The Secrets of Ice Cream Success (5 page)

‘
Did they like
each other?’

‘
Err… no, not
really.’ Randy answered. Correctly guessing what was on Carlo’s
mind, Randy moved to sit next to the young boy on the sofa. ‘Look,
Carlo. You can’t take what Haverton said about your dad to heart.
He was just annoyed because he had expected to be able to waltz in
and buy the company and you stopped him.’

‘
I don’t like
him!’ Carlo said earnestly.

‘
That’s
allowed.’

‘…
and I don’t
want him to get hold of Leodoni’s.’

‘
Well that
might be more difficult…’

‘
I’m not
joking, Uncle Randy. He’s never getting it. And if that means I
have to be in charge for the rest of my life, just like Dad, then
that’s what’ll happen!’

Randy leant back in the sofa
and ran his fingers through his greying hair. ‘Well,’ he sighed,
‘The Company is yours, but I am not going to deny that it will mean
a lot of very hard work if you want to start it up and run
everything and it may not even be possible. If this is the course
you want, I will support you, but it won’t be easy.’ Randy stared
up at the ceiling and sighed again. ‘This won’t be easy at
all.’

‘
Thanks.’
Carlo said, quietly.

Randy looked down at his young
charge. ‘It’s OK. It’ll work out. Right, we have some work ahead of
us then. We need to get everything ready in the next six weeks
before you go back to school.’ Carlo nodded. ‘And we need to review
the staff portfolio and see how many of the old guard are able to
return. It will be difficult. People moved on after the factory
closed; they started new lives.’

‘
But if they
left because Dad died, why would they come back?’

‘
They didn’t
leave because Luigi passed away, Carlo.’ Randy chuckled. ‘Your
father was well loved, but on whole a company survives the death of
the owner.’

‘
Why did they
leave then?’

‘
Hmm… I
presumed you knew all this.’ Randy said. ‘The factory was actually
in the process of being closed down when your father
died.’

‘
What? Why?’
Carlo asked, sounding alert at last.

‘
Well, there
had been an accusation you see; regarding the manufacturing
process.’ Randy paused and looked Carlo squarely in the face as if
deciding what to say next.

‘
What
accusation?’ Carlo prompted.

Randy sighed and continued.
‘Someone told the authorities that Leodoni’s were using an illegal
ingredient in some of its produce. An investigation that would have
shut down the factory for a period was about to start when your
father died. In fact that was why he was back in the van. We were
trying to bring in enough profits to let us continue paying the
staff whilst the investigation took place.’

Carlo didn’t say word, but then
realised that he wasn’t breathing. He exhaled slowly trying not to
make it look too obvious. ‘An illegal ingredient? That sounds
weird.’ he said, thinking about the vanilla ice cream. ‘So what did
the investigation find then?’ he asked, not really wanting to hear
the answer.

‘
It never got
started. After Luigi died, we closed the factory, sent the staff
home and made plans to open up the factory for the authorities.
Then we had to make plans with your family for the funeral and the
reading of the will and make sure you were OK. Anyway, by the time
we got back round to thinking about it, whoever had made the
allegation had withdrawn it. We presumed that it must have been a
prank or perhaps a disgruntled customer.’

Carlo felt a wave of relief
course through him as Randy continued.

‘
Of course by
that time the staff had been away for a number of weeks and after
your Dad’s will became public knowledge
the certainty of Leodoni’s re-opening was less apparent, so
the old staff became nervous and many found new jobs. Then there
was the kerfuffle over you being the new owner.’

Carlo shuffled in his seat. He
understood what had happened with the social services who had
expressed doubts about a school child being bequeathed a large
company, especially an orphan who in their minds was likely to move
to Italy soon. A lot of people had argued vehemently on Carlo’s
behalf that he should be allowed to inherit the company and
eventually a compromise had been reached whereby he would own the
factory but Randy would run it in his name and would officially be
named his guardian with the blessing of his family. It was a great
victory in many ways, but no one had actually asked Carlo if that
was what he wanted and by the time they did… well, he didn’t.

