Ice Cream

Norm opened his red front door, just as Indigo was knocking. Indigo’s paw flew forward and hit Norm’s forehead. “Hey!” Norm said as he took a step back. Indigo gasped as she realized she had basically punched Norm in the face. “Norm, I’m so sorry!” she said as she took a step forward to check his head. He waved her away and said, “Sheesh, Indigo, you really know how to make an entrance.” Indigo laughed and asked if he was OK. Norm replied, “I’m fine.” He gave Indigo a quizzical look and asked, “What are you doing here so early?”

Indigo quickly grabbed Norm by the paw and said, “Let’s go get Sage. There is something the three of us have to talk about.” Norm groaned, but grabbed his red hat from the coat rack and followed her out the door.

As they started down the red front steps, Norm said, “Hold up, I have to get the newspaper for my dad.” He grabbed the paper and threw it onto the front porch.

“Alright, now we can go”, Norm said. The two of them exited through the iron gate at the end of the walkway. They turned left down the red street and then made another left turn onto the green street at the corner.

Luckily, Norm and Sage lived close to each other. As they approached Sage’s green house, Indigo asked Norm if he remembered the day Forest had tried to steal from him. Norm responded, “Of course I do. A lot happened that day.” Norm paused and then continued, “That was also the day you discovered you had a magical power.”

Indigo suddenly stopped walking and stood still. “Yeah, you’re right,” she said. A lot did happen, and I have been thinking about what transpired with Forest that day so much that I almost forgot about gaining my power.”

Norm gave Indigo a strange look as they resumed walking. “How could you forget about that?” Norm asked, “Your explosion of power was crazier than what Forest tried to do!”

Indigo shrugged. Of course, she remembered that day and the discovery of her magical power, but her anger towards Forest had overshadowed that moment for a while now. Seeing Forest again, after all these years, had her rethinking that day at Norm’s house.

She had been angry, terrified, and confused when that bolt of light left her finger. She didn’t know what had happened or what had caused the power. In hindsight, Indigo did remember that during the couple of months leading up to that day, at Norm’s house, she had been feeling more tired and really, really, really hungry. She had told her parents about it, but they assumed the tiredness and hunger were due to a growth spurt that was inevitable at her age. But Indigo had not grown any taller or put on any weight, in spite of all the food she had been eating.

The day she discovered her magical power had been intense. Her parents had picked her up from Norm’s house to take her home after all the commotion with Forest had ended. And Norm’s mom had informed her parents of what she witnessed with Indigo’s power. The car ride home with her parents was mostly silent. Indigo sat in the backseat, looking out the window. She could hear her parents whispering over the soft music that was playing. Finally, Indigo’s mom turned to look at her. She explained to Indigo that they had received a “phone call” several months ago. Indigo immediately knew what that meant. Everyone in Citrine did. Her parents had known she would receive a magical power, but they had not told her. Everything made sense in that moment – how tired she had been and how hungry – she was going through the “change”.

It hadn’t been a growth spurt Indigo was experiencing, but it was her body preparing itself for the magic that would come. Since that day, three years ago, Indigo had been working on controlling her emotions. She had realized early on, after receiving her power, that when her emotions, especially anger, spiraled out of control, she couldn’t control her power. In fact, she had lost control just a few days ago when she saw Forest standing next to the purple building after he had destroyed the candy shop. Indigo was determined to gain full control of her power, and she had been practicing, but still had a long way to go.

As Indigo came out of her thoughts, she heard Norm say, “We’re here.” Indigo looked up at Sage’s house as they walked towards the green front door. Indigo started to knock, but Norm grabbed her arm and, laughing, said, “Let me do the knocking.” Indigo also laughed. Norm knocked on the door, and before he could even finish knocking, the door burst open, and a streak of green flew past them.

“What in the world?” Norm asked as they both spun around just in time to see Sage scurry up a giant oak tree in her front yard. She was wearing a green sweater.

Indigo rolled her eyes and thought to herself, “Never a dull moment with this one.” At the same time, she smiled and looked up at her silly, wonderful best friend.

“Sage!” Indigo yelled, “What are you doing?”

“Nothing”, Sage replied, as she jumped down to the ground. “I just wanted to see the look on your faces when I did that. I saw you walking down the street through my window.”

Norm and Indigo looked at each other, and this time, they both rolled their eyes.

With her paws on her hips, Sage asked, “What are you guys doing here? Did something bad happen? Did something good happen? Did anything happen? Did…?” Indigo interrupted her mid-sentence before the string of questions lasted into eternity.

“Sage,” Indigo said, “Stop.” Sage stopped talking but immediately started tapping her back paw, indicating Indigo better hurry up and tell her what was going on. Indigo looked at Sage and then at Norm.

She said, “I want to fix my broken friendship with Forest.”

“Hmph”, said Sage, “That’s not what I was expecting.”

Norm whispered to himself, “It’s about time.”

Indigo sighed, “Honestly, I wasn’t ever expecting to feel this way, but seeing Forest at the candy shop has spooked me. I have been replaying that day at Norm’s house, when Forest tried to steal the money and jewels, over and over in my mind. There are other things I have been thinking about as well. I may have overreacted that day.”

Sage and Norm both looked sheepishly down at their feet, and in that moment, she knew they agreed with her. She had indeed overreacted.

“Well,” Indigo said, “I can tell by the looks on your faces you agree with me. I’m just not sure where to start. Or how to even approach Forest? If you are both willing, I would really like your help.”

Sage walked over to Indigo and gave her a giant hug. The kind of hug where you are being squeezed so hard you can barely breathe. “Sage”, Indigo said.

Sage continued to squeeze. “Sage!” Indigo said louder this time. Sage squeezed even harder.

“Sage!” Indigo yelled, “I can’t breathe!” Sage jumped back and said, “Oh my, I’m sorry, but I’m just so excited for this new adventure! It’s going to be a good one.”

Indigo took a few breaths and then looked at Norm. He stuck his paw out. Indigo took it with her own paw, and Norm said, “Of course, we’ll help you”, and they shook on it.

Indigo asked, “Well, what should we do first?”

Sage blurted out, “Ice cream.”

With a questioning look, Indigo said, “Huh?”

Norm looked at Sage as if she were nuts.

“Yeah,” Sage said, “Ice cream. Let’s go get some.”

“Sage,” Norm replied, “It’s 8:00AM in the morning.”

“So?” Sage asked, “I want ice cream for breakfast, and you two are coming with me.”

Indigo glanced at Norm and said, “Ice cream with chocolate syrup and sprinkles does sound really good.”

Norm said, “You are both nuts. Make sure you add some of those nuts to your ice cream.” He sighed and said, “Alright, let’s go.”

As they walked away from Sage’s green house, Norm thought to himself, “Who knows where we will find ice cream this early in the morning, but I’m sure Sage has something up her sleeve.”

He walked a little faster to catch up with the two girls and realized how grateful he was for their friendship. He was also very glad Indigo wanted to make amends with Forest. It had been a long time coming. Forest had changed, and maybe not in the best way, but he hoped the three of them, together, could right a wrong. This time, he was fully on board with one of Indigo’s adventures.