the whole yard. It plays all the way through, once, and it ends. And then, from the street beyond the wall, there is a second chime, answering. It is the sound of other vans on other roads, all of them playing the same tune, a little out of time with each other.
· · ·
**Route sheet (found in the van cab, 25 October, typed on the company letterhead)**
- **Time · Stop · Notes**
- 14:00 · Brindle Way (No. 4) · Four customers
- 14:20 · Brindle Way (No. 9) · Two customers
- 14:45 · Brindle Way (No. 12) · One customer
- 15:10 · Brindle Way (No. 17) · One customer
- 15:30 · 21 Kestrel Close · Driver's address
*Last stop. The customer has asked for a cone. The flake should point left.*