‘
And then it
took months to work out the new deal…’ Carlo added
uncomfortably.

Randy nodded. ‘So you see it’s
not a case of the staff not wanting to come back. It’s more a case
of them being able to. It’s been nearly two years. Most will have
new jobs or will have retired.’

‘
I’m sorry,
Uncle Randy, I really am. I didn’t mean to be this much
bother.’

‘
I know,
Kiddo, I know. I think you need to do something before we make any
more plans. I want you to go back to the factory at some point and
take a look through those staff files. Take a really good look at
them. They are the people who used to be the heart of Leodoni’s.
Without them, your father and I wouldn’t have lasted as long as we
did. When we closed, it was their lives that were affected. If we
re-open, even if it’s with different staff, there will still be a
lot of families that your decisions will influence. It’s a huge and
quite grave responsibility. I want you to try and take that in
before you decide you really don’t want to sign the papers. Do you
understand?’

Carlo nodded, but didn’t say
anything.

Norton stared up at the gates.
‘If you don’t hurry up, I’ll just climb over.’

‘
You couldn’t
climb over these. You had trouble with the four foot wall into the
cemetery the other day.’ Ben said.

‘
I’ll have you
know that I am sprightly and athletic!’ Norton retorted. Ben
laughed and cupped his hands together to give his friend a leg
up.

‘
Go on
then…’

‘
Got it!’
Carlo muttered, unfastening the chain that locked the gates. Norton
made a face that suggested he had just been about to jump into
action and was disappointed that he now didn’t have to. Ben pushed
him towards the now open gates.

‘
Come on then,
Hero. You can show off your athleticism another time.’

The group passed into the
courtyard, over to the huge factory doors and waited as Carlo
started fumbling with another set of keys. Abi took the opportunity
to hop onto the old decaying tricycle with the awkward parasol and
buckled wheel.

‘
This would be
cool if we could fix it.’

Norton walked over and began to
inspect the trike with the air of one who knows all there is to
know about everything. ‘A bit of oil… perhaps a new wheel… yeah, it
could be a goer again.’ he said, kicking the back wheel in what he
thought was a meaningful manner.

‘
Brake pads,
brake cables, chain, sprocket, gears, seat, three new wheels
etcetera, etcetera…’ Newton intoned as he circled around the
tricycle giving it a brief glance before throwing a weary look at
Norton. ‘Oh yes and some oil…’

‘
Are you lot
coming or not?’ Carlo called from inside the factory. Seeing that
he had opened the small hatch already, Abi jumped off the tricycle
and started herding Norton, Ben and Newton towards the dark opening
in the huge, blue doors.

The lights were already
flickering into life as they entered and Carlo turned to see his
friends stood stock still with reverence. ‘What?’ he asked, being
rather blasé about the factory having spent so much time there down
the years.

‘
You can smell
the Ice Cream goodness.’ Norton whispered.

‘
You can
almost taste it.’ Ben added

Newton fell forward to the
railings and started reviewing the apparatus spread out on the
factory floor below him with an eager glint in his eye. ‘Can I?’ he
asked turning to Carlo and flicking his head back to indicate the
machines.

‘
Go on then…’
Carlo agreed sounding like a father who had only seconds ago
entered a fairground and found the children had disappeared
already. Newton scampered off towards the stairs next to the
service ramp and was soon out of sight. Norton and Ben looked at
each other wearing matching grins and then set off after
Newton.

‘
Children!’
Abi exclaimed dramatically watching the boys vanish amongst the
machinery.

‘
You want to
go as well, don’t you?’ Carlo said to her with a grin.

‘
Yeah, can I?’
She answered quickly, before running off after a nod from
Carlo.

