The Secrets of Ice Cream Success (27 page)

‘
Ah… err…
let’s go.’ Carlo said, feeling awkward, but Abi pulled him
back.

‘
We should do
something. Go talk to him.’ she whispered.

‘
You really
think he wants me to see him crying?’ Carlo whispered back. ‘He’d
thump me!’

‘
OK, stay
here.’ she said and walked slowly towards the trees. Carlo saw a
park bench just a few yards away from the grass and sat down
quietly. He could just make out Abi’s voice as she rounded the
tree.

‘
Err… are you
OK?’ she asked.

‘
Go
away.’

‘
I don’t mean
to…’

‘
Sod off! I’m
fine.’ Herbert persisted, sniffing away a runny nose and wiping
tears, which only managed to spread more slime across his
face,

Abi shrugged and was about to
walk away, but her elder sister instincts (she was born ten minutes
before Ben) kicked in. ‘Don’t be daft. You’ wouldn’t be sat there
if you were fine.’

In what Carlo thought was a
courageous move beyond the call of duty; Abi sat crossed-legged on
the grass next to Herbert and looked out across the park. Herbert
stared at her in surprise, but didn’t protest.

‘
Weird day,
huh?’ she mused, picking up a pebble and absently throwing it at a
tin can that had fallen from a nearby rubbish bin.

‘
Yeah.’ agreed
Herbert with another sniff. He found a pebble of his own and threw
it at the same can, knocking it over.

‘
You have a
change of clothes with you?’

‘
No. Wasn’t
supposed to get dunked, was I?’

They sat in silence for a few
more minutes, occasionally tossing the odd stone towards the can.
Carlo wondered if he should try and walk back to the van the long
way so as not to alert Herbert, but he still didn’t trust the older
boy and was unwilling to leave Abi alone with the enemy, even if
the enemy was crying and covered with slime.

Abi broached this topic as
tactfully as she could. ‘So what you crying for?’ she asked. Carlo
mentally applauded her diplomacy, knowing that he would have used
the same subtle tactic.

Not really in a position to
deny it, Herbert fell back to the normal contingency answer used
with his own parents. ‘Nothing.’ he shrugged.

‘
Doesn’t look
like nothing.’ Abi said. ‘You don’t just cry for
nothing.’

Herbert looked like he was
growing frustrated with the questions but then sighed and let out a
little silent sob. ‘Everything has gone wrong.’ he said, his
shoulders beginning to shake. ‘Mr Hill was furious. He shouted at
me about … about everything. Then he sacked me.’ Suddenly more
tears came, but Abi’s bucket of sisterly experience was starting to
run dry. Ben had rarely cried when he was younger and on those
occasions when he had it was normally due to running into something
even harder than his own head and the tears generally stopped after
question “If there’s nothing wrong, what are you crying for?” Abi
was starting to feel out of her depth.

‘
Look, it’s
not like this was your career or anything. It was just a
job.’

‘
But my Uncle
got me that job. He’ll be so angry.’

‘
You can get
another job.’ Abi suggested, reasonably.

‘
But I didn’t
do anything wrong!’ Herbert moaned. ‘It’s not fair.’

Abi was on firmer ground here
having heard this defence from Norton regularly, normally in
regards to the denial of food. ‘So it’s not fair. Are you just
going to sit there and moan about it?’

Herbert gave one final sniff.
‘No. No, I guess not.’ he answered with a slight smile. ‘If I sit
here too long, I’ll end up glued to the tree.’ he laughed, leaning
forward to ease some of the drying slime that had begun to congeal
to the bark.

Abi smiled at him. ‘That’s the
spirit.’ she said, a saying her Dad often used in such
circumstances, which seemed to fit. ‘There’ll be other jobs. Or you
could try to talk to Mr Hill. Do something to show him you deserve
the job.’

‘
Yeah, I could
do that, I guess.’ Herbert mumbled. He turned and looked at Abi,
green slime all over his face, tear tracks down his cheeks and
little bits of dirt here and there from wiping his eyes with dirty
hands. A twig fell from the tree and stuck to his hair. Abi had the
grace not to laugh. Herbert looked like a rather despondent
shrub.

