THE MOMENT
Amy paused as soon as she walked into the shop; it wasn't what she expected. The sign outside promised any flavor of ice cream, but the interior resembled a hospital more than an ice cream shop. The floor was polished bright white. All the tables, chairs and the counter in front of the single clerk also gleamed like white polished metal. Accent lines along the walls stood out in red.
"Welcome to Sharp Scoops!" the clerk said brightly. Amy continued to look around as she approached the counter; there was no sign of a menu anywhere.
"Hi.. uhh..," Amy looked down into the white, glass-topped freezer, but saw only three unmarked tubs. She could not see any sign of icecream in the tubs, the tubs were covered with pitch-black lids. Amy pointed over her shoulder with her thumb. "...sign said infinite flavors? Do you have a menu?" The clerk shook her head and Amy caught sight of the nametag pinned to her white paper hat.
"It's kind of impossible to list them all," Betty said. "It's just easier to say we have any flavor you can imagine." Amy laughed and shook her head.
"You don't have room to list them all, but you have room to store them all?"
"Well, technically we don't store them here. Sharp Scoops is a multiversal franchise; all our stores from alternate universes are connected," Betty said. She grabbed a small red plastic testing spoon and dipped it into one of the covered buckets. Amy was surprised to see the spoon sink into the blackness. When Betty brought the spoon back out again it held a small dollop of white ice cream with small red specks. She handed the sample to Amy.
"White chocolate strawberry," Betty said. After Amy accepted the sample, Betty grabbed a second spoon and dipped it into the same bucket. This time she pulled out a small dollop of dark brown ice cream, that she also offered to Amy.
"Oh, this is sooooo good!" Amy said after tasting the first one; she eagerly took the second.
"Brown gravy," Betty said with a slight smirk at the exact moment Amy shoved it into her mouth. Her face instantly contorted into disgust; but, she held it for a moment. She moved her tongue around inside her mouth surprised at how much she enjoyed the flavor.
"How does that work?" Amy asked. She did not want to admit she liked the brown gravy flavor. Betty reached over to touch a button on the register. It distracted Amy for a bit, but when she looked back down at the three icecream buckets, the black lids were gone. The only thing she saw was three empty buckets. Then, Betty pressed the button again so that Amy was able to watch the black portals appear over the empty buckets.
"It takes some practice, but the portal knows my intent and sends the spoon to the right bin. Any type of ice cream you can imagine is out there somewhere. But beyond that...," Betty shrugged. "...Sharp Development set it up, I just work here," she said.
"So, really? Any flavor I can think of?"
"Try me," Betty smiled. "But, you need to eat it," she added.
"Oh," that made Amy toss out several of her first ideas that she just wanted to test if they were possible. "Banana bread," she suggested.
"C'mon, that's one of our most popular flavors," Betty said. She dipped a spoon into the portal and pulled out a brownish-yellow dab. Amy was happy to accept it and happier when it was delicious.
"More challenging then?" Amy said. "Cheeseburger me."
"Now that's a fun one," Betty said. Instead of grabbing another sample spoon she reached under the counter and pulled out a larger plastic red spoon. She dipped it into one bucket and pulled out a bit of golden-brown ice cream. Betty dipped the same spoon into the second bin and when she pulled it out, a dark brown blot of ice cream sat atop the golden-brown. Then, she dipped it into the third one; it returned with a neon-yellow glob atop the brown one. Finally, Betty dipped the loaded spoon into the first bin and added another layer of golden-brown ice cream on top. She offered it to Amy, but Amy did not accept it.
"You forgot the veggies," she said. Betty sighed and shook her head, but smiled. She grabbed a sample spoon and lifted the top layer of the growing tower off.
"What do you want?" She asked with a mock exasperated voice. Luckily, Amy got the joke and giggled.
"Just lettuce." Betty dipped the loaded spoon into the first bin and it came out with a light green layer atop the neon-yellow one. Then, she put the 'bun' back on top and offered Amy the spoon. Amy took it all as if she was taking a big bite out of a burger, and it tasted exactly like she expected flavor-wise. The texture and cold added to the experience, but she was surprised that she wasn't disgusted at all.
"Wow. That was perfect!" Amy said. Betty nodded. "Whoa... I really can choose anything," she said as she registered it for the first time. Then she looked up at Betty. "I don't know what I want," she said. "What's your favorite?"
"I like to call it 'Crunchy Chocolate'," Betty said as she reached for a sample spoon. Amy waved her hand to stop her.
"I'll take two scoops of that in a bowl," she said. Betty reached under the counter and grabbed a white cardboard bowl and a metal ice cream scoop. She dug into the first bucket and pulled out dark brown ice cream with darker specks dotting it.
"Oh, I love chocolate," Amy commented. "As long as it's really chocolate and not something weird like gravy," she said.
"Just chocolate," Betty smiled as she packed the bowl in a white bag that said "Sharp Scoops" in red letters.
"So what are the crunchy bits? Like chocolate candy?" Amy asked as she paid. Betty shook her head.
"Spiders," she said. Amy was reaching for the bag, but stopped.
"Spiders?" she asked. Betty nodded.
"It's okay. They're chocolate spiders."