The Secrets of Ice Cream Success (31 page)

The others looked at each
other, but said nothing. Ben grabbed the diary of the desk and
followed Newton.

‘
Hey, that’s
mine!’ Luigi shouted, floating through the floor after him as Abi
and Norton headed down the stairs.

‘
Carlo?’ Randy
said weakly.

Carlo jumped in surprise,
wrenching his injured leg. ‘Ow!’ he shouted, reaching to rub his
leg. He had lapsed into silence for a while listening to the
crackling roar of the fire, the rumble of the unstable masonry and
the sirens of the emergency services. He even thought he could here
water hitting the fire.

‘
Uncle Randy,
I thought you…Can you move?’

‘
I don’t think
so.’ Randy said, in a weak voice. It was clear he was not just
trapped, but also badly injured. Some light from the fire above
them flickered through the open door of the study and the hole in
the ceiling.

Carlo reached forward and took
Randy’s left hand in his own. ‘It’ll be alright. I can hear the
firemen outside. They’ll be here soon. They’ll help us.’ Randy
nodded, but didn’t say anything. Remembering the water dispenser in
the study, Carlo stood gingerly and hopped back in, giving the hole
in the roof a wide berth. He was glad to see the dispenser
unscathed and the bottle intact. Carlo wrenched the bottle from the
dispenser and made his way slowly back to Randy with two paper
cups.

Filling a cup from the bottle,
Carlo tried to help Randy take some water, but the angle at which
he was trapped meant only a little made it into his mouth, but it
seemed enough to at least clear some dust.

‘
Thank you.’
Randy croaked.

Carlo nodded, filled himself a
cup and took a long swig, swilling the water around his mouth and
spitting it to the side to also rid the taste of dust and smoke
before taking another sip to drink.

‘
I’ll try and
remove more of the rubble, Uncle Randy. But try not to move. I
don’t think the stuff above us is stable.’

Randy nodded, but was in no
position to disagree or move anyway. Carlo got back up, hopped onto
the step below Randy and started to carefully remove as much of the
debris as he could, eventually freeing Randy’s right arm and torso,
but as he tried to shift a larger piece of concrete across his back
there was a noise above them and pieces of dust and stone began to
fall down the stairwell.

Carlo quickly stopped what he
was doing and froze, fearing that the entire pile would collapse
onto them both. It was obvious that the only way to release Randy
would be to clear the rubble from the top down otherwise there was
a good chance Carlo would kill them both. But there was no way he
could possibly climb up the pile so they would have to wait for the
emergency services to find them.

Carlo hopped back down again,
sitting by Randy’s outstretched arms. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t do it.’
he sighed. ‘It’s too dangerous.’

‘
Carlo.’ Randy
said, reaching out to grab Carlo’s arm, ‘It’s me who’s sorry. It’s
all my fault.’ he whispered, barely audible.

Carlo didn’t really want to
talk about Herbert just now; it wasn’t really the best time. ‘It’s
OK; we can talk about that when we get out of here. Once you’re
better. I’m sure it’s all a mistake.’

‘
No, you don’t
understand. This is my fault. All of it is my fault.’ Randy
persisted.

Carlo sighed and leant back
against the wall. Though he could sense a conversation coming that
he really didn’t want to have right now, he thought it was better
to keep Randy talking and alert rather than slipping into
unconsciousness.

‘
OK; how is
this your fault?’ Carlo asked, indicating the pile of rubble
blocking their exit. ‘It’s not like you caused the
explosion.’

‘
What… are…
we… doing?’ Norton shouted between gasps as the four friends and
one confused ghost pedalled furiously back to the remains of the
factory. Not wanting to be continually tugged back to the diary as
they pedalled, Luigi had managed to mentally latch himself to the
book being carried by Ben and now looked like he was merely riding
on the back of Ben’s bike, though if anyone had looked close enough
they would notice they could see through the impromptu
passenger.

The gang piled around the
corner, breaking hard to avoid the scrum of onlookers and media
gathered by the police barrier. Newton looked around and spotted an
alleyway nearby and indicated the others should follow him.

