The Ice Cream Castle

Seville, The Past

Seville saw it on the news: a robbery at The Ice Cream Castle, an employee who surprised the robber had been killed. She was shocked. She was just there Saturday. Her mother had dropped her off while she did some mysterious Christmas shopping. Things like that didn't happen in places she went, didn't happen to people she knew. Her mind immediately began pulling up the faces of employees, remembering even some who no longer worked there. There wasn't a large staff, but there was high turnover. She wondered if it was someone new. She hoped so, then felt bad about thinking like that. It wouldn't make it any less horrible just because it was someone she'd never seen. But she knew in her heart that it would make it better for her if it was someone she didn't know. It wasn't as if she really knew the employees. She couldn't remember having a conversation with any of them except Mr. Schulz who offered her samples. Now she felt bad that she'd never talked to them, that she was always talking to her friends or sitting upstairs reading a book when she went in alone. Even though if she had talked to them, the person would still be dead and she'd feel worse about it. It was a couple of days before she found out the name of the person who'd been killed. There was no photo.

Her parents stopped taking her and her friends to The Ice Cream Castle. Her friends' parents likewise stopped dropping them off there. It had become an unspoken thing with adults, but for about a week the sole topic of conversation among the teenagers. "Do you know who it was?" That was the question the ran through the group. By that they meant who was killed, not who did it. They had no interest in who committed the crime, only the crime itself. Several names made the rounds. "Jimmy", "Leo", "Sheri", "Brenda", "Michael". The women were eliminated from the list within twelve hours. The victim was male. That made sense, they agreed. Mr. Schulz probably wouldn't leave either of the girls to lock up late at night.

A frisson of borrowed fears shuddered through the group. Some of them were halfheartedly looking for after-school jobs for additional pocket money. Most had plenty of spending money, but it never seemed like enough. Suddenly a job didn't seem like a good idea. A job could be dangerous. Even if all you were doing was scooping up ice cream. Seville had considered a job at The Ice Cream Castle, but she was a couple of years too young. Most jobs available to her age group were mowing lawns and raking leaves in the fall. Sometimes they could get a job bagging groceries, but it was so boring no one kept that job for long. It was a difficult age: just old enough that their desire for things was starting to outstrip their allowance, but not quite old enough for one of the usual low-level retail jobs. Clothing was the prime job. Most of the group was marking time until they could get a job at a clothing store, preferably one that had a generous employee discount. The subject of which store was the best and whether their parents would keep giving them an allowance when this longed-for moment arrived, was a subject of great discussion. Seville joined in these conversations, but truly she found clothing stores just as boring as others found bagging groceries. She wanted a job at The Ice Cream Castle.

"Why would you want to work there?" Tina had barely managed to keep a sneer from her perfectly too-made-up face, though not from her voice. Without waiting for a reply, she added, "I wouldn't want to work where we all hang out. I mean, it's not like they'd let you give us ice cream or let you hang with us during your working hours. You'd be stuck behind the counter and miss everything."

Seville hadn't thought of it this way. Without thinking about it, she said, "Well, I'm sure I'd at least get plenty of ice cream." It sounded selfish as soon as it left her mouth, but she couldn't help but resent that Tina only viewed it from the angle of what she might or might not get out of it. "And I don't think I'd miss all that much," Seville added. Nina and Tina rolled their eyes in exactly the same manner while the other girls shook their heads. One of them timidly suggested that whether it was a place they frequented was a good consideration. Perhaps some places it might be good, like, and here she named one of the aforementioned clothing stores. There was much nodding of heads. But all that was moot for Seville now that someone had died at The Ice Cream Castle. Now her parents would never let her work there.