Carlo watched her run after the
boys, who he could see occasionally popping up from behind a large
mixer or inspecting the inside of a giant oven. ‘Don’t climb on
anything. Or in anything.’ he added after a moment’s reflection.
‘And don’t press any buttons!’ he called out, perfectly aware that
they probably weren’t listening. He wouldn’t have been.

Wishing he could go and join
them, he trudged off to his right towards the office and the
waiting pile of staff profiles that Randy had asked him to look
through. Sitting behind his father’s desk Carlo reached for the
first folder on the pile and pulled it onto his lap. “Neil
Wrigglesworth – Shift Manager” the front sheet declared with a
picture of a man that Carlo recognised glued to the left hand
corner.

Neil had apparently been with
the company for some time and Carlo remembered him standing by the
main gates counting out the vans on a summer’s morning like an Air
Chief Marshall counting out his planes on a mission into enemy
territory. He remembered his father had always suggested that Neil
and his fellow shift manager, Lucy Lightfoot, had considered
themselves to be the “real” managers of the plant being, as they
were, the people who counted in and out the vans and made sure that
the produce was produced, the deliveries delivered and the staff
were doing what staff should do.

He had never really spoken to
Neil before, but he certainly remembered Lucy Lightfoot as a scary
woman who continually seemed on the verge of an angry outburst. She
had once shouted at Carlo for knocking over a pile of boxes
containing wafers as he was running through the factory to get to
the offices. Many of the fragile wafers had broken and Lucy was
apoplectic with rage.

He moved Lucy’s file to the
side placing it on top of Neil’s and then, not wanting to think
about her, swiftly switched them so Neil’s was on top and covering
the angry faced picture on Lucy’s file. Carlo looked at the next
one; Elspeth Bertholini’s. A smile appeared on his face as he
looked at the picture of a happy woman in her early forties with
long blonde hair, huge glasses and a wide smile. Although he
recognised her face, the picture did not sit well with his memory
of Elspeth who he had last seen at his father’s funeral. Whilst the
glasses and the smile remained the same the face had been more
lined and hair more grey. Carlo found the date of the document at
the top left corner and understood that the photograph of his
father’s feisty secretary had obviously been taken some 25 years
earlier.

As he made his way through the
pile one by one it slowly occurred to Carlo that he knew nearly all
of the people in these folders and that they had all in some small
way been a part of his life as a child. Whether they had spent 5
minutes entertaining the young Carlo while his father made a phone
call, or giving him a sneaky free ice cream when the shift manager
wasn’t looking, they had all taken the time to be friendly to a
young boy.

‘
You
OK?’

Carlo jumped as he was yanked
from his reverie by Abi standing at the door. ‘God, woman! Don’t do
that!’ he said falling back into his chair.

‘
Sorry.’ She
said. ‘Thought I’d come and see how you were getting on.’ Carlo
gave her a doubtful glance as he bent down to pick up the folders
he had just dropped.

‘
OK, Norton
was heading off towards the vans so I decided to scarper before he
broke something.’ she said, more truthfully. ‘Oh, I’m sure he won’t
touch anything really…’ she added seeing Carlo’s rather anxious
face reappear from under the desk. From the factory floor behind
her “You Are My Sunshine” started blasting out from one of the vans
followed by a whoop of joy from Ben and Norton. Abi had the grace
to look embarrassed and quickly shut the door behind her with a
slight grin.

‘
Watchya
doin’?’ She asked throwing herself into the comfy chair against the
wall and folding her legs beneath her.

Carlo indicated the pile of
folders. ‘Uncle Randy asked me to look through these. Apparently
they are the people we need to get back if we are going to open up
without everything going wrong. But…’ Carlo paused looking
glum.

‘
But what?’
Abi asked.

‘
But… I don’t
think they will come back. It’s been ages; they’ve probably all got
other jobs. And they used to work for my Dad, not me. Why would
they come back and work for me?’ Carlo said looking more worried
than usual.

‘
Because
you’re his son.’ Abi answered in her normal manner that suggested
that no other point of view was necessary now that hers had been
voiced.