Sundaes and Sunny Days

"Pistachio, please!" I still remember the first order I took when I worked at the Hampton Court Ice Cream Stand. It was a small voice that piped up from behind the counter. All I could see where a pair of round blue eyes and the beginning of a couple of orange pigtails. "Cone or cup?" I chanted sincerely from the manual I had been taken through. I looked around and didn't find the manager whose approval I was trying to get. Yes, I was a bit of a goody two shoes and in my defense, it was the first day at my first job. 

Well, how much do they cost?" went the shrill voice again. She was a bit of a curmudgeon for her age. "Ten cents extra for the cone." I replied, my voice displaying a slight irritation. Here I was trying to get my first order right and she had already spent 10 minutes studying all the colors and flavors. Now she seemed stumped by the cone/cup question. It did not seem like the debate in her head would end in a hurry. I took a deep breath of the cold air wafting from the freezer. It calmed me down as I waited for Rose's order. 

My friends would kill for this job and told me I was lucky to get it. I didn't have to trudge up muddy sidewalks in the rain delivering newspapers or break my back bending over the lawnmower. I made more money as well for every hour I worked. They came by quite often to enjoy an ice cream on my account and pass the sunny afternoon in the cool air of the ice cream parlor.

Hampton Court Ice Cream Stand had ice cream stand in its name. To call it an ice cream stand was an understatement. It was a monument to ice cream. People came in to have ice cream but also walk through a mini ice cream museum. We still had the old time ice cream churners. We didn't use them anymore, but a lot of people came in to look at them.

The only drawback of the job was that I had to be up at six and at work within the half hour.  Scrubbing the wooden floors, polishing the ice cream churners till they shone, putting up the specials were chores that we all shared. We all stood for 5 high school kids. 3 of them went to the public school in the area. I had been moved to the gifted program and had to go to another school ten miles away which supported it. The last one, Jim, was going to my school this fall. He was a transfer student to my school this year.  I had never seen him in the area before. He kept pretty much to himself as did I and all the efforts of the Roosevelt high threesome to draw us out of our respective shells went in vain.

Jim and I inevitably volunteered to clear up so the other 3 could get out early and get on with their social lives. We had to clear things up and get organized for the next shift. Nina, Beulah and Rick liked working the first shift so they could get work out of the way and enjoy their evenings. I didn't do much in the evenings, just lay on a deck chair by the pool with a book and my Ipod. My mother worried, but I lounged despite that My old friends were too far away now that we had moved. I didn't drive. So I was stuck looking for friends in the new locality. They were not easy to come by. My mom wished I made more of an effort. "For heaven's sake, you don't even talk to Jim," she stormed at me.

It was not that I did not like Jim. I liked him. Quite a lot, the little I heard him speak was good enough to make an assessment. He would be really easy to hang out with. It was a given that he wouldn't have too many friends here because he was the new guy too. My parents saw him every day when they dropped me off to work. He drove up in his beat up truck. He was quiet and respectful when spoken to. They were wishing that I would make friends with him before the school year and they would be relieved from their chauffeuring duties.

I was to see little Rose quite often that summer. She was a constant visitor to our ice cream parlor, dropping in after her Girl Scout meetings. She liked to take her time, savoring the selection of ice cream more than the actual consuming of it. She inevitably chose me, not endearing me in the eyes of the manager who swore by quick and perfect service. I'd rather she didn't choose me, but she always made a beeline towards my counter whenever she came in. Personally, I found her a bit annoying. She was too curious, always asking questions about everything. She needed to know everything, all the time. She always put me in mind of that old proverb,"Curiosity killed the cat."

That was another thing in favor of Jim. He always had a ready smile for every customer, even Rose. He was the best person you could have waiting on you. He was patient, friendly and always helpful. Which made it even funnier that Rose always picked me over him. I even asked her once, when my manager wasn't looking of course. "He has a funny smile. I don't like it! It seems off!" she responded. The cheek of that child didn't have any limits.

I had started taking the bus to work by now. But that morning, my father stopped me as I was heading out the door. " Don't leave work before I come to get you. Stay inside the shop if it is after dark OK? " Seeing my puzzled expression, he continued, "There have been some incidents lately and I don't want you walking home alone." I nodded, still not completely convinced and continued on my way to my job. My day was full and not conducive to any further brooding on the topic.

We were closing early, so we didn't have too many customers coming in the later part of the afternoon. The roads were empty of pedestrians. There were a few cars on the road. " The city of Nortonville is on high alert today." The television blared from its perch at the corner of the shop. "There have been three abductions, all of teenage girls in the area. All citizens are requested to report any suspicious behavior." I headed out, taking out the garbage. My haunches were up even though I wasn't really taking the warnings echoing around in my brain to heart. Jim was still in the shop cleaning up.

