The Secrets of Ice Cream Success (6 page)

‘
But
that…’

‘
Look!’ Abi
butted in. ‘It’s natural to feel worried coz lets face it, you’ve
never ran an ice cream factory before. It’s a big step up from
chemistry homework on a Tuesday night. But
you’re
not actually going to be
running the place are you? Randy is. So there’s no need to worry
about that bit for a while. And if they can, I’m sure they will all
come back because this is Leodoni’s and you’re the last
Leodoni.’

‘
No… there is
another.’ whispered a voice from the doorway as Ben’s head appeared
from the other side of the door. ‘Not ready are you!’ he added in
his best mystical, squat Jedi Master voice, to the general
amusement of his sister.

‘
I know that.’
Carlo added wretchedly. ‘And anyway, I’m not the last Leodoni… I’m
just the last one here.’

‘
Same
difference.’ Abi pointed out.

‘
Look, are you
two girls quite finished?’ Ben asked bouncing up and down on his
heels.

‘
Why?’ asked
Abi looking, if anything, slightly more annoyed at her brother’s
term than Carlo.

‘
Coz you’ve
got to come and check this out. We’ve found something.’

‘
Where’ve you
been? Where’ve you been?’ Norton shouted as Ben, Abi and Carlo came
into view. They were standing at the very back of the factory next
to a door behind the last of the ice cream vans. The door was open
and Norton scampered inside followed by Ben and Newton.

‘
Hey!’ Carlo
shouted after them, ‘We can’t go in there; it says staff
only.’

‘
It’s your
factory, you doughnut!’ Ben shouted back to him.

‘
Which makes
us staff!’ Norton added.

Abi shrugged when Carlo looked
at her and made to follow the boys. Noticing Carlo’s reluctance she
grabbed him by the arm and dragged him through the door with
her.

‘
Have you not
found the lights yet?’ Carlo heard Ben ask from the pitch black
that was now surrounding them.

‘
What do you
think?’ Newton replied from the darkness.

‘
Careful, you
two,’ Ben said, ‘there’s steps in front of you. Wait a sec…
Here.’

A lighter lit up from somewhere
below them and Carlo and Abi could just make out some steps leading
down towards Newton, Ben and Norton who were gathered next another
much larger door. Carlo immediately saw the cause of all the
excitement and just in case he hadn’t he could see Norton hopping
from foot to foot in joy and pointing to a large sign on the door
that could easily be read in the gloom.

TOP SECRET – LEODONI ONLY

‘
Can we? Can
we?’ Norton pleaded.

‘
I dunno…
maybe we should ask Uncle Randy about it.’

‘
Logically, he
won’t be able to help.’ Newton pointed out. ‘He’s not a Leodoni and
the sign does seem to be very clear.’

‘
Yes it does,
which means that even if we do open it, I’d be the only one allowed
in.’ Carlo said, then waited until the expected chorus of
displeasure died down. ‘Look, we have no idea what’s in there. It’s
probably dangerous machinery or even just boring
papers.’

But even he was beginning to
lose heart in his own argument. What on earth could be behind the
door that even Randy had not been allowed to see?

He looked at the eager faces of
his friends and instantly changed his mind. ‘Is it locked?’

‘
We don’t
know. We were waiting for you before we tried to open it.’ Norton
said, still hopping around impatiently.

‘
Yes, it’s
locked.’ Ben added slightly more honestly.

Carlo pulled out the huge bunch
of keys that Randy had given him and began to search for one that
looked like it matched the lock. Ben held the lighter nearer to the
bunch and despite one or two interruptions as Norton excitedly
pushed his head in the way of the light so Carlo couldn’t see, they
soon picked out a key that looked big enough to fit the rather
ornate bronze lock on the door.

Abi gently pushed Carlo towards
the door and the others crowded behind him looking over his
shoulder or in Norton’s case, under his arm.

‘
Go on,
Carlo.’ Newton urged, quietly.

