Excerpt:

"I know!" said Ria. "The same thing happened to me. I had it once, and then no other ice cream could compare. So when we formulated this grand ice cream truck plan, I made *sure* to get watermelon ice cream. You don't even want to know what I had to do to get it."
"Yes I do!" said Tanis. "We still have some walking to do. Plenty of time for a story."
Ria laughed. "All right. But promise not to tell."
"Who would I tell?"
"Pierre. Viola."
"Why would they care?"
"Just... don't tell. I'm really not supposed to ever tell anyone. Okay, so here's what happened. I went to Normaltown, which was where I got it before. But the shop where I got it had closed. So I asked around and found out who had run the store. It was some old lady named Felicity. So I had to track her down in a nursing home. Seemed she was really in pretty good health, she just enjoyed having people cater to her every whim. But they wouldn't let her have cigarettes in there, so before she would tell me where she got the stock for her store, she made me sneak cigarettes into the nursing home for her!"
Tanis laughed. "That's your shameful secret?"
"Wait, there's more. So she told me that she bought her ice cream from a company called Industry Account Tech, Inc. They would make deliveries in unmarked vans, and she would have to pay in cash at the spot in various hidden locations. After several packs of cigarettes and two expensive imported Bolivian cigars, she told me that she found about Industry Account Tech, Inc. through the man who ran the donut shop, and he knew more than she did. So then I tracked *him* down. His son ran the store, and he spent his days golfing and collecting rare bird feathers. I found him, and he told me he wasn't involved with sneaky stuff like that anymore, and the only thing that would convince him was if I helped him with his collection. Then I had to go to Africa. I found a tribal village and gave a man a knife in exchange for him finding me a nest of this particular rare bird. I climbed a tree to get to the nest, and stole one of the feathers that was in it. Then I went back to the donut man and gave him the feather, and finally he gave me the instructions on how to contact a representative of Industry Account Tech, Inc. I would have to have at least sixty dollars up front to show that I was serious. I had to take this particular stationery, write my name and tape the money to it, and go to this gym equipment storage building outside a school in some little town. I left the stationery with the money taped to the door, and waited by the steps in the school. Oh, and I had to be there on Tuesday at 1:15 AM. Apparently, I had to wait there so they could take photographs of me, although they must have been pretty sneaky, because I didn't notice anything. Anyway, after waiting for half an hour, I had to go back to the door, and there was a paper with the word "sacapunta" on it. The donut man explained the code to me - there were five different words that they left, and each one meant a different location. Sacapunta meant the alley behind the town's local bakery. So I went there that Thursday, again at 1:15 AM. Finally, a guy with a large beard, sunglasses, and his hood up came to talk to me. I told him that all I wanted was a gallon of watermelon ice cream. He said that was seventy dollars, and since I had already paid sixty, I just needed ten more. So a few days later, I met another representative in a different location with my ten dollars, and he gave me a gallon of watermelon ice cream. I took it back and put it in the ice cream truck. I haven't sold any. I couldn't bear to. I've eaten some of it, but I haven't shared it."
It took Tanis a few seconds to find words to respond to Ria's story. "Holy Ron," she said. "That's just... I don't... wow." She paused. "Watermelon, huh? I say it's worth it."
"For sure," said Ria. There was another silence. "So you'd better enjoy it."