The Secrets of Ice Cream Success (23 page)

‘
I’m just
taking five minutes.’ Carlo called to Lumsden, wiping his forehead
with his handkerchief as he walked over to his friends saying
‘Hardly inconspicuous is it?’

Norton pointed up to the
parasol and said ‘We’re undercover.’ between bites of his
burger.

‘
I’m not sure
you’ve quite grasped the concept.’ Carlo replied. Norton shrugged
as he popped a can of lemonade and chugged half of it back,
reaching across to offer the other half to Ben, who didn’t
move.

‘
Oi!’ Norton
said, waving the can in front of Ben’s face. ‘Want
some?’

Ben continued to ignore his
friend, staring straight ahead at the Hill’s van. Carlo glanced
across and saw nothing out of the ordinary. ‘You’re kidding me.’ he
muttered to himself as he walked across and pulled the sunglasses
of Ben’s face to discover he had dropped off to sleep.

‘
Hey!’

‘
What? Gah,
it’s bright!’ Ben complained, waking up with the sun in his eyes
and grabbing his sunglasses back from Carlo.

‘
I thought you
two were supposed to be keeping an eye on them?’ Carlo said,
pointing behind him.

‘
We’re taking
it in turns.’ Ben replied, finally taking the drink from
Norton.

Carlo looked dubious. ‘Well,
have you seen anything?’

‘
Nup.’ they
chorused, continuing to stare across at the Hill’s van.

‘
Where’s
Herbert?’ Carlo asked. ‘He doesn’t seem to be there.

‘
He wandered
off about 20 minutes ago.’ Norton confirmed.

‘
Where did he
go?’

‘
Dunno.’

Carlo stared down at them,
incredulous.

‘
What?’ Norton
asked.

‘
Oh, we should
have followed him?’ Ben asked as the penny finally
dropped.

Carlo nodded emphatically,
waved his hands in the air in silent frustration and stalked off
leaving the boys to play rock paper scissors to see who had to go
and find Herbert.

Despite the failings of the
Security department, Carlo had to admit the day was going well. Abi
and Newton had brought in many customers on their rounds of the
park. Others had read about the competition and the re-launch in
the papers and a number of people had mentioned how happy they were
to see Leodoni’s back. For some people it was a reminder of their
youth, whilst others passed on their opinions regarding the
relative merits of the two competitors’ products.

Overall the competition was
very tight and as they passed into the afternoon both teams had
sold a similar amount of ice creams, a fact, it appeared, that was
not lost on Herbert.

‘
He’s back!’
Ben whispered into the driver’s door of the van.

‘
Who is?’
Carlo asked, still serving a customer.

‘
Herbert! He’s
back and something’s up!’

Carlo handed over the
customer’s change and made room for Lumsden to serve the next in
the queue as he climbed out of the van beside Ben.

‘
What do you
mean, something’s up?’

Ben pointed around the van
towards the Hill’s team.

‘
That’s a big
queue.’ Carlo admitted, noting the fifteen or so people lining up
in front of the Hill’s serving hatch.

‘
Yeah, but
they all just came at once.’ Ben said. ‘Herbert pulled up in a
minibus and that lot got out.’

‘
He’s ferrying
them in from other parts of the park?’ Carlo asked, not sure if he
agreed that the tactic was fair.’

Ben shook his head. ‘Nup, he
came from the main gates. He’s ferrying them in from outside and I
think he’s giving the ice cream away! Not one of them has paid
yet!’

‘
Hmmm.’ Carlo
mused, trying not to jump to the wrong conclusion. Perhaps they’re
a group and the last one in line is paying for
everyone?’

‘
Wake up,
mate!’ Ben said, pointing at Herbert, who was loitering behind his
van. ‘He’s picked up a bunch of his mates outside and he bussed
them here and is giving them free ice creams.’

‘
He’s doing
what?’ Abi shouted from behind them, having walked over to collect
a new batch of samples without the boys noticing. ‘You see, I told
you we should have judged this on profits and not how much ice
cream you have left!’ she said, staring at Carlo. ‘We’ve made it
easy for them to cheat now. Cheats! she shouted over at the Hill’s
team.

