"Go straight down Holland Avenue, make a right at the firehouse; you should see a 'yield sign'. When you see that, you're going to make a left. Take that all the way down until you see the haberdashery. Cut between the haberdashery and the delicatessen- there should be a small alleyway. You should come out at an intersection. Take Tonga Way three-fifths down until you see a huge ice cream sign. If not, then you know you've gone too far, so backtrack three-fourths of the way until you see an ice cream parlor."
Courtney was lost at the part about a haberdashery. He had only been in California for a little over two weeks, so being lost was inevitable. The only problem was that all of the streets had names like "Djibouti Court" and "Burma Pass"; names he'd never, for the life of him, be able to remember.
"What's a Djibouti, anyway?" he muttered. Looking straight ahead, he could see what looked like a sewing shop and a deli. He must have went the wrong way, even though he could have sworn he was making progress. Or maybe the woman gave him the wrong directions? He wasn't a math wiz, but he knew that going three-fifths down one way wouldn't equal backtracking three-fourths up the same way.
Courtney sighed. He had been walking for about thirty minutes just to get ice cream; he was only allowed a forty-five minute lunch, so he was probably going to get back late. Or maybe not at all. Maybe he'd die from Mint Chocolate Chip withdrawal; alone and hungry, lying on the cold asphalt of some California town he still didn't know the name of.
