The Secrets of Ice Cream Success (12 page)

‘
Do what
again? Get off me you nutter!’ Carlo shouted, becoming alarmed and
tugging at the boy’s hand to try and release himself. But then a
small force of nature with angry, boisterous hair inserted itself
between Carlo and the boy and pushed them apart.

‘
You just let
go of him or by God I’ll tell your mother!’ screamed Abi,
delivering another surprisingly powerful shove to Spiderman’s face
sending the boy stumbling backwards.

He steadied himself and stared
at Abi, fuming. ‘You are such a little brat!’ he said, stepping
forward but hesitating as a fourth person entered the fray.

‘
Evening,
Herbert!’ Ben said, calmly. ‘You acting like a Herbert, you
Herbert?’

The boy stopped in his tracks
and looked at the three faces in front of him, two determined and
one slightly confused. At seventeen he was three years older than
Ben, six inches taller and twice as wide, but even he had doubts
about challenging the younger boy who through confidence alone had
picked up a reputation that made the so called “tougher” boys in
the area give him a wide berth without anyone ever coming to blows,
preserving both their status and as Ben liked to add, their
noses.

‘
Teesdale, sod
off! You’re just as annoying as your sister!’

‘
Yes, but I
don’t hit as hard.’ replied Ben with a pleasant smile. ‘Would you
like to judge for yourself?’

‘
Ooh, me
first, me first!’ Abi taunted, pulling her hands up into an
exaggerated boxing stance and prancing on the spot.

Herbert ignored Abi, keeping
his eyes firmly on Ben, who continued to smile benignly. Eventually
he came to the conclusion that a dignified exit was his best option
and, hoping to keep some level of menace in the face of a fourteen
year old girl with large hair bouncing in front of him, he barged
past Carlo knocking him to the floor as he strode away. Wanting to
get the last word he turned before entering the house and tried to
look as threatening as he could.

‘
If you ever
disrespect Mr Hill again, you’ll have me to answer too.’ He said
with a scowl.

‘
Oh,’ Carlo
replied, suddenly up to speed with proceedings. ‘So
that’s
what this is
about!’

‘
Yeah, so just
watch it, Leodoni!’ Herbert snarled before turning and promptly
walking straight into the closed door. Composing himself, he looked
back to see Ben, Abi and Carlo with the straightest faces possible,
though with a possible hint of shoulder shake as Abi desperately
tried to contain herself. Herbert slammed opened the door and
marched through, but not before the sound of laughter reached
him.

‘
Are you OK?’
Ben asked offering Carlo a hand.

‘
Yeah, I’m
fine.’ He replied dusting himself off. ‘I was just more confused
than anything else. What a knobhe…’

‘
Hey, what
happened? Are you OK?’ Vicky shouted running over as Carlo quickly
cut his admonishment short.

‘
Yeah, I’m
fine, just a misunderstanding.’

‘
Well it
looked more than a misunderstanding. As long as you’re
sure?’

Carlo nodded and tried to
change the subject, but Vicky seemed determined to tease all the
potential gossip from the situation.

‘
I never liked
that boy. He’s got issues or something scientific like
that!’

‘
Then why’d
you invite him, Vik?’ Ben asked.

‘
I didn’t, my
brother did. It’s not even his party. My Mum just went to tell him
and his friends to go to the cinema or something. They always cause
trouble! Stupid boys!’ she finished with feeling. ‘So what did you
say to him to make him do that?’ she asked turning back to Carlo,
who shrugged.

‘
I didn’t, he
just walked over and started acting like a wrestler. All… “You
don’t respect me and I’m gonna rip you in two!”’ Carlo mimicked,
throwing his imaginary microphone to the imaginary canvas and
attempting a half-hearted elbow drop on Ben, who stepped aside and
pushed Carlo back to the floor before standing on his back and
waving to the imaginary crowd in relatively genuine
triumph.

‘
Well, he’s
always been a bit of an idiot.’ Vicky added, trying her best to
show disapproval at the boys wrestling antics but smiling despite
herself. ‘But I’ve never seen him act like that before.’