‘
Thanks.’ he
said with surprising sincerity.

‘
S’no
problem.’ Abi replied with a grin.

Carlo felt oddly proud of his
friend, daring to talk to Herbert like that. He thought of a story
he once heard at school of a man helping a wounded lion remove a
thorn from its paw, though he doubted any lion was as large or as
green as Herbert.

Sensing that the time was right
to move away, Carlo stood but unexpectedly heard a voice from
beside him.

‘
There you
are, I’ve been looking for you.’ Luigi said.

‘
Dad, shh!’
Carlo whispered, but too late, hearing a groan from Abi as Herbert
stood up and walked around the tree.

‘
What are you
doing here?’ He growled, suddenly much more like his usual vicious
self. ‘Have you been here all the time?’

‘
Well, no, not
quite.’ Carlo started, but Herbert’s anger was on the
rise.

‘
Were you
listening?’

‘
Not exactly,
no.’

‘
If you tell
anyone, I’ll deck you!’ he roared at Carlo before rounding on Abi.
‘I thought you were… well, I don’t know. I thought you were being
nice.’ Herbert said, sounding wounded.

‘
I was being
nice.’ she said. ‘I am nice. I was trying to help.’ she
pleaded.

‘
You knew he
was there! You were both just having a laugh at me!’

‘
No, it’s not
like that. I wanted to make sure you were OK.’

‘
Yeah, of
course you did.’ Herbert scoffed. ‘You and Mister Perfect, here.
You just wanted to rub it in, didn’t you?’

‘
No, she was
trying to help!’ Carlo said, in Abi’s defence.

‘
Why should I
believe you?’ he shouted, anger and embarrassment surging through
him. ‘I will get my job back, just you see! And we’ll beat you!’ he
shouted. ‘Don’t ever speak to me again!’ he screamed at Abi,
storming off into the night.

Carlo sighed and sat down
against the tree next to Abi, who looked on the verge of tears
herself.

‘
I was trying
to help.’ she said quietly.

‘
I know. Carlo
said.

Luigi floated around the tree,
feeling flustered. ‘Was it something I said?’

The mood in the factory the
next morning was celebratory. Lucy had organised a buffet breakfast
for the entire staff, which Norton certainly approved of. Newton
and Ben were reliving the moment Mr Hill had dragged Herbert into
the gunge tank with him, laughing hysterically as they took turns
to impersonate the incident, whilst Abi quoted various lines from
the local newspaper’s coverage of the day to anyone who stood still
long enough.

‘…
and in the
spirit of fair play the Leodoni’s team volunteered to take the
plunge as well, proving they are as nice as their ice cream…’ she
intoned to Lucy and Lumsden, happily.

Abi and Carlo had agreed not to
mention the incident with Herbert to anyone and Carlo had asked his
father not to mention it to the rest of the gang, though as Mr
Leodoni was still unclear about what exactly all the shouting had
been about, this wasn’t likely to be an issue.

‘
I forgot to
tell you.’ Ben said through a mouthful of food as he wandered over
to Carlo from the buffet table holding a plate laden with sandwich
triangles.

‘
What.’ Carlo
asked eventually, allowing his friend enough time to swallow
first.

‘
Neil was
there yesterday. We got talking and y’know what? He was never asked
to come back to work here.’

‘
You must have
misunderstood.’ Carlo said, shaking his head. ‘Uncle Randy said he
asked all of the old staff back and most of those that said no had
already moved on to new jobs.’

‘
Well
apparently he didn’t ask everyone.’ Ben continued, taking another
bite of sandwich. ‘He said he was surprised he wasn’t asked.
Especially after he heard Lucy had come back.’

‘
That’s
weird.’ Carlo mused. ‘I’ll ask Randy.’

‘
He’s not
here. No one’s seen him all morning.’ Ben supplied. ‘But I think
this pretty much proves it was Neil who sabotaged the stock,
doesn’t it? He was after revenge.’ he continued, chewing away
happily. ‘Perhaps your dad was right about Neil after all? It was
him!’

‘
Can’t have
been him,’ Carlo countered, ‘we already know Hill’s had something
to do with that.’

