"Lemonade. Stand... A childish suggestion. It could work out I suppose." I said. Alfred had a large grin on his face
"Great! We're gonna have to get some wood though, to make the stall in the yard, let's go to IKEA! Oh, and we need a lemon squeezer or whatever, maybe even some wine glasses so it could be fancy and" he just kept rambling on and on but I shut his mouth with my rather large hand.
"Alfred. We're broke remember?"
"Ah shit right. Well then uhhh." He pondered for a moment...
"FUCK WHERE DO WE GET WOOD?!" He was getting pretty stressed, I had to help him out, so I thought of things too.
"Um, how about we just get a table?" I suggested
"Oh yes, great idea! Why didn't I think of that..." he paused, "Oh but we need something to hold up a sign saying 'Lemonade'. We need something long and can stand well." He laughed for a moment "Pfft! That's what she said!"
"Who is she?" I asked for I did not get the joke which was apparently there. "Oh how innocent, that's cute!" Cute? "Anyways, where do we get those things? ..wait." He said, I had something in mind!
"I have a-" we both said at the same time "-a pipe!" I said first
"-a baseball b- wait what." He looked at me weirdly "Look, I never understood why you own a pipe, were you like a former plumber or something?"
"What? Nyet! Have you not played a game of 'Death Tag' with a pipe with your siblings before?" I asked. Oh Americans...
"I have an English older half-brother, another brother who was actually born and raised in Canada and my pansy French cousin so this is not the first time I don't understand another culture's tradition." He said with his eyebrows in a knot.
"I-it is not really common in my country, at least that's what I think..." I trailed away from the unrelated subject, "Anyway let us get into the lemonade making!" I said heading to the kitchen.
"Does this mean I have to set up the stand all by myself?!"
"Да– er- yes." I said bluntly. Poor Alfred screamed in agony as he marched to the door, I felt bad for actually laughing.
I actually came to realisation that I had no idea how to make lemonade so I ran upstairs to my bedroom and grabbed my tablet to watch a 'How to make lemonade' tutorial, apparently it was taking some time to load so I had prepared what people usually have when cooking... Which was uh..
Well, whenever my mom cooked she put on an apron, which I immediately found lying around.
Wait was this Alfred's?! Does he even cook? I put it on anyway.
After that I grabbed a bowl, a whisk, a tray, a spatula and a frying pan. By the time I grabbed all of the items, the video loaded! Perfect timing! The video started with an introduction, then showed the ingredients and the materials used...
"Wait a minute..." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "WHEN IS A FRYING PAN, A TRAY AND ALL OF THESE GOING TO BE USED TO MAKE LEMONADE?!"
I quickly put the items back to where they were put before but then I accidentally hit my tablet, causing it to fall of the table... and break its screen.
I groaned in irritation as I picked it up, bad luck just kept following me.
It soon came to my decision that I would improvise. I took a cutting board, a knife and more than a several lemons and cut them all up in halves.
I took some plastic cups, a bowl and a sift, I put the sift on top of the bowl and squeezed the lemons with my bare hands there, that way it would only catch the juice and prevent the seeds from coming with it, I added a bit of sugar too before pouring the juice carefully to each of the cups along with some ice. Just about then I was already finished so I wiped my sweat and gave myself a pat on the back... and a shot of vodka.
Oh vodka. I deserved you alright, I took the whole bottle from the refrigerator and it wasn't even a shot anymore, I drank a quarter of the bottle! I even spilled a bit on a cup of lemonade.
"Oh dear!"
"Phew! Hey dude how's ya goin' there buddy bro man?" Well he's obviously exhausted
"Good, good. I uh messed up somewhere but how's the sta-" before I could finish my sentence he snatched a cup of lemonade, which I think some of the vodka spilled in
"Hey, I need a refreshment for all my hard work, mind if I have one drink?" And before I could explain and caution him, he drank it. He has this habit of thinking every answer agrees to his will apparently. "Wooh! What happened to the taste of this lemonade bro? It also gave me a weird, burning sensation as it went down my throat... It felt good."
"A-Alfred.. That had vodka in it."
"Woah! Ivan you're a genius! We could totally sell these to some old folks." Dorogoy bog vsemogushchiy...
"But aren't you like 19? That is not the legal age to drink here." He just gasped and pouted
"Oh Ivan, please don't tell my mom! She'll tell the government and put me in a juvenile!" He said in a sarcastic tone as he proceeded to drink the whole thing. "Nah but seriously dude, I can take it! I'm perfectly fine! Let's get into business, man."
