The Secrets of Ice Cream Success (4 page)

‘
Err, hello?
Didn’t you hear me? I’m not signing the papers.’

This time Mr Hill couldn’t stop
himself retaliating. ‘Of course you are, you stupid boy. You are a
child, how could you manage this business? Your fool of a father
couldn’t do it adequately when he was alive, so I see no reason why
his idiot child could do so now. Why don’t you go with your family
back to Italy where you belong?’

Carlo fought down an almost
overwhelming urge to start screaming at this horrid man who had
come barging into his life like a comic book super-villain, but
something told him that childhood petulance would only play into Mr
Hill’s hands. He stood up slowly and picked up the contract.
Walking around the table to face Randy he smiled as he ripped it up
savouring the look on the faces of both adults.

‘
I’m going out
Uncle Randy. Here’s the contract. Please lock up the factory after
you have escorted Mr Hill out. Thank you.’ he said, holding his
head up as far as he could. He turned and marched in what he
thought was a very professional manner out of the door, along the
walkway and towards the huge factory doors. Opening the hatch in
the doors he took a deep breath before stepping out into the rain
and after closing the hatch behind him he ran as fast as he could
through the puddles and out of the gates.

Carlo flew out of the gates and
splashed through the rain breathing fast; his mind racing through
what he had done. Grabbing the edge of the wall he propelled
himself around the corner and, slipping on the wet pavement,
straight into his friends who were huddled under the umbrella in
the midst of a committee meeting.

Carlo picked himself up from
the floor and tried to brush the water off his now soaked jeans.
The others, who had remained on their feet, tried their best not to
laugh.

‘
Hello,
Carlo.’ Abi said helping him wipe down the back of his jacket. ‘Are
you a free man then?’

Carlo peeked back around the
corner to the gates and then gently started to propel the group
down the street away from the factory. ‘No, I’m not a free man. And
Uncle Randy’s going to kill me.’

‘
Why do you
still call him Uncle Randy? He’s not even your real uncle, is he?’
Norton asked whilst engaged in a shoving match with Newton for the
centre of the umbrella.

‘
Coz I’ve
always called him that, haven’t I?’

‘
But
technically it’s not right is it? He’s not even family.’ Norton
continued.

‘
Ah, but in
some cultures the familiar term “uncle” is a sign of respect for an
older man in their society. So in many ways it doesn’t matter
whether Randy is Carlo’s family or not.’

‘
Course it
does!’ retorted Norton. ‘We’re not in “Some Cultures” are we? We’re
in England, where your Uncle is your Dad’s brother.’

‘
Or your
Mam’s.’ added Abi who had taken charge of the umbrella and stepped
in between the two boys.

Carlo, who was skirting the
edge of the brolly and finding it particularly useless, pushed
Norton out of the way to find more protection. ‘Look, he’s always
been Uncle Randy. I think it’s a bit too late to start discussing
whether that’s correct.’

‘
Carlo?’ Ben
asked from behind The Battle of the Brolly where he was walking,
hands in pockets, seemingly oblivious to the rain. ‘Why are you
still not a free man? And why is Randy going to kill
you?’

Everyone turned to face Ben and
then, remembering why they were there, looked back to Carlo.
Grabbing the umbrella from Abi, he looked back towards the factory
and said, ‘Not here!’ in a strangled whisper before walking off.
The others turned back to Ben, who shrugged and set off after
Carlo. Newton, Abi and Norton followed behind and somehow all
managed to squash back under the umbrella with Carlo as they turned
another corner, with Ben in the lead, still oblivious to the
rain.

‘
Shut the
door!’ Abi said as everyone crowded into Ben’s bedroom, the
traditional place of wet weather time wasting. Norton, the last to
enter, ignored the instruction and flopped onto the bed so Newton
got up and shut the door with a sigh. Ben threw some flakes into
his fish tank, which now contained one solitary fish from the
original school of 5. ‘You can’t really call it a school anymore.’
Carlo had pointed out at the time of the fourth bereavement, ‘It’s
more of private tuition thing now.’

