Essentials

"Mmmm.... some ice cream would be so good now!" I murmured.
Through the window, the trees appeared unearthly.

"It's freezing... how can you want ice cream?" Sr. Terry Thủy replied.
A cloak of grayness seem to hang on the trees' bare branches as our van continued northward on the highway to Springfield, Missouri last weekend.

"Those trees look funny," Ni Hà commented.
A shaft of light broke through the clouds and a wonderland of ice twinkled instantaneously.

We were on our annual trip to our community's regional headquarters and hoped to see snow.
A dazzling display of "crystals" lined our horizon.

"Do you know why ice cream is essential for you?" I continued.
My four companions smiled.

"Are you saying we should make a rest stop and get ice cream?" Sr. Terry Thủy teased.
"No... but I won't be against it! Did you know that air is an essential ingredient of making ice cream. Without air, ice cream would be plain solid. It won't have that smooth texture."

"So, ice cream is healthy then!" Sr. Leslie Thu piped up. She was also an ice cream aficionado.
"Yup! And there are even rules in most countries of the legal amount of air you can put into ice cream. It is 50% here in the US... but what I'm trying to say is that ice cream is essential to us because it contains air... and do we all not need air to live?!" I concluded mischievously.

"Vân, your arguments for ice cream stops are getting better and better each day!" Sr. Terry responded.
"Well... I only want to do what is good for us!" I laughed.

ps1. Photo of me at the "Ice" exhibit at the Gaylord Convention Center. ps2. Info about ingredients of ice cream. http://sci-toys.com/ingredients/ice_cream.html

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