"Da, da, we better put up a sign about it though." I suggested as he got a plastic container to place the ten cups of lemonade and place them in our stall.
"Nah! We'll just tell 'em when they come by." I wasn't so sure about this but okay, "Oh, let's give half of the cups vodka, because why not!" He clapped twice "Ivan my good man, get the vodka!" I cringed.
"Oh so I'm your butler now?" I crossed my arms in annoyance
"Hey, I took all my time and effort on building this shitty stall." I was going to say something but I closed my mouth shut in a second.
"Fair enough!" I gave in. I ran to get the bottle and poured them in five of the cups.
"Great! Now we'll just wait for some customers." Oh but the neighbourhood was emptied!
"LEMONADE! FREE LEMONADE FOR... $10!" I grabbed my head in feeling so sorry for this poor stupid man. "Yo, Ivan help!" He nudged my shoulder
"
Lemonade. Lemonade for $10!" I 'shouted' unenthusiastically
"That's the spirit! GETCHA LEMONADE HERE MAH BROTHERS!"
This went one for minutes, hours, it was already about 4:00pm and we both gave up with our throats strained. "L-lemonade? Anyone?!" Poor Al was getting so stressed.
"Let's take a break." I pat his back
"B-but What if someone comes and wants to buy something?" He looked at me with his big blue, puppy dog eyes which looked to be tearing up, well how could I say no at such a face? I sighed
"Alright, you stay here and 'look out' for customers. You will come in if you feel like it, yes?" I told him as his face lit up a bit, he nodded. "Okay, hang in there!"
I ran back to our home and sat on the sofa, stretching a bit as I turned the TV on. I have finally gotten relaxation! But my eye lids were actually getting heavy, I yawned too. The signs that I needed a nap..
But before I knew it, "IVAN!" Ugh! What does he want now?
"What is it, Alfred?!" I frowned at him, he was really testing my patience now. He shoved some money on my face
"500. DOLLARS." He said with a huge grin "WE SOLD ALL OF IT IN ONE GO!"
"W-w-w-what?!" I was overwhelmed! I grabbed the money and counted to see if he counted correctly. "Wh- How did you get this much money? Wait, Al, the lemonade was $10!"
"Yeah"
"10 dollars, 10 drinks, 10x10 is 100!"
"Yeah"
"Alfred did you make the customers pay more than they should?!"
"...Yeah." he admitted bluntly but nervously
"ALFRED!" I shouted. Speechless, this was not fair for the customers.
"What? They were rich kids! They had like gold jewellery, hoverboards and-"
"Wait, KIDS?!"
"Yeah." My jaw dropped, how could he forget that half of the drinks had alcohol?! It seemed that he had realised it too. "Oh, GOD THE VODKA!"
We ran to the door but then we found a group of kids, around 13-15 with – like Al said – gold jewellery, hover boards, snap backs and revealing clothing right outside. Kids these days. Alfred shrieked, it was definitely those kids.
"Hey, um, your lemonade was totally like weird tasting." A young lady in the middle of the crowd said
"But yooo! It felt totally weird but good inside!" A boy at the back said, well these kids handle alcohol easy. The other kids nodded and chattered in agreement.
"OH YES YES IF YOU WANT YOUR MONEY BACK WE CAN-" Alfred pleaded.
"Never mind the money, that's like 0.5/100 of our parents', so keep it." The girl said with a smile, maybe some spoiled kids can be generous too huh? "But anyways, just add a ton more sugar next time. Toodles!" She waved with as she ran off with her group.
"0.5/100. And they don't even have to work for it." Al said in gloom.
"Well, some people have it easier." Alfred gave an 'mhm' for a sign of agreement.
He let out a deep breath as he shut the door, his brittle legs leading him to the couch. He dropped down dead on it, he said, "I'm gonna sleep the rest of the day away..." But he was already practically asleep.
"Yeah me too." I tiredly walked upstairs to my bedroom
"Oh and Ivan!" WHAT NOW DAMMIT?! "Today was fun. At least I had fun.." Oh. I went back down to him to close the lights in the living room
"Me too." I couldn't help but smile "Good night!" Even though it was like 6pm.
I guess I had just misunderstood Alfred. He's just like a kid, maybe I should stay, he needs someone to lead him. And I'd hate to admit but I would definitely love to have another day like this with him.