Car Toon

As busy as my staff is here at MidWeek, I always try to find ways to lighten things up. One way is to feed them.

The other week, one of my editors was doing a story on a new ice cream shop.

It’s located in Kakaako near our offices, and they make their ice cream daily in some pretty amusing flavors. I figured it would be nice to surprise the staff and buy everyone some ice cream. Since its location indicated a lack of parking, I recruited one of our photographers, Tony Consillio, who had a break in his schedule, to drive me.

He drives a gray Scion xB, a boxy yet distinctive-looking car. I jumped into the passenger seat and we were off to buy some ice cream. Sure enough, the store was street-front with no parking lot, so Tony pulled up in an adjacent driveway and parked diagonally, with the passenger door facing the storefront. I jumped out, and told him to wait and that I’d be right back with the order.

I hadn’t really thought this through, as I then ordered 17 single-scoop cups of various flavors. I asked the workers there if they had some kind of tray, which they did not. I spotted a deep box, and then suggested they make a layer of the cups, layer napkins on top, place a piece of cardboard on that and layer the next batch of cups. Three layers would do the trick.

Once they completed that, I would have to get the ice cream back to our shop before it became ice cream soup. I rushed out the door when a gust of wind took off the top layer of napkins. A young guy walking toward the store started picking up all the napkins, as he saw I had my hands full. I thanked him and rushed to the car, opened the door and was about to sit down.

I then noticed Tony wasn’t in the car. I turned back and suddenly saw him sitting in his car in a parking space fronting the ice cream shop. The guy who picked up the napkins was looking at me when I realized I was trying to get into his car. He had a Scion xB in a similar color and was parked in the space where Tony dropped me off.

The expression on his face reflected his thoughts, “What the … ?” Tony was laughing while I apologized for the near carjacking I was about to commit. Thank God he didn’t have any kids in the car. A stranger with ice cream trying to get into a car full of kids would not bode well in today’s society.

rnagasawa@midweek.com