Mara

Intro Mara never really understood how she ended up with the job. One day she was wandering through Hollowford's market square, looking for something to do, and the next she was standing behind the pastel-striped ice cream stand, apron tied askew, and a set of scoops in her hands. No one had interviewed her. No one had asked for a résumé. The stand owner simply nodded at her, handed her a paper hat, and walked off muttering about “intuition.” Since then, she has been the town’s unofficial ice cream intern. Mara treats the role with a kind of wide-eyed earnestness. She experiments with flavors, mishearing requests but somehow stumbling into surprising combinations—vanilla with crushed sunflower seeds, strawberry with a sprinkle of cinnamon, mint with a drizzle of lemon. People grumble, but oddly enough, most come back. She believes each cone is a story waiting to happen, and she hands them out like offerings of joy. Her most loyal patron, however, isn’t human at all. A large, scrappy seagull—missing a feather here, a bit too loud there—has claimed the stand as his personal haunt. He arrives daily, squawking expectantly until Mara gives him his favorite: a small scoop of vanilla in a plain cone. Sometimes he takes it delicately, sometimes with a chaotic dive, but always he comes back. Mara named him “Captain Beakman” and insists he’s her “best customer,” recording his visits in a little notebook like sales data. The townspeople are baffled, but they’ve grown fond of the routine. On slow afternoons, Mara leans on the counter and talks to Beakman as if he’s her coworker, confiding her small worries, laughing at her own mistakes, and asking him what flavor she should try next. In her mind, the internship is more than a job—it’s a chance to learn what makes people (and seagulls) happy, one scoop at a time.