Two Scoops of Summer Love

11. Peaches and Cream

"We have to save the memories, that's what matters to people," Camille huffed in frustration. We were currently sitting in my small bedroom with papers scattered around us as we tried to make a game plan. Key word, tried. I had torn through the old business magazines left over from my dad in the basement, but none of the tips seemed useful.

"I know," I said. "The only thing that The Creamery has that Sweet Thing doesn't is history in the town." Camille began scrolling through her phone as I continued flipping through magazines searching for answers that weren't there.

"Hey, Ana?" Camille slid her phone across the carpet toward me. "Did you see this memory that popped up of us at the river? That was so much fun we should go back again this summer."

I looked at the photo of us in the middle of the water, soaked and smiling. "That's it!" I yelled and scared Camille. "We have to use pictures to sell the memories."

"We're taking pictures of The Creamery?"

"No..." I sighed. "We should post pictures of town memories and make it the special thing about the store."

"Well that would be something that would make it stand out." Camille grabbed her phone and started typing away. I slid my laptop in front of me and opened my search engine. "Oh my gosh! Look at this Ana." On her phone she had searched posts where The Creamery was tagged. There were hundreds. Pictures of teenagers, families, and throwbacks to when Frank's dad first opened it in the sixties. It was amazing.

"Holy crap!" I couldn't believe it. "Who knew that there were so many pictures of people in front of an ice cream store?"

Camille took her phone back and started to scroll through the photos with more scrutiny. "There are so many pictures where there are tables on the sidewalk, and benches to sit on with the sign painted on. Where did all this stuff go?"

"I'm not sure but I know that I'll be asking Frank the next time I see him," I said and slammed my laptop shut with a smile.

~~~

The next morning Frank stopped by on his lawn mower to mow the lawn for Mum. Of course, I didn't know this until I woke up to the sound of the tractor going beneath my bedroom window and the screen door slamming as Mum went outside. I rolled out of bed and threw my messy hair into a bun before I padded to the kitchen in my pajamas. I stole the toast out of the toaster, buttered it and left the room before Mum came back in to call me a thief. Crunching on my toast, I got dressed. By the time I made it outside, Frank was finishing the lawn and looked like he was about to leave. I flagged him down; a difficult task considering he was wearing ear plugs and facing the other direction.

"Good morning, Ana!" Frank had always been a morning person. There wasn't a day in my memory that Frank had ever been cranky before noon. At happy hour, before a beer, there was the occasional time. "How's my favourite scooper? Don't tell Bryan I said that."

I laugh and answered. "I'm good, how are you?"

"Oh, you know, I'm old, my bones crack every time I move, and I can tell the weather for the week based on whether my knees hurt or not," he joked. "As long as I can make my Saturday golf games, I'm doing great."

"Well, at least your sense of humour is still in its prime," I smiled and he laughed. "If you actually had time, there was something I wanted to discuss with you about The Creamery."

Frank turned off the engine. "Hit me with it."

"We aren't very busy and I would very much like to keep my job," he motioned for me to continue, "Well I was talking with Camille about how we need to make The Creamery more attractive for customers, but we knew we had to be careful or else it would seem cheesy and desperate. So we started talking about all the memories we had there and about how other people must have a bunch too. Then we looked at the tags online. There are so many pictures of The Creamery! We could probably fill a whole album with all of them. So we, I because Camille zoned out, thought that maybe we could use memories to drum up some extra business. If you like the idea, that is."

My heart sank into my stomach. Frank was sitting on the lawn tractor in front of me chewing on his lip and thumping his hands on his cargo shorts. My heart started beating faster as my anxiety rose and he still wasn't saying anything. He was nodding his head, thinking it over I hoped, but then his mouth twisted as if he had something sour.

"It's a great idea, Ana," he began, "but I'm not sure if we really need to change anything. It's only been a week, give it some time."

"But-"

"We aren't in hot water yet." Frank clapped me on the shoulder. "I can stand a little heat from the competition, it'll pick up once the novelty wears off."

As Frank started the tractor and pulled out of the driveway, I couldn't help but feel that I was right to be concerned. The summer months are the most important months for businesses around here to be making money. If it doesn't hurt us this year, it will in the next. Frank may be able to handle a little heat, but I know that ice cream melts pretty easily.

~~~

Pippins greeted me at the door hours later as I walked into Camille's house. I pushed myself to give her a few good pats before heading upstairs, even if I was feeling crushed inside. I kicked my flip flops of and trudged upstairs, immediately falling face first onto Camille's bed after entering her room. I screamed into her mattress and then groaned.

"Bad day?" Camille asked as she entered the room.

"Frank doesn't think there's any reason to be concerned." I sighed and rolled over.

"Well, maybe we're reading too far into the situation?" I made eye contact with Camille at her words. "Yeah, that felt wrong as I said it, but its not your business so the onus isn't going to be on you."

"I guess, I'll just feel guilty if we could have done something. Frank is the closest thing I have to a living father since..." My words left me in the middle of my sentence.

Camille looked at me with understanding in her eyes. "Why don't we go out tonight. A carnival set up at the community centre last night, lets go and play some games and throw up on the spinning cups. Maybe you'll even kiss a cute boy at one of the counter like in that movie you made me watch."

Camille talked me into walking to the community centre with her. The heat beat down on us and I felt the sweat rolling down my spine. My mood was definitely not improving, but my silver lining was my foresight to put my hair up today. Camille's hair was steadily growing larger, and she was trying to hold out for as long as she could before putting it up.

My mood lifted when we got to the community centre. The lot was filled with carnival rides and booths, and the air was filled with the excited chatter of families and teens. There was a small roller coaster, a fun house, a couple other rides, some games, and the required Ferris wheel. The ticket booth was nice, since Camille and I went through super quickly since we could tap our debit cards. Once inside, immediately we found the funnel cake stand and started snacking.

Walking through the fair, I saw cute stuffed animals and some real goldfish sitting in bags on a shelf. I grimaced as I walked past, feeling bad for those fish in the heat. There were stands selling candy apples and cotton candy, lemonade, and fried foods all over the usually near-empty parking lot. Dodging the lines, Camille and I wove through the crowd toward the coaster together. Tossing the cardboard tray from the funnel cake into a recycling bin, we joined the queue.

"Are you sure you're tall enough to ride that?" Cameron's now-familiar voice said from behind us. I turned around and his signature grin was gracing his features. The boys that he was with the first time we met were with him again, but the ginger was looking Camille up and down. I looked at the sign that said the minimum rider height was forty-four inches.

"Um, I think that I would know if I was tall enough to ride at seventeen," I responded with a teasing tone.

"I don't know Pipsqueak, you seem a little on the short side to me," he said and made me roll my eyes. "Do you mind if we join you two?"