Chp. 4: Earl

"Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do." Earl thought to himself.

Earl hated his job. The hours sucked. The pay sucked.

But Earl wasn't a negative person.

At least he tried not to be.

He's just gotten a divorce, his wife took his house that was handed to him by his grandfather, and he lost his job working at the car factory due to this recession, which now has this 53 year old working at an ice cream palor.

Being stuck in that small store with it's yellow walls, and two small tables made him sick. He didn't even like Ice Cream because he was lactose intolerant. He hated the place, but he had to pay his bills. And this was the only place that would hire him.

Earl went in the back freezer to restock the different flavors when his boss came in to micro manage.

"Earl! My man! How's it going!?"Asked his 19 year old boss.

Earl who was nearly three times his age, cringed at the thought of working for this kid.

"I'd appreciate it if you'd call me Mr. Woodson young man"said Earl, while he lifted a bucket full of peach frozen yogurt to a top shelf in the freezer.

"Earl, not today"said the young man with complete disregard to Earl's request.

"Earl, by the way, where's the cap I gave you last week?"

Earl looked at the kid with a stale smile and pulled out a rainbow visor from his back pocket that read "Everyday We're Happy Ice Cream."

He unfolded it and looked his boss in the eye while covering his gray head.

"Thank you, Earl" said the young boss.

"I'd like to take this cap and shove it up your ass" thought Earl as he went back to restockng the ice cream.

Earl wished he'd gone to college earlier in his lifetime instead of waiting until he was 53.

But Earl tried to remain positive, "Better now than never" he thought to himself.

Until he graduated or found a better job, he had to stick it out here in hell.

"Earl, could you please come here for a sec?" said the young boss.

"Yes sir" Earl said back.

"I've been going through inventory and i'm noticing your giving out a lot more ice cream than the customers pay for."

Nathan grabbed an ice cream scooper and scooped out some ice cream from a bucket of Mint Chocolate Chip.

"You see how much this is Earl? This is the size of a normal scoop. Anything over this cost our company money. So let me see you try Earl."

Earl looked at the kid and wanted to laugh. He looked down at the kids rainbow nametag. Nathan.

Nathan was only 5'4 and weighed about 130lbs with red hair.

He was also on the cheerleading squad at the college.

Earl knew he could break this kid in half if necessary.

He took the scooper from the boys hand and proceeded to scoop from the strawberry bucket.

"Earl! What are you doing? I just scooped from the Mint Chocolate and you didn't bother to rinse the scooper. You can't be mixing flavors like that man. Come on now!"

A customer who lost his wallet earlier and his new female friend were now staring at Earl as they ate they're ice cream.

His face was turning red and his palms were getting sweaty.

He rinsed the scooper and scooped the strawberry bucket once again.

"How's this sir?" He said sarcasticly, rolling his eyes at the young boss.

"It's unacceptable!" said the boy, snatching the scooper from Earl's hand.

"Last time, Earl. Scoop the ice cream in a semi circular motion until it fills the scooper 3/4 along the line." Nathan said while rinsing the scooper and demonstrating it once more in the Mint Chocolate Chip.

"Now you try."

Earl took a deep breath and grabbed the scooper.

He went for the strawberry until he noticed he didn't rinse.

He was so pissed he just scooped from the Mint Chocolate chip.

He hated that ice cream because it looked so weird.

Green Ice Cream with brown chocolate chips? Yuck!

After the final scoop, Nathan looked at him and said "Good job, Earl. It's not that hard now is it?"

Earl held on to the scooper as tight as he could. "I want to do this so bad" He thought to himself looking at Nathan, "But jail isn't worth it."

The door bell rang as a new customer came inside.

It was a man who looked to be in his early 40's and looked like a straight hippy from woodstock.

"Hey man, can I have 2 scoops of the Mint Chocolate Chip?" Earl smiled at the man and began scooping as his boss walked in the back to fill out some paperwork.

"That'll be $3.21" Earl said the customer.

"$3.21!?" The man said aloud looking at the cone with the two green scoops of ice cream.

"I'm not paying $3.21 for those sorry sized scoops." The man said to Earl.

"Look i'm sorry man, but this is the size my boss says I have to scoop." Earl tried to explain.

"Well get your boss and tell him I SAID I want bigger scoops."

Before Earl could get to the back, his boss stepped out behind the counter.

"What's the problem?"

"I want bigger scoops of ice cream than that sorry display" said the hippy.

The young boss looked at the cone than looked at Earl.

"Are you serious? Did we NOT just go through this?"Said Nathan who gave Earl a repulsive look, than grabbed a new cone and scooped two huge scoops of Ice Cream for the Hippy. He gave the man a pathetic smile and said "Sorry sir, He's a trainee. You know how that is."

"This is more like it" said the hippy as he paid for it.

"Wait a damn minute!" Said Earl.

"5 minutes ago you were up my ass for scoops like that, now when I do it right, you say i'm wrong? Man, What kind of Shit is this?"

All eyes were on Earl.

"Well Earl, if you'd like, you can just give me my cap back and walk out the door."

Earl looked at the scrawny little kid and took the cap off and looked down at it. "Everyday We're Happy Ice Cream" it said.

He wanted to throw the cap on the floor and walk out, but he knew he had bills to pay.

"I need this money." he thought to himself. With that in mind, He put the cap back on and humbly said "I apologize sir."

He smiled at the hippy and the young couple eating the ice cream and went to the back to restock the ice cream.

"Sometimes," Earl said to himself out loud "You gotta do what ya gotta do."