"Hey! Nina! I was just going to come and check on you!" Rose shrieked from behind me. My heart almost leapt into my throat. "Why are you hanging around the dumpsters, Rose? Or should I be scared to ask?" I said, my words coming out more cutting than I intended them to be.  Her face fell, " I was just worried about you. I didn't like the idea of you working alone with Jim today. So I came along. You know I followed Jim yesterday. Do you know what I found out?"

"No, I don't know and I don't want to know."I stalked back towards the shop. "I suggest you get back home too." "That's what I came to speak to you about. I know you are closing now. My brother and I can give you a ride back home." My foot steps slowed. I turned over the suggestion in my head. I wasn't particularly looking forward to spending the rest of the day, until my dad came to get me, with Jim. There was something about him that made me very uncomfortable. I wasn't intent on exploring my feelings this day. "Hmmmm....." I dragged out my response as I trudged back into the store. She followed close on my heels.

It was too quiet. Jim was whistling when I left. I walked towards the walk in freezer at the back of the shop. The lights were off. That was unusual. The dark dank atmosphere closed around me as I swung the door open. "No! You promised! She was going to come along. Don't!" Rose's voice shrieked. That was the last thing I heard before blackness swirled before my eyes. The last thing I saw as I hit the ground was Jim's startled eyes as he lay bleeding on the floor.

A to Z - Akash

I am in yet another school- my 7th school in 8 years. I can't even make an effort anymore. I smile, I wave, I make inane conversation mechanically. All the schools look the same, grey or pale green institutional colors with bars in the windows. There are more people who have coalesced into a single identity than I can remember.

As the breeze from the window hit me, I thanked my stars for having bagged the prime window seat. All my years of moving have left me with one important lesson. 'Always be on time on the first day of school'. I was inevitably late every other day. The first day for me is a milestone. The day you pick your seats and proceed to scare away everyone from you for the rest of the year with the best imitation of the evil eye. I never failed to get the seat I wanted.

"Eeeh," a shriek interrupted my thoughts. A slightly built classmate of mine was busy shushing her statuesque friend. Her friend towered over her but quailed in the line of her fierce gaze. Turning slightly, she caught me observing their conversation and it deepened into an angry or embarrassed flush. I puzzled over which it was. Wait, the taller girl looked familiar. She was a danger Sam had warned me against. Sam was my campus buddy. My first normal campus buddy, actually. Therefore by default, he was the first person I met at Avon High. Providentially, he turned out to be awesome and in the same grade as me. To quote Sam, 'She is on the prowl. So take care.' That sounded ominous and he assured me it had nothing to do with any sort of relationship which confused me even further.

Still, I took his warning to heart. I needed to figure my life out before I even thought about anything else. A school each year was hard enough without any potential entanglements. I did not work well with high maintenance. "Zara! Zara! Stop!" Nina cried out. So her name was Zara. Interesting name! She didn't pay any attention and just continued walking. "Sam!" I tapped his shoulder. He had the other good window seat in front of me." I need a drink of water!" "The cooler's down the hallway. Head straight down and take a right". "Cool! Thanks! No, I 'll find it, not a problem!" I hurried in the direction of the water cooler.

Lost and Found- Part 1

Meet Don, 30 years old. He's about 5 feet 6 inches tall, short compared to the rest of his clan. If you were kind, u would call him broad shouldered. If you weren't, you would approximate a rectangle.

He likes taking walks in the summer sun just as much as in the pleasant rains. So you would find him nicely bronzed off on a good day and badly sun burnt on others. The first thing everyone noticed about his hair was never the color. You just saw that there seemed to be too much of it on that little head of his. But for purposes of your imagination it was coffee grounds brown. If you met his eyes, which you inevitably did, because he always did talk that way, was a softer ice tea brown.

Before he starts sounding like one of those stock photos on the internet or a safe date on an internet dating website, let's see what Don was getting upto now. He was sitting on the edge of his seat on the 10:30 subway going downtown. "Ping!" went his phone. He scrolled through it absentmindedly.

"Not another of these reports!" he thought to himself," I should never have subscribed to this alert service." Though it wasn't really much of a choice anyway. His job as a hot shot financial expert demanded this at a minimum. He had never borne the brunt of a bubble bursting around him, but it would be good to be in the loop when it did. 

So, now that he was 30, in fact that very day was his birthday, Don was thinking very deeply about nothing in particular. Especially not what he was going to do next. He wasn't much of a philosopher, but he hadn't gotten away unscathed from the kind of situations he had been in. Introspection was dangerous, so he tried not to indulge.

He tried to look fascinated again as he caught sight of the skyline. Another day, another dollar!