The Winter Party Without Ice…Semi-Sort-Of
©May 2004 by Nancy J.
Swift
Lenny’s friends thought he was playing with a full deck, minus one card,
but
he was a heck of a nice
guy. He would do anything for anyone at
any time, so they
accepted him for who and what he
was.
Lenny
lived on a trust fund and didn’t have to work. He seemed to have all the
time in the world to do
whatever he wanted. Mainly, just messing around and doing
for others. Let’s face
it…the fellow was loaded!
It
was toward the end of the year and a very cold winter to boot. Lenny decided
he should throw a party
for everyone in his apartment building. He would go all out
for this party. Decorations, special food, drinks, games, the
whole shindig would be
spectacular.
Lenny
figured it would take him about a week to get things done. He had all
ready decided to have the
party the following Saturday. This was
Monday, and he
only had six days to prepare
everything.
“Better get on the stick and get my act together, especially as how I
want
everything to be perfect,” Lenny
said out loud to no one. Quite frequently he talked
to himself. “Well, it’s
hard when you live by yourself and can’t have a pet to talk to,
or keep you company. All
fish do are swim around and around in a tank and when
you speak to them, they go,
“Blub, blub”, not even trying to answer you, or pay
attention. At least a dog will
listen to you, and a cat will pretend to do so. I could
buy a centipede, but it
would cost me a fortune to keep it in shoes,” he would tell his
friends when they gave him a
hard time about talking to himself.
Then
he would say, “Hey, my friends in low places, as my ol’ grandpappy used to
say, “It doesn’t matter if
you talk to yourself, or even answer yourself. When you
have to start worrying is when you start
believing what you are saying.”” He would
add this with one corner of
his mouth turned up with a slight smile and a glint in his
eye.
When
Lenny came up with remarks like that, his friends gave a second thought
to the fact…“Maybe Lenny
was actually playing with two full decks.”
Lenny
was very big on making lists for everything he did. Though, he didn’t
always follow through with his
projects. This time he was bound and determined to
get everything done. He sat down at the kitchen table with his pen
and paper and
proceeded to write. At the top of
his first list: Going to the store to shop for all of the
fixings, besides cleaning his
apartment for the festivities he planned. Making
another list, Lenny wrote the
names of his friends he wanted to invite. “I certainly
don’t want to forget anyone.
I’ll do the phone calling this evening when I know
everyone will be home from
work.”
He
made three more lists: one for the decorations he wanted to pick up, and one
for the food and one for
the drinks he planned to serve. “Lots of food and plenty of
booze,” he muttered to
himself. “Especially plenty of booze! Can’t have enough.”
There
wouldn’t be much to cleaning the little one bedroom home, as he was quite
the fastidious person and
his place was always spotless. Again, talking to himself,
“I’ll just have to do last minute things to
spruce up and decorate this joint.”
Lenny
began making phone calls at
friend, Pete Franklin, first,
but he wasn’t home yet. “I’ll call Pete last. That way I
know he’ll be home. Maybe he
and Ruthie went to dinner.
After
contacting everyone with excellent results, he tried Pete, again. This time he
was home. “Hi Pete. This is Lenny. I want to invite you to my winter
party on
Saturday night.
It will start at
Pete
said with much enthusiasm, “Hey, Lenny, a great idea! Would you like me
to bring something, eats
or maybe beer?”
“Nope, I’ve got it all covered. Just bring yourself, your appetite, and
be ready to
drink yourself silly, and get
down and party.”
“Fantastic! Who else will be there?”
“Everyone in the building. We’re looking at about twenty
people including you
and me.”
“Can
we bring dates or a guest?”
“Absolutely. I’ll have plenty of everything for everybody.
Hey, this is Lenny
you’re talking to. You should
know by now, you don’t have to ask that question.
You are planning on bringing Ruthie?”
“That’s the idea. She is staying with me during this whole week, so it
will be
perfect.”
“That
makes at least twenty-one coming. All right! We are going to have a super
time!”
“See
you Saturday night and we’ll be there with bells on. Later.”
With
his calling finished, he told himself, “Day one, taken care of.”