‘
Right, give
me the diary.’ he said once they were all gathered.

‘
So what is
this great plan of yours?’ a rather disgruntled Luigi
asked.

‘
You’re not
going to like this, I’m afraid, but I don’t see any other option as
we need to know if Carlo is in there.’ Newton said, pointing
towards the flames.

‘
What?’ Luigi
asked.

‘
We’re going
to burn the book.’

‘
What?’ Luigi
shouted.

Newton explained. ‘Having no
other option, you should reappear wherever Carlo is. Hopefully he’s
somewhere safe, but if not, you can tell us where he is and we can
tell the firemen.’

Luigi wasn’t the only one who
looked dubious. Ben was noticeably anxious to go and find Carlo
himself and was uncomfortable with a theoretical plan involving a
ghost. He opened his mouth to say something, but Newton waved a
warning finger to hush him.

‘
What do you
think?’ he asked Luigi.

‘
I think its
madness. There’s no way of knowing if I will jump to Carlo if you
burn the book, or even if I will cease to exist at all. I could
just as easily remain here or disappear forever if you destroy
it.’

‘
But you may
also jump to your son and right now he needs you.’ Newton
persisted.

‘
But even if I
do find Carlo, how can I tell you where he is? I’ve already told
you I can’t choose to be with either Carlo or the book and even if
I could you will have burnt the book, so there will be nothing to
jump back to.’

Seeing he was getting nowhere,
Newton had no choice but to broach a topic he had hoped not to. ‘Mr
Leodoni, I read the book, or enough of it, anyway.’ Newton
admitted.

‘
Newton!’
Norton said, aghast. ‘If I wasn’t allowed, neither were you!’ Abi
shushed him into indignant silence.

Luigi sighed. ‘I had rather you
hadn’t.’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Even I can’t remember all of
the secrets I wrote in there. But I know I wanted the contents
undisclosed.’

‘
I understand
why now.’ Newton acknowledged. ‘And you have my word that I will
never divulge that information. However, I have a theory. I don’t
think you are connected to this book specifically, but rather the
secret it holds. I think you are protecting Carlo from these
contents.’ he said, waving at the book, ‘You knew they would cause
him pain, so your spirit remains to protect both the book and Carlo
from each other.’

Luigi looked astounded. ‘I
don’t even remember what’s in there.’ he said, ‘I just know it’s
important I don’t let Carlo read it.’

‘
I believe
when the diary is destroyed and those secrets along with it, you
should jump to Carlo as the one connection you have
remaining.’

‘
It sounds
plausible.’ Mr Leodoni admitted. ‘But…’

‘
How will you
get back? Easy; I’ll write down the secret again. If I’m right and
your consciousness has remained here to protect Carlo from that
very secret, then you are tangibly connected to any physical
representation of it as well as Carlo, whom you love and want to
protect from it. I also do believe you have a choice which you want
to be near, though you may not realise it.

‘
How do you
know this stuff?’ Luigi asked, both impressed and slightly
horrified at the level of Newton’s intellect.

‘
He’s
“advanced”.’ Ben supplied.

‘
Pretty much
finished school already.’ Abi added.

‘
What on earth
is going on?’ Norton moaned, entirely lost.

Newton shrugged. ‘I just work
things out. It may not be correct.’

‘
But you think
if you write down the secret again I will be able to concentrate on
it and return here once I know if Carlo is safe or not?’

‘
Indeed…
possibly.’ Newton said. ‘I’m only fourteen.’ he added by way of a
proviso.

The gang followed Luigi’s gaze
as he turned to look at the huge flames and billowing smoke
engulfing his once proud factory, but they knew the pained
expression had little to do with the bricks and mortar and more to
do with the thought that his son may be trapped inside.

‘
OK. Let’s do
this then.’ Luigi said, turning back to Newton who looked around,
found an old abandoned tin bucket with a number of rusty holes in
the bottom and threw the diary into it.

‘
Damn, how are
we going to light it?’ he said, looking at the others.

Norton and Abi shrugged, but
Ben reached into his pocket and produced a cheap lighter.