‘
Who’s a
cheat?’ asked a disembodied voice.

‘
Argh!’
screamed Ben, Abi and Carlo together.

‘
Don’t do
that!’ Carlo said, trying to calm his pulse. ‘Where are
you?’

‘
Here.’ Luigi
said from somewhere in front of them. ‘Who’s cheating?’

‘
No one.’
Carlo said, hoping to keep his father out of any
altercation.

‘
They are!’
Abi added immediately, pointing across at the Hill’s van. Carlo
turned and stared at her.

‘
What?’ she
asked. ‘They are.’

‘
Yes, but it
doesn’t need to concern all of us, does it, Dad?’ Dad?’ Carlo
looked around but knew his father wasn’t just invisible… he wasn’t
there.

‘
Great,
thanks!’ he muttered to Abi.

‘
What did I
do?’ she asked.

‘
That.’ Ben
answered pointing.

‘
Oh, cra…’ Abi
started as Norton pushed by followed by Newton.

‘
What on earth
is that?’ Newton asked.

The gang looked on in
fascination as, unbeknownst to the queue of people waiting outside
the Hill’s van, four large ice cream cones floated around the van
and began to hover over them.

‘
Haha. This’ll
be great!’ Norton laughed.

‘
No it won’t!’
Carlo added, looking anxious. ‘He’ll be discovered.’

‘
You better go
and get him.’ Newton said, looking at Carlo.

Carlo nodded back in
understanding. ‘You’re right. It’s the only way.’ He immediately
set off at full speed.

‘
Where’s he
going?’ Norton asked as he, Ben and Abi turned to watch their
friend disappearing across the field in the opposite direction from
the Hill’s van.’

‘
He’s gone to
get Mr Leodoni.’ Newton answered with a smile.

‘
But Mr
Leodoni is over there.’ Abi said, pointing back to the ice cream
van.’

‘
Observe.’
Newton said, grinning. They looked on as Carlo sprinted past a
group of younger kids playing football. ‘Any second now...’ said
Newton who turned to look at the van just as the four ice cream
cones reached the front of the queue and paused, ready to drop. The
others turned to see what he was talking about just in time to see
the ice creams suddenly leap away from the oblivious customers
towards them.

‘
Arg!’
screamed Norton, ducking as the four cones shot past them following
the still running Carlo.

Carlo jumped over a sunbathing
couple and continued to run as fast as he could, not daring to turn
around to see if his plan was working. He was starting to get
slightly concerned that he was heading directly for the duck pond
ahead when something whizzed past his ears and Mr Leodoni abruptly
appeared a few yards in front of him looking surprised.

Carlo had no time to stop and
ran straight through his father and the ice creams he was still
holding until he came to an eventual halt, ice cream covering his
face and one of the cones stuck to his forehead making him look
like a dishevelled and sticky unicorn.

Carlo slumped to the floor
breathing heavily as Ben and Abi sprinted towards them.

‘
What did you
do that for?’ Luigi asked grumpily.

‘
You were
about to give yourself away!’ Carlo said, between gasps.

‘
I was not.
Who would have known?’ his father replied.

‘
We’ll talk
about this once I get cleared up. Just, go away for now,
right?’

‘
Go away? Go
away? You know fine well I can’t go away. This entire incident has
only gone to prove that I can’t “go away”, hasn’t it!’ he
shouted.

‘
No, I mean, I
can still see you. You’re visible to everyone.’ Carlo
wheezed.

‘
Oh, right.
Sorry.’ Luigi replied, disappearing as the others arrived
laughing.

‘
That was
amazing!’ Ben enthused.

‘
Thanks.
Always willing to entertain.’ Carlo sighed as Ben helped him to his
feet.

Carlo pulled off his sticky
t-shirt and tried to find a clean bit to wipe his face with as they
trudged back to van.

‘
Parents!’ he
said, with feeling. ‘Bloody parents!’

‘
I’m still
here you know!’ Luigi said.

