Beezus and Ramona - Beverly Cleary [14]
“Mother—” began Ramona, leaning out into the hall.
Mother paid no attention to her. “I just don’t see what we can do—”
“Mother,” said Ramona urgently. This time she stepped into the hall.
“Unless we get a ladder (Go back to your room, Ramona) and break the window so we can unlock it,” Mother continued, speaking with one sentence inside another, the way grown-ups so often did with Ramona around.
“But Mother,” insisted Ramona even more urgently. “I have to—”
“Oh, dear, I might have known,” sighed Mother. “Well, come on. I’ll take you next door.”
Leave it to Ramona, thought Beezus, embarrassed to have her little sister behave this way in front of Henry.
“Don’t worry, Ribsy,” said Henry. “We’ll get you out somehow.” He turned to Beezus and said gloomily, “If we don’t get him out by dinnertime, maybe we could cut some meat up in real little pieces and shove it under the door to him. I don’t see how we could get a drink of water to him, though.”
“We have to get him out before then,” said Beezus. “Father wouldn’t like it if he came home and found Ribsy had locked him out of the bathroom.”
“Ribsy couldn’t have locked the door if Ramona hadn’t put him in the bathroom in the first place,” Henry pointed out. “What a dumb thing to do!”
Beezus had nothing to say to this. What could she say when it really had been Ramona’s fault?
Mother and Ramona soon returned. “I think we’ll get Ribsy out now,” said Mother cheerfully. “The lady next door says her little grandson locks himself in the bathroom every time he comes to visit her, and she always unlocks the door with a nail file. She told me how to do it.” Mother found a nail file, which she inserted in the keyhole. She wiggled it around, the doorknob clicked, and Mother opened the door. It was as easy as that!
With a joyous bark Ribsy bounded out and jumped up on Henry. “Good old Ribsy,” said Henry. “Did you think we were going to leave you in there?” Ribsy wriggled and wagged his tail happily because he was free at last.
“Now maybe he’ll be a good dog,” said Ramona sulkily.
“He is a good dog, aren’t you, Ribsy?” Henry patted him.
“He is not a good dog,” contradicted Ramona. “He took my cookie away from me and gobbled it right up.”
“Oh,” said Henry uncomfortably. “I didn’t know he ate your cookie.”
“Well, he did,” said Ramona, “and I made him go in the bathroom until he could be a good dog.”
From the way Henry looked at Ramona, Beezus could tell he didn’t think much of her reason for shutting Ribsy in the bathroom.
“Oh, Ramona.” Mother looked amused and exasperated at the same time. “Just because you were sent to your room is no reason for you to try to punish Henry’s dog.”
“It is, too,” said Ramona defiantly. “He was bad.”
“Well, I guess I better be going,” said Henry. “Come on, Ribsy.”
“Don’t go, Henry,” begged Beezus.
“Maybe we could go out on the porch or someplace and play a game.”
“Some other time maybe,” answered Henry. “I’ve got things to do.”
“All right,” agreed Beezus reluctantly. Henry probably knew they wouldn’t be safe from Ramona anywhere, the way she was behaving today.
When Henry had gone, Ramona gave a hop to make her rabbit ears flop. “Now we can play tiddlywinks!” she announced, as if she had been waiting for this moment all afternoon.
“No, we can’t,” snapped Beezus, who could not remember when she had been so annoyed with Ramona.
“Yes, we can,” said Ramona. “Henry’s gone now.”
“We can’t, because I won’t play. So there!” answered Beezus. It wasn’t as though Henry came over every day to play checkers. He came only once in a while, and then they couldn’t play because Ramona was so awful.
Just then the telephone rang and Mother answered it. “Oh, hello, Beatrice,” Beezus heard her say. “I was hoping