The Secrets of Ice Cream Success (18 page)

‘
It’s OK,
actually.’ Luigi confirmed. ‘It’s quite comforting. All those
thoughts that plague you when you’re alive? I don’t have to worry
about them. I’m aware, but I’m not aware, if you see what I
mean?

‘
No.’ Carlo
laughed. But he was relieved at least to hear that his father
wasn’t worried about what happens when left alone.

Luigi looked up at the clock.
‘You should go, son. I’ll see you tomorrow.’ He looked at Carlo for
a second and then smiled warmly, turning to walk back through the
wall. ‘I love you, Carlo.’ His voice drifted back.

Carlo stared back at the place
where Luigi had disappeared. ‘I love you too, Dad.’ he said. Carlo
picked up his bag and then, just as he was about to leave he
noticed the old diary still sat on the desk. Having learnt so much
today already he felt he would be in a much better place to
understand some of the things his father and grandfather had
written at the front of the diary. Feeling in the mood for some
homework he stuffed the diary in his bag too, locked the door
behind him and jogged up the stairs, just as his father’s head
popped back through the wall.

‘
Carlo, you
haven’t just…’ Luigi heard his son’s feet pounding back up the
stairs. ‘Ah, you have. Oh dear.’

Carlo walked past the vans
waving up to Randy who was stood talking to Lumsden outside his
office. Both men waved back as Carlo hopped through the hatch in
the main doors. He noticed Ben, Norton and Abi’s bikes had already
been taken and picked up his own to set off for home.

But as he kicked off through
the gates someone appeared inches before him. Carlo pulled at his
brakes as hard as he could but knew immediately that he was too
late and closed his eyes expecting an impact at any second, but was
stunned that somehow he managed to avoid a collision, coming to a
standstill just a yard past the person who had stepped in front of
him. But in his astonishment Carlo now found himself staring at a
bus aimed directly at him having forgotten to look right as he left
the gates. With no way of reversing in time, Carlo took the only
option available to him and pedalled furiously. He sped up and
raced along the road to the left, out of the way of the bus that
now had room to overtake him. As the bus negotiated the young man’s
bike, Carlo slowed to take a look at who he had miraculously
missed, but as he turned his head another man appeared straight
ahead of him and this time Carlo had his eyes wide open in shock as
he rode directly through the person, who was screaming in
alarm.

For the second time in just
twenty yards Carlo slammed on the brakes, and jumped off the bike
and onto the pavement as it slowed. The bike fell to the floor with
a clatter and Carlo stumbled as he landed heavily and crumpled to
the pavement, rolling over as his momentum took him straight into a
lamppost. Next to him in the gutter his bike halted with its front
wheel clicking softly as it continued to spin.

‘
Oww!’ Carlo
exclaimed as he gingerly pulled himself upright, leaning against
the lamppost. He looked back down the road and saw the person he
had somehow ridden through turn around looking just as shocked as
Carlo.

‘
Dad?’ he
said, pulling himself up on the lamppost and standing
shakily.

Luigi looked stunned, but
realising what had happened he took a step towards his son, a look
of deep concern on his face, but abruptly stopped as he became
aware of his surroundings. ‘Oh dear.’ he said and disappeared as
quickly as he had first appeared in front of Carlo.

‘
What the…?
Carlo started to limp towards the place his father had been, but
stopped dead as he heard a voice next to his ear.

‘
I’m still
here. I’m still
here
!’

Becoming slightly more used to
having a disembodied voice whispering around him, Carlo skipped the
most obvious question, “where?” and plumped for the next most
pressing, ‘Why?’ he asked.

‘
I have no
idea!’ Luigi hissed loudly. ‘What is going on? What if someone had
seen me? I feel naked!’

An odd picture came to Carlo of
his father stood covering his modesty, fully clothed in the evening
sun. ‘I don’t know, but we can’t stay here. Can you follow me?’

‘
God knows.’
Luigi said, sounding agitated. Sometimes I bounce back to the
study, other times it’s you. This is preposterous!’