Carlo flung himself into a
comfy old armchair that Ben had liberated from the skip when his
parents had bought new furniture. Abi squashed herself next to him
while Newton and Ben joined Norton on the bed, Ben sitting on
Norton and elbowing him in the stomach until he caved and actually
made room for them to sit down. As order was restored they all
settled down and Carlo found all four faces turned silently towards
him.

‘
Well?’ Abi
said, poking him in the ribs after a moment’s silence. ‘What’s
going on?’

‘
I’m keeping
the factory.’ Carlo said quietly.

‘
Excuse me?’
Newton asked in surprise.

‘
I didn’t sign
the papers; I’m keeping the factory.’ Carlo repeated.

This was news that warranted a
moment’s thought and if there was one thing the group was good at
it was over-thinking something to the point of silliness. Newton
appeared to be counting something in his head, Ben was looking out
of the window, Abi kept looking at Carlo warily as if he may
explode, burst into tears or possibly even song and Norton had the
air of someone to whom a great fact was slowly dawning.

‘
Yay!’ he said
abruptly, shooting both arms into the air in victory. ‘We got
ourselves and ice cream factory!’

‘
Norton, don’t
be insensitive.’ Abi snapped. ‘This is serious.’

‘
Yeah… and so
is ice cream.’ Norton answered.

‘
So you’re not
giving it to Randy then?’ Ben asked.

‘
Err… no. I’m
not sure Uncle Randy’s going to be very happy with me when I get
home.’

‘
He’s not your
Uncle…’ Norton pointed out again. Abi threw stuffed toy at
him.

‘
I don’t think
Randy will be too upset,’ Newton stepped in after finishing his
musing, ‘I’m sure he has your best interests at heart.’

‘
Yeah, but we
spent all that time and money on lawyers and stuff, drawing up the
papers and the trust and everything.’ Carlo waved his hands in the
air to emphasise how big “everything” was.

‘
Why did you
change your mind?’ Abi asked.

‘
Have you
heard of Haverton Hill?’

‘
No, should we
have?’ Newton replied, ignoring the pushing and shoving next to him
as Ben and Norton wrestled over a pillow.

‘
He’s
horrible. He talks like he’s got a bag of marbles in his mouth and
I think he sweats pure slime… he was all greasy.’

‘
Who is he?’
Newton urged.

‘
He owns
Hill’s Confections.’

‘
Oh, them! I
like them. Their choco-dollop choc-ice is really nice.’ Norton
said, getting up from the floor from where he had been deposited by
the much taller Ben, who was now making himself comfortable against
the fairly won pillow.

‘
Pure slime!’
Carlo repeated to Norton.

‘
What’s he got
to do with anything, Carlo? Asked Abi.

‘
Well that’s
the weird thing. He knew I was signing the factory over to Uncle
Randy.’ Carlo answered.

Ben clasped a hand over
Norton’s mouth before he could say anything and Carlo
continued.

‘
So he walked
into the office today and just offered to buy the whole company
from Uncle Randy right there.’

‘
Hang on, was
that who got out of that big black car?’ Ben asked sitting up and
looking serious.

‘
Don’t know.
It might be. I didn’t see what he was driving. Was it a big fella,
stupid hat?’

‘
Ah well, we
didn’t see who got out of the car.’ Ben answered, ‘We’d scarpered
by then obviously.’

‘
Why?’ Carlo
asked, perplexed.

‘
Well everyone
knows you’re in trouble when a big black car slowly pulls up
outside. I wasn’t hanging around to be arrested and tortured so the
Americans could find out where their weapons of mass destruction
are.’

‘
Why would
they be after you lot, you’re not Iraqi.’ Carlo said.

‘
My Gran was
Italian.’ Norton pointed out.

‘
I’m Italian,
you twit. They’re not after us.’

‘
Well, it’s
not
my
factory
they’ve just pulled up outside of, is it?’ Ben said with an
accusatory tone. ‘Where’ve you put the Mass Destruction Weapons,
Leodoni?’

‘
Why’d they
want to blow up a church anyway?’ Norton asked.

