The Secrets of Ice Cream Success (7 page)

Carlo turned
to look at her and Newton. ‘Yeah, it has.’ he said, walking towards
them. ‘This place belongs to me. I’m going to tell Uncle Randy I’m
definitely not signing the papers.’

‘
Cool!’ she
said with a grin heading up the stairs. ‘We can help
too.’

Carlo knew it
wasn’t a question but a statement, but he liked the fact that his
friends would want to be a part of it with him; helping him to
re-launch Leodoni’s.

As he closed the door he gave
the room one last glance and realised he had left the diary on the
table. Walking back into the room he picked it up and gave another
look around his father’s study and smiled feeling more at home than
at any point since his father’s death. As as he stepped back to the
stairs he jumped nearly dropping the diary as the lights went out
and he heard the door in front of him slam shut.

‘
Hey!’ Carlo
shouted in shock as the noise echoed of the walls. He grasped the
diary tight to his chest and could feel his heart thumping off it
as his blood thundered around his rigid body. He stood still for a
number of seconds unable or unwilling to move, he couldn’t have
said which. It took an effort of will to relax a little so he could
take a step towards the door, but in the pitch black he could see
nothing at all. The room was entirely silent and still apart from
the pounding of his heart, which he was sure the others would be
able to hear it seemed so loud.

The
temperature in the study had dropped noticeably and Carlo began to
shiver through cold and fear. Reaching out with his free hand he
slowly inched forward; noticing the cold air on his arm and feeling
the goose pimples raise his hairs on end. His hand touched the
short banister that led the four steps up to the door and
j
umping up three of the steps, tripping on
the fourth; he hit the door with a thump and tried to open it at
the same time in his haste to leave the room. The door opened a few
inches and then slammed shut again pulling Carlo back into it with
a crash making him drop the diary.

‘
Very funny!’
Carlo shouted realising that the others must be behind the door.
‘Highly amusing… come on, open up!’ He pulled hard on the handle
but it didn’t budge. ‘Open up!’ he shouted again banging on the
door with his hand. He tried the handle again, pulling it as hard
as he could with his foot on the door frame, but he soon regretted
using so much force as all resistance disappeared and the door
flung upon, knocking into Carlo and sending him backwards down the
steps where he landed heavily on the floor knocking all the air
from his lungs.

Carlo gasped for air and looked
up expecting to see Norton or Ben in the doorway laughing
hysterically but there was no one there, just the dull light of the
empty stair well spilling lazily into the study. Still taking deep
breaths that condensed into steam in the freezing room, Carlo took
a look around the study from his prone position but in the dim
light he was certain that he was alone. He felt extremely cold and
started to feel sweaty. Not wanting to lose the opportunity of an
open door he sprung up as quickly as his aching body would allow
and pelted for the stairs back to the factory floor.

Carlo appeared at the top of
the stairs at full speed, roaring past his friends without evening
noticing them.

‘
What’s wrong
with you?’ Abi shouted.

Skidding to a halt Carlo bent
over double with one hand on his leg to support him as he struggled
for breath and the other nursing his back where he had fallen. He
pointed at the door back towards the study and tried to speak but
managed only to wheeze with conviction.

‘
Door… dark…
couldn’t see…’ he eventually coughed.

‘
Ah… well that
explains that then.’ Newton said walking past Carlo and patting him
on the back.

Carlo grabbed his hand as he
passed and pulled him close. ‘No… was trapped.’ He whispered before
leaning back against a van and stretching his back. ‘Ow!’ he
groaned, rubbing his side.

‘
Trapped
where?’ Newton asked. ‘What on earth are you on about?’

‘
Look, can we
just leave?’

‘
You’re
shaking. What’s wrong with you?’ Abi asked feeling his forehead. ‘…
you’re all hot.’

‘
Don’t feel
good… think I need to go home.’

‘
What were you
saying about being trapped?’ Newton asked starting to look a little
concerned.

‘
Trapped?’ Abi
repeated looking at Newton sharply.

‘
That’s what
he said.’

Carlo couldn’t face telling the
story. For some reason he was starting to feel extremely queasy and
the only thing he wanted to do right now was sag to the floor and
moan softly to himself. He started to sag down against the van and
Newton had to grab him under the arm and lift him up.