…
Lenny woke up bright and early Tuesday morning. After showering and
getting dressed, he decided to
take a run to the liquor store. Wednesday, he would
do the grocery shopping;
Thursday, he would pick up decorations and anything
he’d forgotten the day
before. Friday morning, he would spruce up the apartment
and decorate. Friday
afternoon, he would start preparing the food he could fix in
advance. Last of all, on
Saturday, the big day, he would finish fixing the food and set
up the table. “Boy, do I
have all of this under control, or what? I’m really cruising.”
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, went by like clockwork. Friday morning,
he
woke up early, showered,
dressed and had a good breakfast. “Better hop to it and
get this place cleaned and
decorated. Then I’ll start getting the food ready. Most of
it can be done ahead of
time, with the exception of the stuff I need to heat. Then I’ll
put it on the warming trays, to keep it warm. Am I good or
am I good?”
***
“This
place looks fantabulous. I just hope everyone doesn’t think I’ve over done
it.” He had even decorated
the kitchen and the bathroom. “Oh well, you only get to
use decorations like these
in the wintertime.”
That
evening he fixed his dinner, and cleaned the kitchen. He had all ready
prepared the food he could fix
in advance, and then he sat down on the
couch with a good book. He
hadn’t realized he was so beat. “Getting ready for a
party really takes it out of
you. I’ll read for a while, and then watch the news, and
head for bed. Tomorrow, I’ll
have to make sure I have plenty of ice made. It sure is
nice to have the icemaker in
the freezer.”
Lenny
put a couple of sofa pillows behind him and used an afghan to cover
himself so he wouldn’t become
chilled. He wasn’t comfortable, so he kept scooting
down, and ended up lying
horizontal on the couch. He read for about ten minutes,
but his eyelids became
heavy and his eyes began closing of their own volition. “I’ll
just rest my eyes for a few
minutes,” he mumbled.
Not
realizing it, he dozed off and the next thing he knew, it was morning. “Oh
frap! I didn’t get to watch
the news and weather report last night.” Lenny thought it
seemed rather dark out, but
the clock showed it was
afghan, he sat up, and ran his
fingers threw his hair. Len stood up and
walked to
the window. Opening the
drapes, he peered out. “No wonder it seems so dark and
dreary, a blizzard hit the
north during the night.”
“Great time to have a party. No one will be going out in this and they
will look
forward to coming to my party.
Good thing I got all of the shopping done ahead of
time and didn’t put it off
till today. I don’t think there will be much traffic out there
with this blanket covering
everything. On top of the blizzard, the wind is blowing up
a gale. Bet the wind
factor is very, very low, but we will be warm in here.”
Once
again, Lenny ate breakfast and showered. He messed around for a while,
and then fixed his lunch.
By
mid-afternoon he thought he should go to the kitchen to start bagging the ice
for the party, he opened
the freezer door, took hold of the ice container to set it on
the counter. “Why is this thing only half full of ice
cubes? Damn, everything was
clipping along just fine, but
now what do I do without ice for the party?” He
checked the icemaker, thinking
the button had somehow gotten turned off. “No, the
button is on. Maybe this wire
thing that stops the ice from over flowing over the
bucket is jammed.” He tried
jiggling the wire. “Nope, that isn’t the problem. The
only thing I can do now, is
phone everyone who will be coming, and ask them to
bring any ice they have to
the party. Good thinking, Lenny!”
He
went to the table with the telephone sitting on it, and made his calls. Lenny
told everyone on his list
and then asked, “This is the situation…my ice maker quit
working on me, and I need ice
for the party tonight. Do you have any you can
spare?”
Some
of the answers he received were: “Gee, I only have two or four ice cube
trays, or I’m not as lucky as
you and I don’t have an ice maker. Sorry.” The answer
Lenny appreciated most was, “I will bring what I
do have.”
Some
of the answers weren’t what Lenny wanted to hear. “It will help with some
of them bringing the ice
they have, but it still won’t be enough. Now what am I
going to do?” He looked in
his freezer once again, and tried to get the icemaker to
work. “No use. Let me think
about this for a bit.”
Lenny
poured a cup of coffee and sat down for a while. Out of nowhere, a crazy
idea hit him. He put his cup
on the table, went over to the freezer and looked inside.