Carlo was also at a loss but
knew that if he stood there seemingly talking to thin air he would
be noticed eventually as they were still only yards from the
factory. ‘OK, so if I ride away, you should bounce back to the
study, right?’

‘
Or you... who
knows?’

‘
Only one way
to find out.’ Carlo said, noticing some people walking out of the
factory behind them and not wanting to be seen
lingering.

‘
Hang on, why
don’t I just walk along nex….’ Luigi began, but Carlo had already
set off, shouting ‘Try and concentrate on the study, Dad!’ over his
shoulder.

Trying to estimate the distance
he would need to go to reach the comparable length of the factory,
Carlo pedalled as fast as his sore leg would allow, hoping that
once he reached that point his Father would immediately bounce back
to the study behind him, but before he had gone even twenty meters
Mr Leodoni appeared in front of him yet again looking thoroughly
fed up and mouthing something to Carlo who, frustrated that it
hadn’t worked, sped up to try again, riding straight through his
father. But once more Luigi vanished behind him and materialised
again inches ahead of his son.

Carlo ploughed through his
father pulling the brakes and screeched to a halt five yards
farther. He looked behind to see Luigi walking forlornly towards
him.

‘
It’s me isn’t
it?’ Carlo said, breathing heavily. ‘You’re haunting
me.’

‘
I’m not
haunting anyone.’ Luigi answered, irritated at the suggestion. ‘I
just don’t get it.’

‘
Well, we
can’t stay here and it doesn’t seem like we have a choice right
now. Looks like you’re coming home with me.’ Carlo said, a slight
smile forming on his face. ‘Want to have some fun?’

Luigi gave his son a look that
suggested that right now fun was the last thing he wanted, but
Carlo just winked.

‘
Hang on.’ he
said setting off again at full speed.

‘
Oh no!’ Luigi
said realising what was coming next.

Meters down the road Carlo sped
on and, just as he hoped, Luigi reappeared directly in front of him
with a panicked expression. Carlo braced himself instinctively but
continued pedalling straight through his father who, too late, had
raised his arms automatically. Carlo continued on down the road
turning left at the post office and straight through his father
once more, who now looked extremely angry.

By the time they reached
Carlo’s school Luigi had begun to re-appear wearing a disapproving
scowl and wagging his finger down upon his son who continued to
shoot directly through his father, whooping with joy each time.

As they neared home fifteen
“re-appearances” later, Luigi realised his son was having far too
much fun to stop so had given up trying to reprimand Carlo, instead
appearing each time pulling a variety of silly faces and, as they
skidded into his street, Luigi mimed riding his own bicycle as
Carlo whipped past him.

Carlo came to a screeching stop
outside Randy’s house just as Luigi appeared for the final time,
sat in a perfect yoga position, crossed legged on the pavement.
Carlo’s front wheel came to a halt resting two inches inside
Luigi’s stomach. Luigi looked up in mimicked shock. ‘How rude!’ he
said, with mock offense.

Carlo joined in laughing as he
dumped his bike unceremoniously in the garage and opened the front
door. He beckoned his father in as he walked straight up stairs and
into his bedroom. Carlo stepped aside as his father walked into a
room that could be generously described as “lived in”.

‘
Welcome to my
room.’ Carlo said as Luigi took in the unmade bed, remote control
cars and various pieces of homework scattered around the floor, old
crisp packets and cans surrounding his computer and an entire
wardrobe of clothes littering every surface available.

‘
You never
tidy your bloody room!’ Luigi exclaimed, inadvertently reverting to
his parental norm.

‘
I’ll tidy it
tomorrow!’ Carlo replied.

‘
That’s what
you always say!’

Carlo ignored him and dumped
his bag on the table, taking out his notebook and the diary.

‘
Ah, Carlo, I
wanted to talk to you about that.’ Luigi said, as Carlo placed the
books on the table. ‘You see, diaries are a very private thing and
there may be some personal thoughts in there that I’m not quite
sure I want to share.’