‘
I think he
works for Hill’s.’ Ben said, nodding his head as if that explained
everything. Vicky looked perplexed.

‘
Hill’s
Chocolates?’ Abi supplied.

‘
Err, yeah.
But I still don’t get it.’

Ben groaned.
Surely such slowness shouldn’t be allowed unless you’re Norton.
‘
He
…’ Ben stated,
pointing at Carlo, ‘is the last remaining Leodoni! And
he
…’ he continued,
pointing after Herbert, ‘works for Hill’s. Therefore
they
…’ Ben made an
all-encompassing gesture with his hands, ‘are mortal enemies! Yes?’
he finished.

‘
I think the
phrase you’re looking for is competitors.’ Carlo said.

‘
In the
confectionary business.’ Abi added.

Ben looked unconvinced. ‘Mortal
enemies is much cooler.’ he said, ‘Especially when you hate each
other.’

‘
I don’t hate
him!’ Carlo said, ‘Why do I have to hate anyone? I don’t even know
him!’

‘
Well, he
certainly seems to hate you.’ Vicky joined in. ‘Perhaps Ben is
right, perhaps Herbert is your, err…’

‘
Mortal
Enemy.’ Ben supplied, vindicated.

‘
Don’t humour
him, Vik, please.’ Abi said shaking her head as they set off
towards the house, Ben bringing up the rear with hands raised in
victory.

As Carlo lay in his bed that
night reflecting on the day’s events he tried to make a list of the
main points in his head, something that Randy had told him was a
good way of remembering details when there was a lot going on.

Firstly, he had a girlfriend.
Of this Abi was sure, though Carlo himself couldn’t see how she
came to this conclusion. Apparently the now arranged cinema date
was all that was required and Vicky herself had certainly seemed
very happy, holding his hand and smiling lots as they were leaving
the party, something Norton defined as “Acting Weird”, Abi as
“Showing an interest” and Ben as “Flirting”.

He also had a “Nemesis”, a word
he didn’t really understand but which had been supplied by Newton
during a brief phone call to enquire on his health and update him
on the happenings at the party. Carlo took it to be a posh way of
saying “Mortal Enemy” after Newton had used various examples to
describe the role, including but not limited to Megatron &
Optimus Prime, He-Man & Skeletor and Newton’s Mum & Mrs
Jenkins from two doors down who was apparently “so nosy it wouldn’t
be a surprise if her large conk got trapped in her front door one
of these days” so often was she peeking through it to spy on
people.

And finally, he had a haunted
factory. This was certain now and whilst the party may have
temporarily driven this fact from the minds of his friends, Carlo
couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that had settled in his stomach.
Backwards clocks, vicious books and freezing cold rooms were one
thing, but the shouting was new and unnerving and not just because
it was supernatural. The problem was; Carlo recognised the voice…
It was his Father’s.

Carlo looked at the mess on the
ceiling but didn’t say a thing. He waited whilst Lumsden and Norton
shuffled guiltily on the spot.

‘
Look… it
wasn’t really our faul…’

‘
Shh!’ Carlo
interrupted Norton, putting his finger to his lips. ‘Just stay
right there.’

‘
But…’

‘
Ah ah… just
wait…’

A large portion of the ice
cream that had hit the roof at high velocity just minutes before
had now melted enough to dislodge itself from the metal ceiling
grates and fall with satisfying accuracy on to Norton and Lumsden’s
heads.

‘
That’s
better.’ Carlo continued with a contented nod in their direction,
as the cold dessert dripped down their hair, necks and faces. ‘So
now you can tell me how ejecting an entire mixer of my ice cream at
high speed into the ceiling, isn’t your fault?’

‘
I just wanted
to see inside it, so Lumsden gave me a leg up and I dropped the
spanner in by mistake. It wasn’t my fau…’

‘
Why were you
even holding a spanner? You’re supposed to be in the offices
learning HR!’ Carlo asked, but Norton was too busy trying to suck
the ice cream running down his nose into his mouth to
answer.

