Baskin Robbins

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Mitch
Every day when I walked past Baskin Robbins I smiled at the girl who was solemnly staring out of the window. Every day she stood alone in the deserted shop and returned the smile, sadness in her eyes, boredom writ large on her face. She was like a zoo animal, trapped in an unnatural habitat, dreaming of a freedom she vaguely remembered, incensed at the madness of captivity but resigned to her fate. Her nametag said Mia, but that’s all I knew about her; she was Mia, the basking robin from the High Street Zoo.
But today something was different; a stern looking policeman was standing solemnly in the doorway of the ice cream parlour, and Mia was nowhere to be seen. I smiled at the copper, but he didn’t smile back. 
“Where’s Mia?” I asked. 
“Did you know her?” he said. 
“Only to smile at.”
“Just wait here a moment would you sir?” he said and turned inside the shop. “Jeff,” he yelled. 
Jeff was DS Steen, a plainclothes officer in a brown suit and pale shirt; he obviously took the plain bit seriously. 
“What can you tell us about Mia?” he asked. 
I told him that I didn’t really know her, just liked to smile as I walked past the store. 
“What’s this about?” I asked. 
“They found a body in the freezer, Mia isn’t saying much, but we’re pretty sure she did it.”
“Did what?” I said. 
“Killed him, beat him to death with an ice cream scoop.” 
“Why?” I said. 
“That’s what we are trying to find out, she didn’t say anything to you?”
I shook my head.

Mia
God that job was so boring; the only highlight was when that strange fella smiled at me from the street. I didn’t fancy him or nothing, but it was nice to get a smile. I sometimes wished he’d come in and say hello, but he never did. 
Anyway, this other bloke came into the shop. Tall fella, only young, but dressed like a teacher or something, not like a cool teacher but like a teacher whose mum dresses him. First customer of the day he was; too fucking cold for ice cream in Cardiff in November. Anyway, he takes an age looking at all the flavours. 
“Can I help you?” I said. I was impatient, it was coming up to two, and that was the time the strange guy would normally walk past. I wanted to be in the window to collect the smile, not serving this loser. 
“Um yes, er, you know, um, I’d like, um, an ice cream I think,” he said. 
“What flavour?” I said. 
“Well, you know like, um maybe the you know, um, Banana Caramel, no um, oh I don’t know, um the Hokey Pokey.” 
I reached in and started scooping at the Hokey Pokey, but he wasn’t finished. 
“You know, actually I think I’ll have the Mississippi Mud, yes, no, that’s right, the Mississippi Mud.” 
I shook the ice cream off the scoop and washed it but before I could get to the Mud he was off again. 
Make up your fucking mind. 
“Actually I think I’d like, you know, now I think about it…”
I looked at the window, I didn’t want to miss smiler. 
“Oh what do I want?” the man said. He stood there silently looking at the flavours like he’d just walked in. 
I flipped. I swung the scoop at him, it connected with the temple. I swung again, smashing his cheek. He fell to the ground and smashed his head on the tiles. 
I didn’t panic, I didn’t have time to panic. I just dragged the stupid fucker into the freezer, shut the door and hurried to the window. I was just in time to smile back at the strange fella smiling shyly at me.