Memoirs of an Ice-Cream Lady (Part 4)
By Emily Ho
Editor’s Note: The author runs an ice-cream parlor on Hong Kong’s Lamma Island. When time allows, she draws caricatures and writes. The following are semi-autobiographical anecdotes blending fact and fiction.
Grand Opening
Although Emily was no Wonder Woman, once she decided to do something, she left no task undone. Even when she fell sick before the shop-opening, she insisted on painting the premises herself. As she believed: “Nothing's worse than a job half-done.”
Finally, the shop opened on the seventh day. Basically, the preparations had been completed, everything from big freezers installed to a small toilet-paper roll fixed. Emily even prepared more than 100 red, white and blue balloons for the customers.
The sun shone on that early-spring day. Emily's first customers, two young Taiwanese ladies, arrived after she'd been open for about 20 minutes. They bought just one ice-cream cone, but left Emily feeling greatly relieved because she'd worried about what might happen if there were no customers at all.
Such worries proved groundless. Within a few hours, friends, customers and Lamma people had packed into the shop. Emily's colorful balloons, held by cheerful children, filled the streets.
All the excitement and activity left Emily feeling exhausted and sore. Later, she almost couldn't move her weary limbs, especially the left foot she once had injured at a gym.
Above all, the grand opening made Emily happy. With a huge sense of achievement, she looked forward to more challenges ahead.
But there was one thing she didn't know. Already some Lamma people had started to place wagers on how long her shop would survive.
Children
Emily loves children with all her heart and probably will for the rest of her life. Maybe it's partly because she lacked a happy childhood and partly because, as her family's youngest child, she desperately wanted younger siblings as company. Her older sisters ignored or bullied her because in those days she was tiny and very ugly.
But mainly it's that children always appreciate Emily in return. Their affection is unconditional, simple and pure.
Emily always asks herself: how many times has she been hurt when loving someone who didn't love her back? Children never turn away if you show care and concern for them. They make you feel so important to them that you must live happily to provide happiness for them.
‘I Have a Dream'
Within a few years, Emily's business had become so successful that she expanded to three more outlets: one on Cheung Chau Island (her birthplace), one in Discovery Bay and one in Mui Wo, both on Lantau Island.
At least, that's what Emily dreamed would happen. She carefully selected each location because she liked to stay near the sea, although she couldn't swim.
Emily's daily routine soon switched from dipping ice cream in her shop to sipping expensive tea at the Peninsula Hotel in Kowloon; from checking stock balances to counting money and shares; and from riding a city-bound passenger ferry to cruising in her private yacht from the Aberdeen Yacht Club to the beautiful beaches in Sai Kung. All this happened, but only in Emily's daydreams as she mopped the shop floor.
In some ways, Emily resembled a Cinderella. She had three “wicked” elder sisters (so she'd called them when little) and was forced (well, kind of) to mop the floor. But she never imagined being rescued by a Prince Charming. In Emily's mind, no wise women should count on a man.
Coming soon:
Crazy Antics For Free
(more Memoirs of an Ice-Cream Lady).
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