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She just loved the name of the ice cream. Blue Moon. It had something magical about it, like fairies or wizards had made it, and she wanted to try some. The only problem? Mama said she had already had too many sweets today. Like that was even a thing! Besides, waffles and syrup didn't even count. Everyone knew that sweets didn't count if you had them at breakfast. So the waffles Uncle Hardison gave her this morning didn't count, and neither did the cinnamon rolls she and Di had snuck out of Aunt Parker's stash. Or the big strawberry smoothie Aunt Parker had gotten her on their way to meet up with Mama and Dad. She had had a cupcake at lunch, so she guessed that had to count, but other than that, the only candy she'd had was a bag of Skittles! And it was so hot. And ice cream would taste soooo good.
She'd done her absolute best, but there was no tricking Mama, and Aunt Parker had already left, so now all she could do was stare longingly at the ice cream cart from across the park. It was almost too much to know that the wonderful flavor Blue Moon would be forever out of her grasp once the man rolled his cart away.
Mama was meeting with some lady about a job or something while the lady's kids played on the playground. Alexia could have been playing too, but her stomach was feeling a little funny, and she was getting really sleepy, and it was so hot…
She watched the other kids playing for a little bit, and she saw a girl go down the big twisty slide. Just beyond the slide, a boy was running away from the playground with something in his hand. It looked like a dollar bill or something, and he was running towards the ice cream cart! Alexia's eyes brightened, and the wheels started turning in her head.
After a few minutes of strategizing, she hopped up off her picnic bench and started towards the swing set.
"I'm going to play on the playset, Mama!" she called casually, and got a distracted alright, darling. Stay where I can see you, in return as her mother continued her conversation.
Alexia did go and sit on the swing, keeping an eye on her mother and the other woman at the picnic shelter. She pumped her legs back and forth (up and down and up and down) until she was sure Mama was distracted again, and then she slowly stopped herself and went over to the spinny chairs, which were halfway between the swings and the slide. These were harder, but she sat down and tilted just right until she got herself going (around and around and around and around). After a while, she hopped out, but nearly plopped right down on her behind. She had to stand still a moment and make sure she wasn't going to fall over. Her head didn't like those chairs too much. Once the playground stopped moving in front of her, she strolled over to the ladder for the slide.
It was tall. Normally she would love a slide like this—one that made her feel like she was climbing up a skyscraper like Aunt Parker did—but for some reason, when she got to the top of this one, it made her dizzy to look down. She squeezed her eyes shut. She really shouldn't have done those chairs.
She peeked over the side one more time and saw the ice cream cart man checking his freezer and looking around to see if any more kids were coming to get ice cream. It was now or never. Taking a deep breath, Alexia launched herself down the slide, going as fast as she could. She went around one turn and then another, and another, and she braced herself for a bumpy landing.
Right before she got to the end, she turned herself and tumbled down the end of the slide sideways. She put her arms up around her head and face just like Uncle Eliot had showed her and kept rolling to distribute the force of her fall like Aunt Parker had taught her, and it barely hurt at all! All she had was a couple of scrapes, and a very dizzy head.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the ice cream man take a step towards her, and she intentionally didn't look towards her mother. Instead, she drew her knees up to her face and started sniffling. Not actually crying, that would have been too loud. This was just enough to make the man more concerned. He took another half step towards her, though he was still standing closer to his cart than to her.
"Hey, are you ok?"
Alexia just sniffed harder and shook her shoulders a little.
"You good, kid?" his voice was a little bit closer.
Alexia looked up now, putting on her most pitiful and miserable face and scrubbing her hand across her eyes to get rid of the tears that weren't there. She looked straight into his eyes and saw them widen with concern. He glanced around, presumably looking for her parents.
"That was quite a fall! Are you hurt? Do you want me to get your mom or dad?"
Now came the hard part. Mama and Daddy always knew when she was fibbing, but that didn't mean this man would know. She had to make sure he knew she was hurt enough to need a treat, but not so hurt that she needed someone's help. She sniffed again, turning over her arm to look at one of the little scrapes on her elbow.
"I'm ok, but-" she saw a spot of dirt on her purple shorts and was hit with an idea all at once. "Oh no! My new clothes! Oh, Mama's going to be so mad!"
She started to pretend to cry again, with bigger sobs this time, and now she could tell that the man was really at a loss. He was stammering, now getting a step closer, now moving back to his cart. Clearly he didn't know what to do, now that he knew this girl's mother was going to be upset with her. Alexia kept up her crying until she heard the magic words.
"I know it won't fix your clothes, but do you want some ice cream? It might make you feel better, at least."
She had to keep from smiling. She stopped crying a little at a time, giving a few more sniffs for good measure before looking back up at the man. She was just about to close the deal when a voice ruined her whole plan.
"Oh here you are, Alexia. I wondered where you'd got to."
Some people might have expected a mother to shout if she caught her daughter in the middle of a scam. Those people did not know Sophie Deveraux Ford. There was no anger in the voice, not even really any surprise. Just a casual statement, that somehow let Alexia know that her mother understood exactly what was going on here. Alexia's mournful expression turned into a scowl all at once. The jig was up.
Huffing a sigh, she stood up and brushed herself off, stalking towards the car, which was at the edge of the park behind her mother. She heard the poor sweet ice cream man was trying to defend her, but she knew where that would lead, and she wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.
"Hey, please don't get mad at her. She took a really nasty fall down the slide, and I bet she's more hurt than her clothes are. You can always buy new clothes, right?"
"Alexia."
She stopped, but didn't turn around.
"You're absolutely right," Mama was talking to the ice cream man now. "You can always buy more clothes, and I wasn't going to be upset with her about that at all. But I think my daughter has something to tell you. Alexia? Darling?"
It took everything in Alexia to turn herself around and face the man. She stood there silently for a moment, trying to force her clenched jaw to open.
"I'm not really hurt," she finally said, barely audible.
"Huh?" was the man's eloquent reply.
Mama cleared her throat, and Alexia sighed. Louder this time, she said, "I'm not really hurt. I know how to fall down and make it look like it hurts when it really doesn't. I pretended to be hurt because I wanted ice cream and she said I couldn't have any."
"And?" Mama nudged her.
"And sorry for trying to cheat you."
Now the ice cream man was really dumbfounded.
"I really am very sorry," Mama said as well. "She has many excellent skills and talents, but we haven't quite learned when we're supposed to apply them," she aimed the last words at Alexia, who stared hard at her own tennis shoes.
"Please don't let this discourage you from helping anyone else in the future. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day!"
With that, Alexia was led away to the car for a long lecture that she had heard before. Last time she'd gotten three whole ice cream cones before she got caught. This time all she had to show for her efforts were a few bumps and bruises, and a stomach full of unsettled sweets.