Carlo hesitated but then pushed
the key slowly into the lock and turned clockwise, yet it wouldn’t
turn. Norton groaned, but Newton reached out and gently twisted
Carlo’s hand the other direction producing a satisfying clunk.
Carlo took hold of the door handle and turned it before resting his
shoulder against the door and pushing. He had expected the large
door to need a bit of a shove, but despite being extremely heavy it
glided gently open with ease and having expected more resistance he
had to take a step forward to steady himself. Groping in the
shadows of the room, Carlo tied to find the light switch.

‘
I can’t see
anything’ Ben whispered trying to peer beyond Carlo.

Norton jumped up with his hands
on Ben’s back to try and get a look. ‘What is it? What is it?’

Carlo took another two steps
into the room but jumped back with a start as something brushed
against his face. ‘Wha! Oh… God, it’s just the light switch.’ he
said with relief, pushing out his hands to try and find it again.
Norton and Ben sniggered behind him. Carlo turned to throw a
withering look their way just as he found the swinging cord again
and gave it a tug.

But before the light came on
Carlo was screaming.

Carlo was still screaming and
writhing on the floor even as the others were crumpling to it in
hysterics. He eventually managed to throw what appeared to be a
life sized rag dummy off him, which had fallen from the ceiling as
he pulled the light switch.

‘
Thanks Dad!’
he muttered as he pulled himself up using a small bannister next to
four steps that led into a large room lit from all sides by
elaborate wall lights. The dummy had all the hallmarks of a Mr
Leodoni practical joke. ‘Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, fuzzball!’ he
said, gently kicking Ben in the bottom as the others struggled to
regain their composure.

‘
I can’t
breathe!’ Abi wheezed trying to stand.

‘
I swallowed
my chewing gum!’ Norton added, which set them off laughing
again.

Carlo hopped down the steps
into the room for a closer look. At the far end there was a huge
oak desk behind which there was a large, red leather wingback
chair. The oak panelled walls were lined with book cases and glass
displays.

‘
Why’d your
dad have a museum down here, then?’ asked Norton sounding very
unimpressed by the discovery.

‘
It’s not a
museum, it’s a war room.’ whispered Newton in awe. ‘It’s the nerve
centre of the Leodoni Empire!’

‘
I think it’s
just my Dad’s study.’ Carlo replied looking around the room. ‘I
remember him mentioning it, but I never knew where it
was.’

‘
What on earth
is that?!’ Ben shouted, striding past Carlo towards the glass case
against the wall. ‘Cool, remote control cars!’ he said as he looked
across a collection of old models of various ancient looking ice
cream vans.

‘
I don’t think
they work.’ Newton said, ‘But this might.’ he added pointing at a
polished metal ice cream machine hanging on the wall. It was a
large shiny contraption of steel and chrome, with various pipes and
vents that looked like a 1950’s idea of the future. ‘Your Dad made
it.’ Newton continued, reading the label on the wall next to it.
‘It was supposed to be a steam powered device that would
revolutionise ice cream delivery for remote areas without
power.’

‘
How?’ Abi
asked.

‘
Don’t know.’
Newton replied with a shrug. ‘It doesn’t say.’

‘
Does it
matter?’ answered Ben excitedly, ‘It’s an ice-cream machine. Who
cares why Mr Leodoni made it. Let’s try it!’

‘
We can’t.
It’s locked.’ Newton pointed out. ‘Anyway, I’d like to study it
first before we use it. It might be dangerous.’

‘
You sound
like my mam.’ said Ben.

‘
Well, it
might be!’

‘
It’s an
ice-cream machine! How dangerous can it be?’

‘
It doesn’t
matter, it’s locked.’ Abi repeated. ‘Plus, we don’t have any
ice-cream, so we can’t try it anyway.’

‘
We’re in an
ice-cream factory; of course we have ice-cream.’ Norton joined
in.

‘
An ice-cream
factory that hasn’t made any ice-cream for ages!’ Abi
persisted.

‘
Must be some
in the fridge.’ Norton suggested looking up at the roof to where he
imagined a freezer brimming with ice-cream was waiting for him on
the factory floor.

