The Infection

I scream you scream we all scream for Ice Cream

Richard the name she had feared for years the person she was trying to run away. All that she was thinking about was: What am I going to do? Do I tell the kids? Do I leave now? 

She said, "Yes that is what I'm going to do" now looking at the kids said, "That's what we are going to do!"

Lily confused gave Ashley a puzzled look and said,  "what are you going to do" 

Ashley said to both of them, "We are going to go get some ice cream and then going home because I have talk to Luke" 

Jake is so excited because he LOVES ice cream. All Lily could think about what her dad. The fact that he was sort of close by and still didn't bother to reach out to them. 

Ashley goes to her boss who was working at the diner as well. Ashley has never liked confrontation since she was a kid. When Ashley was in grade school she had to go talk to her teacher and ask him for an extension; the problem with this is her teacher was in his 60s and had a bad heart so when she went up to him to ask for an extension the teacher was caught off guard when she walked up and fell out of his chair and banged his head on the cabinet next to his desk and was knocked unconscious and had to be taken to the hospital... He didn't go back to class for a month 

"HEY, Rob um... I was wondering" Ashley hesitates at asking Rob

Rob wasn't paying attention that much to what Ashley was saying because he was cooking the food so she just gave a look to Doug who was watching the whole thing; and as she was about to walk away Doug yelled, "YO ROB" 

Rob takes the eggs off of the grill and turns around and gives a glare to Ashley. He was raging with smoke from the grill looking like it was coming from the top of his head and said to Ashley, "What... What do you want" 

Ashley was panicking at this point because she had never in her 12 years of working here seen Rob mad but to be fair she had also never seen anyone talk to Rob during the their open hours. Ashley says shyly, "I was...um...wondering if it were just the least bit possible if I could possibly leave early" 

Rob looking annoyed just stared at Ashley and Doug puzzled for a minute and then said, "You INTERRUPTED me cooking to ask if you can leave your shift early"

Ashley froze in the moment and she didn't know how to respond so finally Doug shouts from behind her, "YES SHE NEEDS TO" 

Ashley embarrassed at this point mouths to Doug, "STOP TRYING TO HELP ME"

Doug laughs at her and takes a sip of his coffee

Rob now laughing at this whole situation said, "You know what; It is your daughters birthday, you have never asked to leave early before and you and Doug together make me laugh so sure you can leave early" Rob looks at Lily who was on her phone checking to see if anyone had texted her to tell her happy birthday and he says, "Have a happy birthday with Charlie, Lily" 

Lily smiles, stands up and says, "Ok we need to get home now because I want to know this 'Charlie'"

Ashley and Rob laugh and Jake climbs up on the chair next to Lily says really loudly right in her ear, "Don't forget we are getting Ice cream" 

Lily after checking to see if her hearing is still there chuckles and says, "Ok after ice cream" 

Doug says, "Get out of here before Jake looses his voice" 

Ashley chuckles and gets her kids outside to the car. They get in the car and it is silent except for Jake saying random things he sees out the window on occasion. Lily was only thinking about her dad and Ashley was just dying to talk to Luke because he can help her with this because he know all the pain that Richard had put her through. 

When they get to the Ice Cream place Ashley send Jake and Lily to get in line while she calls up Luke 

"Hey what's up" Luke answered 

"I need you to get home" Ashley says trying to have a happy face so that her children can't see that anything is wrong

"Why what is going on"

"He is back"

"Who is back"

"Ric-" She gets interrupted 

"RICHARD is back... How- What- are you positive" Luke was struggling to come up with the right words

"Yes Jake-"

"Say no more I am coming home now" 

Luke is running still on the call and trips to where everyone in his office is laughing at him and Ashley can hear it over the phone and starts to laugh too

Ashley walks inside a little more relaxed than normal and when she gets with her kids they are talking to this man. The man is standing there with his shirt tucked into his pants and his hair pushed back and when she gets up to him he turns around and it's...Richard

Lily was laughing and giggling and said, "Mom look who's here" 

Ashley wouldn't make eye contact with him and just kept looking at the flavors 

Richard was trying to talk to her and he kept talking to her, "Hi" 

Ashley was silent

Richard continued, "I was just telling lilt here about the camp that I think would be perfect for Lily as well as Jack"

Ashley mad says, " It's Jake not Jack" 

Richard finally got her attention and said, "Gotcha...Hi" 

Ashley laughs out of frustration and says, "Ok so what even is this camp" 

Richard doesn't know what to say because if he says what the camp really is Lily will never talk to him again so he keeps it very vague, "Well there are a lot of different things to do there and it is great for kids up until they are 18." He turns around to try and think of something else to say and he realizes that it is his turn to order and he says, "Oh I have to order" he turns around and begins to walk but then stops and says, "Hey let me buy your guys, after all it is Lily's 16th" 

Ashley starts to say, "No no we possibly--"

"Couldn't say no" Lily interrupts because she wants to keep talking to Richard because this is the first time that she has talking to him.

Richard orders his ice cream and Ashley's first because he remembers her favorite flavor, Cookie dough then Jake orders a banana split and Lily orders mint chocolate chip. 

After he buys them ice cream Ashley rushes her kids to the car trying to get home to see Luke. After Richard paid for their ice cream he walked them out to the car and after he helped Jake get into the car and as Ashley was about to get into the car he grabbed her wrist as tight as he can to where she couldn't get away and he said, "The kids are going to come to the camp" 

He stared her dead in the eye as if to look into see her deepest fear, which was him. After a couple seconds he lets go and opens the door for her as in to say you can go but, I'll always find you in the end. 

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Ok I hope you guys enjoy this. I'm sorry that it has been awhile since I have updated this story. Life has been kind of hectic and they're a lot to process even before all of this. I'm working on something else that came to me in a dream but, I will post it when I have finished it. 

As promised I'm going to continue with the riddle 

What has to be broken before you can use it? 

I hope you enjoy the book and I will try to keep posting