The Secrets of Ice Cream Success Read Online Free PDF Page A

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