‘
We better
take him home, look at him.’ Abi pointed out as Carlo’s face
started to turn pale green. ‘He looks terrible.’ She took him by
the other arm and together they started to walk Carlo towards the
entrance.

‘
What’s up
with him?’ Norton asked from the serving hatch of one of the vans
as they struggled past.

‘
I don’t feel
so good…’ Carlo mumbled.

‘
He doesn’t
feel so good.’ Newton echoed. I think he has bird flu… or possibly
the Ebola virus.’

‘
Cool.’ Ben
said hopping down from the driver’s seat. ‘What does that do?’
Carlo suddenly retched and threw up impressively as Abi and Newton
danced on tiptoes to avoid the vomit whilst still keeping hold of
their friend. ‘Oh… that.’ Ben answered his own question.

‘
Eew! That’s
flippin’ disgustin’ that is!’ Norton added staring at the slowly
oozing puddle in fascination. ‘What have you been eating,
mate?’

‘
Your Mum.’
Carlo replied, wiping his mouth with the back of his
sleeve.

Ben chuckled appreciatively
whilst Abi tried to find a tissue in her pocket, tutting quietly
about Carlo’s cleaning methods.

Having slowly trudged up the
service ramp and out of the hatch, Carlo passed the keys to Ben to
lock up as Abi finally found a handkerchief and made to start
wiping Carlo’s face, but he pulled back trying to stop her.

‘
Don’t be a
child!’ she said, spitting on the hankie and trying
again.

‘
Not now…’
Carlo mumbled urgently, nodding towards the main gates.

‘
What?’ Abi
asked in frustration turning to see why he was making a fuss. ‘Oh…
sorry’

Looking through the main gates
was a pretty girl in a red t-shirt with jeans, matching red
trainers and a rather mystified expression.

‘
Crap.’ Carlo
whispered, pulling himself free and standing up straight only to
stumble back against the doors behind him.

‘
Hi, Carlo….
Abi… Ben.’ The girl said, taking in the scene. ‘How’s your summer
so far?’

‘
Ah, y’know…
not bad. ‘Ben answered with a smile, ambling towards the gates,
jauntily spinning the bunch of keys round his finger. ‘How ‘bout
you, Vik?’ he asked standing in front of her to obscure the view of
the others.

‘
OK, I
suppose. I was going to pop round and see you guys; I’m having a
party and I hoped you three would come?’

‘
Ah well… I
don’t know…’ Ben answered absently while looking over his shoulder
to see the others shuffling towards the gates.

’
Your friends
can come too.’ she added nodding towards Norton and Newton, after
misreading Ben’s forced nonchalance.

‘
What? Oh…
yeah… well, I don’t see why not. Sounds like fun.’ he said, edging
round to block the view of Carlo again.

‘
You’ll come
won’t you, Carlo?’ she asked peering around Ben’s large frame and
getting a full glimpse of Carlo. ‘Oh… are you OK?’

‘
Yeah… fine
thanks. Really good.’ He said as cheerfully as he could, fully
aware that his fringe was stuck to his brow with sweat, his face
was the colour of guacamole and he had bile all over his
jeans.

‘
Oh… right.
Well I’ll give you all a call later about it, yeah?’

‘
Yeah… thanks,
Vic. I’m sure we can all make it.’ Abi added sweetly.

The girl nodded and after
taking one more apprehensive look at the bizarre gathering she
walked on with a last fleeting glance over her shoulder towards
Carlo.

‘
Well,’ Ben
said, clapping his hands together happily at a job well done, ‘I
think that went well.’

Carlo’s muscles finally gave in
to gravity and he slumped to the ground. ‘I want to die…’ he
groaned, more in embarrassment than pain.

‘
It wasn’t
that bad. You’ve got a party invite.’ Abi pointed out tactically,
‘And I’m sure she didn’t notice anything.’

Norton looked between Carlo,
Abi and Ben with a slowly dawning expression of understanding.
‘Hang on a second… you like Victoria Dearlove?’ he blurted out,
incredulous. ‘God, she’s way out of your league, Carlo! She’s like
two years older than you, which is almost an illegal age gap, plus
she’s going out with that John David from Priestfield School and
he’s like six foot eight! And everyone knows that school’s full of
nutters!’