‘
Not that kind
of mass, divvy! This kind!’ Ben said, pointing to Norton’s
stomach.

‘
Oi! I’m just
big boned!’ Norton shouted back.

‘
You’re a big
bone head!’ Ben replied laughing, before receiving the amply
proportioned Norton on top of him whilst Newton pummelled both with
the now free again pillow.

Abi looked at the play-fight
and thought briefly about joining in, before remembering the
original point that was now lost to the others. ‘So what does this
fella in the big black car have to do with you not giving Randy the
factory?’

‘
Well,’ Carlo
said, noting that the three boys had immediately stopped the fight
to listen, ‘when Hill found out that I hadn’t signed the papers
yet, he went off on one and started saying all sorts of stuff about
my Dad being rubbish and how I was probably rubbish as
well.’

‘
What’d he say
that for?’ Newton asked, still holding his pummelling
pillow.

‘
Dunno,’ Carlo
shrugged, ‘but I get the feeling he knew my Dad. I’m gonna ask
Uncle Randy about him.

‘
Hewth noth
yurr Unclllth…’ came the muffled response from Norton who was
currently spread facedown in the duvet with Ben sat triumphantly on
top of him, still idly slapping him across the back of the
head.

‘
Anyway, I got
so angry with what he was saying I just flipped and said I wasn’t
going to give up the factory. I don’t even remember saying it… One
minute I was ready to sign, then this big fat man came in with a
stupid hat and then I was running out of the factory wondering what
the hell was going on. I’ve right mucked things up!’ he finished,
banging his head into the back of the chair.

‘
No you
haven’t.’ Abi soothed, putting her arm around him. ‘You just need
to talk to talk to Randy. You can still sign the
papers.’

‘
I ripped them
up.’ Carlo remembered.

‘
They can
print new ones, you can still do it.’

‘
But that’s
just it. I don’t think I want to. I don’t want some stupid fat man
running Leodoni’s. I think
I
want to.’

‘
I thought you
hated it? Ben pointed out.

‘
I do… I did…
I don’t know any more. I’m confused… but I just don’t want him to
get it and the only way I can do that is by keeping it.’

‘
Makes sense.’
Newton said.

‘
No it
doesn’t.’ Norton interjected. ‘It makes no sense at all. He’s spent
the last year telling us he doesn’t want it and now it finally gets
to the point when he gets his wish, he changes his
mind.’

‘
It’s not that
simple.’ Abi defended.

‘
Anyway, he’s
allowed to change his mind, isn’t he?’ Ben added, standing up.
‘Right, I’m hungry.’

‘
You’re always
hungry.’ Abi said with a smile. ‘But I reckon Mam’ll have some
pizzas downstairs. Carlo?

‘
No thanks. I
better get back and see Uncle Randy. I bet he’s dead angry.’ Carlo
sighed before walking out of the door.

‘
He’s not your
Uncle!’ Norton shouted after him.

‘
You OK?’
Randy asked passing Carlo a cup of coffee.

Carlo took a sip to put off
saying anything. He didn’t even like coffee that much, a sin
according to Newton who seemed to know more about Italian culture
than he did, but right now he’d happily drink five cups rather than
look up at Randy and have to try and explain his actions. Randy,
though, didn’t look that angry. In fact he looked rather
concerned.

‘
I’m not going
to shout, it’s alright. We can get the papers printed up again and
we just sign them another day.’

‘
Oh…’ Carlo
grunted, feeling awkward. ‘I’m not sure I want to
anymore.’

‘
Really?’
Randy asked looking just as taken back as he did in the office when
Haverton Hill had walked in. ‘We’ve discussed this for quite a
while now, Carlo. Changing our minds is not something we should
rush in to.’

Carlo grimaced at the continued
use of “we” but said nothing. He was very aware that this was his
decision but that it also affected a great many other people. After
a while he stopped pretending to drink the coffee and put it down.
‘That man…’ he said quietly. ‘Did he know Dad?’

‘
Well, yes.
Quite well in fact. Haverton and your father were the two biggest
producers of Ice Cream in this part of the country. And as
competitors they made it their business to get to know each
other.’