‘
I’m not even
going to ask why you have those, Ben.’ Abi said reproachfully. Ben
had the good grace to look slightly guilty as Newton snatched the
lighter from him, applying it to the dry pages of the
diary.

After a few seconds the pages
started to burn and soon much of the book was aflame. Newton stood
back and they all watched as the small fire grew.

. ‘Oi! What do you think you’re
playing at?’ A voice shouted from behind them.

The gang span to find an angry
looking fireman bearing down on them waving a disapproving finger
in their direction.

‘
If it’s not
bad enough we have one of the biggest fires in years over there,
you lot are starting fires just yards away!’ he shouted at
them.

‘
No, you don’t
understand!’ Newton protested, but the fireman wasn’t in the mood
to listen to any defence.

‘
Oh, I
understand alright! I should tell your bloomin’ parents, going
‘round starting fires at a time like this!’ he said, kicking the
bucket upside down with his boot to smother the flames. ‘Now get
home, all of you and don’t let me catch you wasting our time again,
especially when there are enough fires around the place all ready!’
he finished with a bellow, pointing at the large flames behind him,
before marching away.

As the fireman disappeared
around the corner, Ben and Newton jumped back towards the bucket
and pushed it upright with their feet. The book was charred and
smoking and much of it still intact.

‘
I’m not sure
if this will still work, Mr Leodoni.’ Newton said
mournfully.

‘
Err… where is
he?’ Abi asked, looking around.

‘
He’s probably
just invisible.’ Ben said. ‘Mr Leodoni, you can come out
now.’

‘
Mr Leodoni?’
they all called, searching the area. ‘Hello?’

There was no answer.

‘
Where is he
then?’ Norton asked. ‘Did it work?’

Newton ran back to the bucket
and picked up the rapidly cooling book. Carefully turning the pages
to prevent burning himself or damaging the now fragile contents, he
found the page he was looking for; the page that contained the
secret that kept Luigi Leodoni from moving on to the afterlife.

‘
Well? Did it
work?’ Abi asked, not daring to step any closer.

Newton looked up from the book
where half of the secret written down fourteen years before was
still legible upon the charred page. ‘I don’t know.’ he replied. ‘I
don’t know.’

‘
Carlo, I did
cause the explosion.’ Randy wheezed as a coughing fit shook his
body causing worrying amounts of dust to fall from above, but Carlo
was too shocked to care.

‘
What? How?’
he asked, stunned. ‘Did you leave the gas on or
something?’

‘
No. Well…
yes, but deliberately.’

‘
I don’t
understand. Why? Why would you do that? My God, we could have been
killed, Randy!’

‘
You weren’t
supposed to be here, Carlo. I had no idea and would never have done
something like this had I known someone was in the building. It was
supposed to be empty and I could have made it out in
time.’

‘
But why?’
Carlo repeated. ‘Why would you destroy my factory?’

‘
Because it
was supposed to be mine, Carlo!’ Randy wheezed,
earnestly.

‘
I still don’t
understand!’ Carlo shouted back, unable to fully comprehend what
Randy was trying to say.

‘
The factory
was supposed to be mine. Your father promised it to me. He made a
last testament that said that if anything should happen to him the
factory would come to me, but he lied, Carlo. He changed the deed
leaving it to you and that wasn’t right, not after what I agreed
to.’ he finished with a whimper.

Carlo had no idea what Randy
meant by “agreed too”. Nothing was making any sense. ‘I don’t
understand what you’re saying about, Dad.’ he said, emotion welling
up inside of him. ‘This… this was my factory. Randy, I thought we
were friends.’

‘
Carlo, I love
you like a son and you will never know the true meaning of
that.’

‘
Then why?’
Carlo shouted.

‘
The factory
was to be mine.’ Randy repeated quietly. ‘I have tried and tried to
take it, always trying to find a way to be as easy on you as I
could, but you would not give it up and that tore me inside, Carlo.
I was so proud of you, yet I could hardly bear to see you grow into
the man you are. I had no other choice. I couldn’t stand it
anymore. I’m sorry.’