‘
Just get this
cleaned up before Lucy sees it!’
Carlo
shouted, patience running out. ‘And Lumsden, you will never ever
give anyone a leg up to see into the machines again, unless you are
planning to drop them in entirely!’ he finished, looking
meaningfully at Norton, who paused with his tongue hanging out, ice
cream dripping onto it.

Unfortunately for Carlo, the
morning didn’t get any better. Randy had been giving the new
drivers some instruction on handling the large ice cream vans in
the main factory yard and some overzealous parking from the two
Peacock siblings had left their vans in rather a bad state with
cosmetic repairs required before they could be used again.

‘
How could you
not see each other reversing into the same spot?’ Carlo heard Randy
shouting at the brother and sister, who immediately started
defending their case and pushing blame upon the other with various
exclamations and hand gestures.

The following day Carlo almost
ended up firing Ben and Norton after they were dragged into Randy’s
office by Lucy Lightfoot who explained the two had been chasing
each other around the factory resulting in Norton slipping and
crashing headlong into boxes of wafer cones, destroying a large
portion of the stock. Carlo had shouted a little. Randy joined in
and shouted some more. Lucy shouted the loudest of them all, then
just as Carlo was ready to shout some more, a thought occurred to
him. Hadn’t he been scolded for the exact same thing once upon a
time when running through the factory?

‘
Please be
more careful in future.’ he finished, feeling weary.

Lucy looked unsatisfied and
moved to continue the lecture at high volume, but Carlo stood and
cut her off.

‘
It’s past
4pm. You two can go now. See you tomorrow.’ Carlo finished,
throwing Lucy a meaningful glance to keep her quiet. Norton looked
happy as he strode out of the office, any guilt from the telling
off immediately being replaced by thoughts of home and tea time.
Ben at least had the grace to look apologetic as he followed Norton
from the room.

‘
Sorry, mate.’
he said, turning back at the door. ‘Won’t happen again.’

‘
I know.’
Carlo answered, fully aware that despite best intentions it was
unlikely to be the last time something like this
happened.

Any hope that Carlo had of
Newton and Abi proving better employees were dashed over the course
of the week as Carlo learned that Newton had taken it upon himself
to rewrite the sales plan, expanding the reach from local counties
and incorporating an aggressive assault on the American, European
and Australian market, with a possible foray into Nepal included
because he’d always wanted to visit. Had he not accidentally
overwritten the original sales plan in the process, this may have
been overlooked.

In the meantime Abi had spent
almost four days working on one marketing design, a complex and
psychedelic watercolour with a strange unicorn motif showing
inverted horns designed to look like ice-cream cones protruding
from their heads and the declaration “Leodoni’s Ice Cream is Back”
boldly announced across the top. It was a work of wonder, a
masterpiece in many respects, but entirely unsuitable for use as a
newspaper advertisement and short of the five simple but effective,
text only adverts she’d been asked to produce just to get people
talking about Leodoni’s again.

As Carlo, Lucy and Randy sat
down to review the week’s progress that Friday, more tales of
accidents and mistakes came to light and it was quite obvious that
they were woefully behind schedule with the launch date only two
weeks away.

Carlo looked up and cringed as
Randy finished relaying an explanation of the small fire that had
occurred on Wednesday when Apor, the Hungarian handy man had
somehow managed to set his own trousers alight, a story that was in
itself not that bad when compared to the other mistakes and
accidents that had befallen the factory during the last week.

‘
It’s a
disaster!’ Carlo moaned before Lucy could continue describing how
an entire order of raspberry sauce had arrived as chilli
sauce.

‘
It’s teething
problems.’ Lucy suggested.

‘
No, no… it’s
pretty bad.’ Randy said, rubbing his temple. We are very much
behind schedule. The new staff are untrained and many of them may
need to be replaced.

Carlo wasn’t used to hearing
Randy sound so negative. It was worrying and darkened his mood even
further. ‘I’ll tell the guys they better not come back in next
week, shall I?’ he asked, not looking forward to firing his four
best friends.