young kids looks about ready to explode. “That’s happening,” he says, gesturing angrily toward the cashier.
A woman is arguing—no, screaming at the poor girl behind the counter, who looks like she’s barely older than I am. The girl is on the verge of crying, but the woman is relentless. How incompetent can you be? It’s just ice cream, not rocket science! I put in this order a month ago!
“I’m sorry,” the girl pleads, red-faced. “I didn’t take the order. I don’t know what happened. There isn’t any record…”
She’s not the only one on the verge of tears. A little girl with pigtails stands with her hands on the glass ice cream case, looking between the angry woman and her parents. “Why is it taking so long?” she whimpers.
“I want to speak to your manager!” yells the woman.
“He isn’t here,” says the girl behind the counter. “There’s nothing I can do. I’m sorry!”
I don’t know why the woman is so furious, and I’m not sure it matters. Like she said, it’s just ice cream, and clearly the poor cashier is doing her best. She could at least be civil. Not to mention that she’s keeping these poor kids—and me—from getting our ice cream.
I take in a deep breath and prepare to storm up to the woman. Maybe if we can be rational, we can get the manager’s phone number and he can come down and deal with this.
I clench my hands at my sides.
I take two steps forward.
“What’s going on here?” bellows a stern voice.
I pause. The people in line shuffle out of the way as a police officer strolls into the ice cream parlor.
Or … I could let him deal with it?
The woman at the counter opens her mouth, clearly about to start yelling again, but she’s cut off by all the waiting customers. The presence of the police officer encourages them, and suddenly they’re all willing to speak up on behalf of the cashier. This woman is being a nuisance. She’s being rude and ridiculous. She needs to leave!
For her part, the woman seems genuinely shocked when no one, especially those closest in line who have heard the whole story, comes to her defense.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but it sounds like I should escort you out,” says the officer.
She looks mortified. And stunned. And still angry. With a snarl, she grabs a business card off the counter and sneers at the girl who is wiping tears from her cheeks. “I will be calling your manager about this,” she says, before storming out of the parlor to a huge roar of approval.
I make my way back to Jude and Ari, shaking out my hands. My fingers have that weird pins-and-needles feeling in them again for some reason. I explain what happened, and soon the line starts moving again.
After we’ve finished our ice cream, we overpay for a surrey from the rental kiosk and spend an hour pedaling along the boardwalk under its lemon-yellow awning, Ari snapping too many photos of us making kooky faces, and Jude and me yelling at her to stop slacking off and start moving her legs.
Until we come across a group of tourists who are taking up the whole width of the boardwalk and meandering at a turtle’s pace.
We slow down the surrey so we don’t crash into them. Ari honks the little bike horn.
One of the tourists looks back, notices us, and then goes right back to their conversation. Ignoring us entirely.
“Excuse us!” says Jude. “Could we get by?”
They don’t respond.
Ari honks the horn again. And again. They still don’t get out of the way.
What the heck? Do they think they own this boardwalk or something? Move!
My knuckles whiten on the steering wheel.
“Coming through! Can’t stop! Get out of the way!” someone yells, charging toward us from the other direction.
The tourists yelp in surprise and scatter as five teens on skateboards come barreling toward them. One of the women loses her sandal and it gets squashed beneath one of the skateboard’s wheels. A man hauls himself backward so fast he loses his balance and falls off the edge of the boardwalk, landing on his behind in the sand below. They all start yelling at the inconsiderate teenage hooligans, while Jude and Ari and I look at one another and shrug.
We pedal quickly past the tourists before they can regroup.
After returning the surrey, we order a gigantic basket of garlic fries from the fish-and-chips stand and sit out on the sidewalk, kicking sand at the greedy seagulls