“Ah, ha! I knew something would
come to me. I won’t need ice for the beer and the
pop used for the mix with
the booze will all ready be cold. Here goes nothing.” He
proceeded to put his plan into
action.
***
The doorbell started ringing and Lenny opened
the door to let his friends in. It
seemed as if everyone had
arrived at one time. Those who brought ice, handed the
full bags to Lenny. He
thanked them, hoping they had enough to last through the
party.
Len
put most of the ice in the container in the freezer. He put some in the bottom
of his fancy ice bucket,
and then he added his secret weapon, topping it off with
more regular ice cubes.
He then asked a couple of the guys to get the
drinks made and start passing them
out.
“I
have plenty of beer in the refrigerator. It’s cold, so have at it.”
Two
of the fellows, without dates, took over the bar and fixed the drinks for those
who wanted something other
than beer. Dipping into the ice bucket with ice tongs,
they came to different
shapes of colored ice.
Taking a glass,
Lenny?” she asked.
The
other gals gathered around to see it and hear Lenny’s explanation, while
making ooh and ahh sounds
while checking out the colored ice.
“I
didn’t buy it, I made it,” Lenny answered with a sly grin. “Someday, I may
tell you how.”
“Oh,
come on, Lenny. This is great. Please tell us now,” Ruthie tried to pry an
answer out of him. The other
gals encouraged him, also.
“Okay, I’ll tell you. I had some stuff in the freezer frozen solid. I
cut it into
shapes and used food coloring
for the color.”
“Uh,
what kind of stuff did you have in the freezer that you could use?” Liddy
asked.
“I’m
not sure if I should tell you about that. It wasn’t anything that could hurt
you, and it made great
conversational pieces.”
“Lenny don’t do that to us. You have to tell
what you used, to make these fancy
ice cubes,” said Twylia.
“Wellllllllll, I used frozen meat.”
The
girls all turned a shade of green and some of them gagged. The guys bust up
laughing.
“Man,
talk about ‘Necessity being the mother of invention,” Ralph commented,
grinning from ear to ear.
“I
always say, whatever works. If the meat starts thawing a bit, I can always pop
it back into the freezer
and refreeze it.”
it.”
Lenny out did himself fixing food.
The group ate, drank and in general pigged
out.
***
Pete
Franklin noticed the time and said, “Hey, people, it’s getting late. Maybe we
should call it a night, or I
should say, call it a morning.”
“I
think Pete is right. It’s almost
after a time, I had a little
too much to drink,” Lenny said. “I kind of forgot to put
the meat cubes back in to
refreeze them.”
Still
sitting and standing around talking, the friends heard a rude and disgusting
sound. They looked at one
another with accusing looks. The sound repeated itself
again.
A few
seconds later, Eddie, who lived in
do it!”
The
others started laughing and kidding each other about the noise they had
heard. Then all hell broke
loose! The noise started again, only faster and louder.
Lenny
moved quickly to the kitchen, because that was where the commotion was
coming from. He opened the
freezer door. Ice came spewing out like a .45 caliber
bullet shot from a Gatling
gun, with someone loading magazines of cartridges, one
after another with no let up.
The icemaker was going crazy! It was making ice hand
over fist, dumping it onto
the floor where Lenny was standing. It looked like
someone was building an igloo
around him. His guests stood there dumb founded,
and then started laughing
once again.
“Maybe we should start this party again. Now that we have all of the ice
we need,
and then some,” Lenny said
sheepishly.
“Naw,
Lenny, just bag it up and save it till next year’s party,” Pete countered.
Plowing through the ice and kicking it aside, Lenny reached into the
freezer and
hit the button on the
icemaker and it turned itself off stopping the flow of ice cubes.
“Now the darn thing works!” he said.
The
group helped Lenny get rid of the ice that had piled up on the floor. Still
laughing, the “party goers” left
for their own places. As they were filing out the
door, everyone told Lenny,
what a great party it was and what a fantastic time they
had had. Even if it had
been a little scary with the strange noises going on and then
having to help clean up the
ice.
“The moral of this story is: Buy enough ice at
the store just in case something
unforeseen happens. Otherwise, you
may have a small mystery on your hands,
besides disgruntled friends who
like ice in their drinks!”
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