The Cool Dad (A Calvin Recker Mystery Novel)- Chapter 6

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Here we go. This is the last chapter I'm posting. I hope you've enjoyed reading. If you want to read the next 40 (40!) chapters of The Cool Dad, it's available as an ebook on Amazon Kindle HERE (or click image) for $2.99.

6

I don’t lose Henry for long.

We’ve left the men’s room of the Hatchet Public Library. I will spare you the details of what went on in there, not because I don’t think you wouldn’t relish a good bit of potty humor, but because I have already mentally erased the memories from my brain like in The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

I find Henry and Max at one of the more delightful places in the town of Hatchet.

The Icy Igloo.

Best soft serve ice cream in Hatchet.

It’s a round wooden shack shaped and painted to resemble an Eskimo igloo and has been the main hangout for Hatchet High students for decades.

The structure itself has been destroyed and rebuilt three times.

Once it was blown away by a storm that was not quite strong enough to be classified as a tornado.

Once it burnt down in a grease fire.

And once it was actually lifted up and placed on a flatbed truck and dropped on the fifty-yard line by some pranksters at rival East Hatchet before the annual rivalry game.

I see Henry and Max sitting on top of one of the picnic benches set up outside the Igloo. They’re both working on chocolate and vanilla swirl cones. Henry’s wearing a really killer pair of sunglasses with brown tortoise shell frames and blue-tinted lenses and he’s got this hypnotic way of licking circles around the ice cream like he’s working a pottery wheel. Watching him lick the ice cream cone makes me think of how an actor onscreen makes the act of smoking a cigarette more glamorous or the villain makes the act of slicing an apple with a pocket knife seem that much more menacing. Henry is just in the moment, sitting on top of the bench with his feet on the seat and facing out, wearing his shades, and leaning over and licking smooth circles around the cone while not letting a single drop fall. Max, meanwhile, has got ice cream everywhere including up his nose.

I give Henry a little nod just to play it cool and get in line at the Icy Igloo for our order.

I also give a little head nod to the guy taking my order, because it’s none other than Ginny McConkey’s secret pothead boyfriend, Trev. Hey, there’s a lot of competition out their in the weed market and even small business owners like Trev have to get a second job. Also, the Icy Igloo, which is like the THE teen summer hangout, is a great place to meet and expand your customer base.

“One adult swirl cone, one chocolate kids cone, and one kids bowl.”

Trev hesitates over the order.

“Ice cream in a bowl, Trev.”

Trev nods. “That makes a little more sense. Coming right up, Mr. Recker.”

That what I like about Trev, he’s always thinking business.

I pick up our ice cream at the end of the counter, knowing full well that in about thirty seconds, the ice cream will end up on Ryan and Daisy’s faces, clothes and hair. I grab a handful of paper napkins and we take a seat next to Henry and Max on the bench.

 “Ah, ah, ah,” Daisy says, pointing at Henry’s face.

 “I think she likes your sunglasses,” I say. “They are pretty sweet. What kind are they?”

Henry removes them and says, “Oh these? They’re the Persol PO 714. The same shades Steve McQueen wore in The Thomas Crown Affair.”

“Classic,” I say.

I want them.

Would it be weird if I showed up tomorrow wearing the same exact sunglasses?

Daisy points again. “Ah, ah, ah!”

Henry hands over the glasses to Daisy who promptly bends them in half.

“I’m so sorry,” I say, snatching the glasses out of Daisy’s hand and handing them back to Henry.

“No, don’t worry. They fold. See?”

He demonstrates the folding action.

“Those are the coolest shades I’ve ever seen,” I say.

Like I said before, I WANT those shades and I don’t care if Juliet says I can’t pull off the Steve McQueen look.

“Thanks, man. I’m no Steve McQueen, though. But who is?”

“Expensive?”

“Yeah,” he says, wiping the lenses off on his T-shirt.

“Sorry, my daughter got her sticky hands all over them.”

 “No. Don’t worry. I think these are knockoffs. I bought them off of a street vendor in Broome. In Australia”

“Australia? Were you there on vacation?”

Check out that detective work!

“No. I lived there for a spell.”

“And now you’re in Hatchet, Illinois.”

“This is a nice little town.”

“Yeah, emphasis on little. But there are two different yarn stores.”

“Two?”

“And with two different disciplines. Darn That Yarn does crotchet and A Stitch in Time does only cross-stitch.”

“Is there a rivalry between the two?”

“I don’t know. But it would be awesome if there was. A bunch of old ladies going after each other samurai-style with needles.”

Henry nods and laughs. Then he looks over at Max and his smeared face. “Hey, bro. Let’s get you some napkins.”

“Oh, here. I always get extras.”

I hand Henry a stack of napkins. He tries to wipe Max’s face, but Max contorts and swipes at Henry’s hand like there’s a fly buzzing around him. Henry really should know that only moms and their magic mommy spit can get away with wiping the face of any kid over four.

Rookie mistake.

Max wordlessly grabs a napkin and half-ass wipes the chocolate off. He hands the sticky mess back to Henry.

Henry gives the wad a disgusted look, and then walks over to the garbage can to toss it. He comes back and grabs Max’s hand. “Let’s go, bro,” he says to him. Henry looks at me and says, “Nice seeing you again, neighbor.”

Wait! Don’t go! I have so many more leading questions to ask!

“Let’s do it again sometime,” I blurt out.

Ugh.

So lame.

Henry unfolds his awesome Steve McQueen sunglasses and puts them on. “Definitely,” he says.

I watch Henry and Max walk back down the sidewalk. Then I look at my own momentarily neglected children. I notice Ryan’s cone is empty but his face is clean.

He points down. “Daddy. Look.”

I look down and see a glob of ice cream melting on the sidewalk.

At least one mystery is solved.