‘
She isn’t
going out with him at all; they just went to the disco together at
the end of term. She told me!’ Abi said with a note of
finality.

‘
Well I don’t
care, I don’t like her!’ Norton said. ‘She never speaks to me or
Newt.’

‘
She doesn’t
know you or Newt.’ Ben chipped in. ‘I wouldn’t speak to you either
if I didn’t have to.’

Norton stuck two fingers up at
Ben and turned to the prone Carlo. ‘Come on mate, she’s not worth
getting fussed about.’ he said with an untypical note of caring as
he held out his hand to help him up. ‘We don’t want to go to that
party anyway, do we, eh? Me, you and Newt’ll have a party of our
own.’

‘
Of course he
wants to go to the party.’ Abi butted in.

‘
No he
doesn’t!’

‘
Does
so!’

‘
He does
not!’

‘
I want to go
to bed.’ Carlo pointed out from the floor, Norton having retracted
his offer of help in order to argue.

‘
She invited
you and Newt.’ Ben added, coming to Carlo’s assistance.

Norton stopped the next comment
on the edge of his lips and changed tack with all the grace of an
Olympic sailor. ‘Well, obviously Newton and I would be happy to
attend the party, eh Newt?’

Newt shrugged; a picture of
non-committance. ‘I don’t know… the only parties I’ve ever been to
have been at your houses. My mam won’t be keen. She has a rather
dramatic opinion of what goes on at ‘Youth Gatherings.’

The group nodded in
understanding. Mrs Newt was always held up as a beacon of
unreasonableness and her opinions were to be disagreed with at all
costs.

‘
She reads too
many newspapers your mum.’ Ben added, sagely. ‘Can’t possibly be
good for her.’ He put his arm round Carlo and started off down the
street.

‘
What does go
on at Youth Gatherings?’ Norton asked as the others
followed.

‘
Dunno. Ask my
Mam.’ Newton answered.

Carlo spent the next three days
in bed with a fever and sickness. The doctor, much to Newton’s
displeasure, claimed that Carlo had contracted a stomach virus and
not Bird Flu or Ebola.

But even in his weakened and
sleep deprived state Carlo knew that he wasn’t suffering from a
“tummy bug” as Abi kept calling it. Something had happened in his
father’s study and he was certain he was suffering the after
effects. On the fourth day Carlo struggled out of bed after another
sleepless night of hot flushes, cold shivers and strange thoughts
about a dark, cold room. He wrapped his duvet round him, despite
the glorious weather outside, and slouched slowly downstairs where
he fell onto the sofa and groaned until his head stopped
spinning.

‘
You’re still
alive then?’ Uncle Randy said from the armchair without removing
his eyes from his paper.

‘
No… I’m dead.
What you’re seeing is the ghostly embodiment of my former
suffering.’

‘
Oh. So you
won’t want a bacon sandwich for breakfast, then?’

Carlo opened his eyes and
stared at the ceiling, which seemed to be spinning in a figure of
eight formation. He was hungry, having not eaten that much for the
past few days, but he was sure that he would have trouble keeping
food down. ‘Yes please.’ he said throwing caution to the wind ‘And
you better bring a bucket.’

While Carlo was warily eating
his breakfast Randy mentioned that he was going to visit the
solicitors the next day. ‘…so I’m going to tell them that we are
reverting back to the original terms as dictated by your father’s
will with the agreement we negotiated about my involvement as
acting Managing Director with you as the Junior Managing Director
until you reach twenty one.’

‘
Err… yeah.’
Carlo said before swallowing the last bite of his sandwich and
waiting until he was sure that nothing untoward was going to happen
that would require the bucket. ‘What happens after
that?’

‘
Well,’ Randy
said, finally putting down his paper, taking off his reading
glasses and looking at Carlo, ‘we need to get a move on. The first
thing to do is try and get Neil and Lucy back on board. Both have
new jobs and families to support, so it won’t be easy, but they
were the Sergeant Majors of the factory, they made it
tick.’