The Jewel Thief

Marissa's Boyfriend Comes

Uncle comes into our room in the morning and I have to suppress a scowl. I remember the jewels from last night – we had decided Uncle was the thief.

"Good morning, girls. I had a phone call with that woman I met last night – Marissa – and we agreed to meet for brunch today at a popular diner. She is going to bring her boyfriend, whose name is Oscar. We shall have a quick breakfast here, and then I would like you both to put on your nicest clothes and be ready by ten, all right?"

"All right," Maddie says back. Uncle smiles and leaves the room. He appears to be in a very good mood.

I turn to Maddie. "I was looking forward to reading books all day. Oh well, I suppose it'll be nice to have a nice lunch."

After a dull breakfast of porridge oats, we put on some nice clothes, read for a bit, and meet Uncle downstairs at ten, like he asked us to do. We put on our coats and follow Uncle outside.

"We're going to go to a diner, like I said. Have you girls ever been to a diner before?" Uncle asks us.

"No," Maddie replies. "The Earl never took us out for meals."

Uncle seems a little surprised by this. "Well, I'm... I'm sure you'll highly enjoy this diner. It's called Root Beer Fizzle. You know what a root beer is, I'm assuming?"

"No, we don't," I tell him. "But we've heard of beer – isn't that for adults?"

Uncle gasps. "No? Do you at least know what soda is?"

I shake my head. "I'm afraid not."

Uncle gazes at us. "It's going to be one of the nicest things you've ever tasted. Please tell me you know what ice cream is."

Maddie nods. "Yes, we know what ice cream is, but we've never tried it."

Our guardian seems flabbergasted. "You've been brought up the wrong way. I know there was the war and everything, but no ice cream? Ever? This is awful. Come on, let's get in the car. I don't want to be late for Marissa."

Maddie and I follow Uncle to the automobile. We climb into the back, and he starts up the engine. As we sputter along the road, I think about what Uncle had said. Had we really been missing out on something the whole time we lived with the Earl? Ice cream always sounded like a dream, but it wasn't very long ago that we had ration booklets, and even after the war was over, we still had a small amount of sugar. Had ice cream really been around the whole time, but the Earl never let us have any? I never knew he was so cruel. He always told us that ice cream had been banned since the war started so we couldn't eat any, and, since he told us that from a very young age, we grew up believing that. So he lied to us. Fabulous.

We pull up outside a small, blue building with faded, painted red letters on it that spell Root Beer Fizzle in an arc over the equally-as-red door. There was a large painted picture of ice cream in a bowl, with something that looked like peeled... bananas. There was a cherry on top of the ice cream painting, and it was gleaming in the sun. The roof was slightly lopsided.

Uncle pushes open the door. A small bell tinkles to announce our arrival to the customers in the diner. A few people glance at us as we come in, but I'm not looking at the people. I'm looking at the diner.

It was probably the most red-and-blue place I've ever seen. There was a counter, where people sat, devouring ice cream, and some drinking fizzy things out of cups. Were those root beers? The stools they sat on had red cushions on them, and they were round. All of the waiters and waitresses were standing behind the counter, bustling about, taking orders, preparing ice cream. On the wall behind the counter, there was the name Root Beer Fizzle painted again, and there was a large menu pasted to the wall. There were also posters tacked to the wall all around the shop, some of them bearing a woman with short, blonde hair. "Marilyn Monroe" was written on the posters in big, bold letters. Other, newer posters showed a young man, and "Elvis Presley" was written on those ones. Some other posters had more pictures of ice cream on them, advertising different kinds of soda, and showing pictures of happy children licking cones and drinking drinks.