This took
Carlo thoroughly by surprise. He knew perfectly well how protective
people can be regarding their diaries having witnessed Abi once
pummel Norton for a full five minutes after he attempted to read
aloud
to the gang the first entry in her
diary before she rugby tackled him, but it never occurred to him
that his father would feel the same way, after all, the diary had
been in Carlo’s possession for some time now, though admittedly it
remained mostly unread. Suddenly something occurred to
him.

‘
Wait a
minute, is that why you kept stopping us from reading
it?’

‘
Well, of
course.’ Luigi answered as if this was the most obvious thing in
the world.

Carlo was torn. His brief
glimpses thus far had shown him that the diary contained some
fascinating ideas for the factory and there was a part of him that
was sure that death was a fairly definitive termination to claims
on property, no matter how personal. Yet his father was very
definitely here in spirit, if not in body, asking him not to read
the diary.

‘
Well, I guess
it is yours.’ Carlo said, a little disappointed. ‘OK. I won’t read
it.’

‘
Thank you
son, I know…’ But Luigi stopped mid-sentence as the doorbell rang
and with an anxious look at Carlo, disappeared.

Carlo rolled his eyes. ‘It’ll
just be the milkman collecting money.’ he said walking past his now
invisible Dad. ‘You remember Lilliput? She was nervous every time
she heard a noise too!’ he called back from the stairs.

‘
I am nothing
like that cat! She was nuts!’ his father’s voice shouted back
down.

Carlo opened the door to find
four identical fixed grins staring back at him. The owners of the
grins were stood looking rather uneasy as if they knew they
shouldn’t be there but couldn’t help themselves. Understanding
slowly dawned on Carlo as he saw Norton struggling to contain
himself and eventually open his mouth to say something.

‘
No it
wasn’t…’ Carlo said, jumping in before Norton could speak, taking
him by surprise.

‘
No it wasn’t
what?’

‘
You were
about to blame Ben.’

‘
What?’ Ben
said.

‘
I was not!’
Norton butted in.

‘
Yes you
were.’ Carlo said turning to Abi and Newton. ‘It was him wasn’t
it?’ he asked, waving a finger at Norton.

Abi and Newton half-heartedly
shook their heads along with Norton next to them who sported a
satisfied smile, which vanished as they both withered under Carlo’s
stare and began to nod in agreement. Norton groaned as Carlo turned
his stare on him.

‘
I will never
tell you anything ever again!” he said in disgust, as Newton
strained to see him past him into the house.

‘
Where is he?’
he asked excitedly. ‘At the factory?’

‘
No, he’s in
my room.’

His four friends bounded past
him up the stairs. ‘But he won’t show himself.’ he added in
resignation.

Carlo followed and found them
stood in his bedroom looking around at the walls. Newton looked
thoroughly disappointed. ‘Told you.’ Carlo said throwing himself
down on the bed. The others took up their usual places lounging
around the room.

‘
You’ve tidied
up.’ Abi noted.

‘
Yeah, last
month.’ Carlo said with a shrug. He heard a definite sniff of
disapproval from the wall behind him.

Carlo sighed and said to the
room in general. ‘Dad. They all know now. Not much use hiding.’

‘
I’m not
hiding.’ said the wall. ‘I was checking out Randy’s house. He’s
painted his bedroom.’

Abi, Newton and even Norton
sprang to their feet in surprise. Norton got down on all fours and
looked under the bed.

‘
How did he
even get here?’ Ben asked, looking around the room to try and work
out where Luigi’s voice was coming from. ‘I thought he couldn’t
float too far from the study.’

‘
So did we.’
Carlo said, indicating the wall behind him, ‘but when I left work
he sort of “bounced” after me.’

‘
Bounced?’
asked Abi sitting back down with a wary glance at the
wall.

Carlo explained bouncing and
the experiments he, Ben and his father had undertaken that morning
and continued to tell them about the journey home. Ben, Abi and
Norton looked unconcerned at this turn of events; who were they to
figure out the strange happenings of ghosts; but Newton looked
fascinated.

‘
Something
changed,’ he said excitedly, ‘or you did something
different.’