As they got back to the van
they noticed that the long line that had queued outside the Hill’s
van was gone, but interestingly a new line had formed outside the
Leodoni’s van. In fact Lumsden was struggling to keep up with
demand, filling cone’s as fast as he could whilst Newton was
hanging out of the hatch and handing them to customers. Over the
way, Herbert was stood with his hands on his hips looking extremely
annoyed staring at Newton.

‘
What on earth
is going on here?’ Carlo asked, both delighted and slightly
concerned as he jumped into the van to relieve Lumsden.

‘
I had an
idea.’ Newton said, guiltily. ‘Well, Lumsden did,
actually.’

Carlo looked at Lumsden,
perplexed.

‘
Don’t look at
me, Missssster Leodoni. I just found that.’ he said, pointing to a
tub of ice cream behind them.

‘
And what is
that?’ Carlo asked, none the wiser.

‘
It’s the last
tub of the tainted batch we recalled. The one we kept until we
found out what happened. I was sssssupposed to store it away, but I
didn’t want to leave it at the factory just in case, so I was going
to take it home. I put it in the ice box of my van but forgot about
it with all the preparationssss for the fair.’

‘
The tainted
ice cream?’ Carlo asked. ‘The one with the…’ Lumsden nodded. ‘What
did you do?’ Carlo asked Newton with an accusatory tone.

‘
Well, he was
going to throw it away.’ Newton defended himself. ‘I just thought
it could be put to better use. So I filled a cone and gave it to
Norton.’

‘
Where is
Norton?’ Ben asked, noticing his friend was missing.

‘
Probably on
the other side of the fair, assuming he stopped running after
Herbert chased him.’

‘
Why was
Herbert chasing him, Newton?’ Abi asked.

‘
I think I
know where this is going.’ Carlo said, handing over an ice cream to
the last person in the queue.

‘
What?’ asked
Ben. ‘What did he do?’

Newton coughed to clear his
throat as if he didn’t really want to say. ‘He, err… took the
cockroachy ice cream and walked around the back of the Hill’s van
to stand next to it as if he bought the ice cream from them. Then
he screamed, shouted “cockroach” and dropped the cone so everyone
could see the insect in the ice cream puddle.’

Ben whooped with joy as Newton
looked embarrassed.

‘
Well they
were cheating and we wanted to get rid of that queue of “ringers”
he brought in. And he never actually said it was a Hill’s ice
cream. He just, sort of implied it.’

‘
You sneaky
bugger.’ Mr Leodoni said, proudly, before realising Lumsden was
still with them and who was now looking around the van
confused.

‘
Right!’ Carlo
shouted, trying to cover his father’s slip. ‘Ben, go and find
Norton and bring him back. Abi, Newton, stay and help Lumsden. I’m
going to go and see what mess we’re in now.’ he finished, looking
over his shoulder to where Herbert was still glaring at them
through the hatch.

‘
Hi.’ Carlo
said, walking up to Herbert.

Herbert looked ready to burst
with rage, his face red and his eyes bulging. ‘You cheated!’ he
hissed. ‘If we weren’t here…’ he said, indicating the park and the
many potential witnesses, ‘I would pummel you so hard!’

‘
I admit,’
Carlo replied, ignoring the threat, ‘that Norton was a bit rash.
And I apologise. But when you consider that he was only trying to
counter your cheating…’ he finished with a shrug, letting the
sentence hang in the air.

Herbert looked stunned. ‘What
cheating? We didn’t cheat!’ he stammered, trying to sound
innocently offended and failing.

‘
The bus load
of people you dropped at your van and gave free ice creams to.’
Carlo supplied with a smile.

Herbert started to stutter a
denial, but Carlo held up his hand to stop him. ‘Look, we could
stand here and complain about who did what, but why don’t we just
leave it as it is and finish the day. The only people who saw
Norton’s prank were the ones you brought here anyway, so no harm
done. And I won’t mention the bus.’

Carlo knew that Herbert had the
better of the deal having already given a number of cones away
before Norton scared them off, but he was keen to end the day
without incident, especially as he noticed a new arrival behind
Herbert.

He held out his hand. ‘What do
you say, Herbert? Shall we move on?’