Howl was happily leading his father down the sidewalk, to his favorite destination. The ice-cream parlor! What flavor would he have this time? Cookie dough? Vanilla? Chocolate? There were so many choices! It was rather unfortunate that Zee would not allow him to get rocky road, because of the nuts. 'You might choke on them!' was Zee's arguement against the flavor. Howl secretly thought that Daddy was just keeping all the rocky road for himself.
"Stop rushing, Howl!" Zee tried to scold him, but the laughter in his voice gave him away. He was amused. Finally, Howl was starting to act like a normal child. Well, as normal as he could expect any son of his to be. They walked into the ice cream shop. A bell on the door alerted the workers that they had arrived.
Unfortunately for them, they were female. And Howl, naturally, had put the charm on. He smiled brightly at them. "Oh, he's a dear!" One of them said, beaming down at him. "What flavor would you like, little boy?"