‘
Carlo can you
tell this idiot that you have no ice-cream!’ Abi asked, waving her
hand towards Norton. ‘Carlo?’ Abi span on the spot looking for him.
‘Where’s he gone?’

‘
We have no
ice-cream and the machine doesn’t work.’ intoned a voice from the
corner of the room. Carlo was sat behind the desk, flicking through
a large book.

‘
What’s that?’
Newton asked, walking over to him.

Carlo looked up at his friend
and closed the book. ‘It’s a note book. I think it’s my Dad’s.’

‘
How do you
know the machine doesn’t work?’ Ben asked joining
Newton.

‘
There’s a
picture of it in here on the second page; a sketch he drew ages
ago; but he didn’t make it… my Granddad did.’ Carlo re-opened the
book at the second page where there was an entry dated
19
^th
September 1972. He turned the book around to show the others
a number of pencil sketches and scribbles. ‘I think Granddad was a
bit of an amateur inventor. Look at that.’ Carlo said pointing to a
strange picture of a device that looked more like a power station
than anything that would be seen in ice-cream
production.

‘
It appears to
be a steam powered ice maker.’ Newton said with a smile. ‘Your
Granddad seems to have been concerned that a lack of electricity
might prevent him making ice cream.’ Newton continued, still
staring at the note book. ‘Can I?’ he added to Carlo half turning
the page and indicating he would like to continue.

‘
Err… I don’t
know. It’s dated like it’s a diary. Perhaps you
shouldn’t.’

‘
As you wish.’
Newton said with a shrug.

‘
As you wish?
There could be plans for an ice-cream powered rocket-ship in there.
We need to check!’ Norton whined.

‘
Carlo’s
right. We can’t just go reading his Dad’s diary. It’s not right.’
said Abi.

‘
But he won’t
know will he?’ Norton pleaded.

‘
Norton!’ Abi
said shocked.

‘
What? Mr
Leodoni isn’t going to mind is he? I mean when you’re dea…mwhh mwng
murfffle!’ he finished lamely as Abi put her hand over his mouth
and stared meaningfully into his eyes.

Ben stepped in front of the
struggle blocking them from view and smiled at Carlo. ‘We won’t
read it, honest.’

‘
I just think
I should read it first, y’know?’

‘
Yeah… yeah,
ofcause you should.’ Newton said with a smile. ‘I’m sure you’ll let
us know if your Granddad thought of any ways that ice-cream can
save the whale.’

Abi let go of Norton and
prodded him in the head. ‘Think!’ she said to him. ‘…Just
occasionally.’

Carlo closed the book gently
and pretended not have seen this exchange. He knew that the subject
of his father’s death made the others uncomfortable and he wanted
to tell them it was alright, but he hadn’t worked out how to do
this yet other than to just blurt it out. He ran his hand lightly
over the cover of the diary and smiled. He longed to go straight
home and start reading but joined the others exploring the rest of
the room.

‘
Your Granddad
was weird.’ Norton expounded looking at a grainy black and white
picture of Mr Leodoni Senior standing next to what appeared to be
refrigerated torture device, but turned out to be a new kind of
chocolate coating machine for ice lollies .

‘
The quick
freeze chocolate coater.’ Newton read over his shoulder.

Abi was
reading aloud titles of books like “
Gelato
- Un Studio” and “Arte di Fare Gelato Italiano” whilst Ben
attempted to break into the cabinet that contained the large models
of old ice cream vans. He stopped when Abi threw him a disapproving
look. Eventually, as he realised that despite Granddad Leodoni’s
strange inventions there was nothing there to interest him further,
Norton began to make noises of boredom in the hope that the others
would take the hint. There was still lots of exploring to do back
up in the factory and as far as he was concerned books were things
that held computer game cheats and very little else. Catching Ben’s
eye Norton motioned with his head towards the stairs.

Sighing, Ben
nodded and wandered towards the door. ‘We’re going back up.’ He
said.

‘
Yeah. Nice
museum, Carlo. Dead interesting and stuff…’ Norton added before
pounding up the stairs after Ben.

‘
So has this
helped then?’ Abi asked Carlo, as she too started walking towards
the door.