Ben swallowed a big mouthful
and followed it with a glug of lemonade. ‘Must have been in it
together.’ he said finally. ‘Hill probably hired him to do it.’

‘
I don’t know.
I guess so.’ Carlo admitted. ‘My Dad has always thought it was him,
this must prove it. But why didn’t Randy ask him back?’

Ben shrugged. ‘Because he was
capable of sabotage? Well, doesn’t really matter now, huh? No one
found out about the cockroach and I reckon you don’t need Neil
anyway.’ Ben waved his hand to indicate the entire factory. ‘Look
what you did without him.’

Carlo nodded in agreement.
‘Would have been a lot easier if he had been here, mind you.’ he
said with a smile. ‘Right, I’ve got to go.’ Carlo finished, putting
down his drink.

‘
Where to?’
Ben asked surprised. ‘What can be so important in our moment of
triumph?’

Carlo hesitated, but knew there
was no point hiding it. ‘I’m going to see Vicky.’ he answered. As
expected a huge grin appeared on Ben’s face.

‘
Hot date,
huh?’ he asked, nudging Carlo in the ribs.

‘
No,’ Carlo
protested, ‘I’m just meeting her at the shops, she wants to
talk.’

‘
What
about?’

‘
I don’t
know.’ Carlo answered with a pained expression. ‘But Abi reckons
that I’ve not been paying her enough attention, what with the
factory and the fair and all. So I have to invite her out next week
or something.’

‘
Hot date,
huh?’ Ben repeated, laughing and taking the opportunity to nudge
Carlo in the ribs once more.

‘
Oh, sod off!’
Carlo laughed, pushing his friend out of the way with a good
natured shove. ‘Tell Randy if you see him. I’ll see you
later.’

Vicky seemed genuinely pleased
to see Carlo, though he had the distinct impression this was
because she had said everything it was possible to say to everyone
it was possible to say it to and was therefore happy to have a new
audience to which she could say everything all over again. Carlo
sat in the coffee shop and sipped his milkshake, nodding and making
noises of agreement, surprise or shock as directed by the tone
Vicky’s voice, though he was now quite lost in the thread of the
conversation featuring a whole cast of characters that he did not
know and had little interest in.

The “not actually a” date,
therefore, seemed to be going in exactly the same way as previous
dates, which was encouraging given they seemed to still be going
out, though Carlo wasn’t sure how given how little they had spoken
over recent weeks. However on this occasion Carlo was slightly
frustrated by Vicky’s constant chatter because for the first time
he had an entire list of conversational topics which he could throw
into a date situation, having previously been intent on playing the
part of spectator.

He vaguely wondered if all
relationships were like this but then noticed a pause in the
constant babble as Vicky took a sip of milkshake, so he jumped
straight into the conversational hole knowing it might be his only
chance.

‘
So did you go
to the town fair yesterday?’ he asked, almost immediately spotting
his mistake in asking a question rather than starting with an
anecdote of his own. He groaned internally, accepting that he had
surrendered possession of the conversation almost
immediately.

It turned out that Vicky didn’t
attend the fair but many of her friends had and there was an almost
unlimited amount of gossip emanating from the event, which Vicky
delivered in a continual state of enthusiasm with barely a pause
for breath, eventually finishing with ‘…and then my brother’s
friend Herbert fell into a pool of something and later on someone
said they saw him crying and he got into an argument with my
brother for telling everyone and then he started crying again when
everyone was watching round my house and he shouted it was all the
other guy’s fault which wasn’t fair because that guy wasn’t even
properly related to his Dad anyway and Herbert would get him back
for whatever it was he was crying about… or something like that.’
she eventually finished, taking a deep breath and smiling as she
took a long pull of her shake through the straw.

Carlo felt like he had just
been hit with a verbal weapon of mass destruction, the constant
stream of words buffeting his ears like a strong wind.

Vicky mistook his silence for
astonishment at the wonderful gossip she had provided and smiled
knowingly.

‘
I know,
right?’ she said breathlessly, wrongly assuming he had found the
story fascinating. But Carlo was mentally replaying the words,
trying to catch up with the last few sentences as he was sure that
something important had been hidden amongst the prattle.