Beezus and Ramona - Beverly Cleary [21]
“I know,” sighed Mother. “You’ll have to put on your coat and run down to the market—Oh, no, you can’t go out in this rain with your hair wet.” Mother tugged at another boot. “I’ll have to see what I can find in the kitchen.”
Beezus and her mother herded the wiggling, squealing crowd into the front bedroom and went to work removing sweaters, jackets, caps, and mittens. In between Beezus pulled three children out of the closet, dragged one out from under the bed, and snatched her mother’s bottle of best perfume from another.
“All right, everybody out of here,” Beezus ordered, when the last mitten was removed and her mother had hurried into the kitchen. “We’ll go into the living room and…and do something,” she finished lamely. “Ramona, bring some of your toys out of your room.”
“Bingle-bongle-by!” shouted Howie, just to make some noise.
“Bingle-bongle-by!” The others joined in with great delight. It was such a nice noisy thing to yell. “Bingle-bongle-by,” they screamed at the tops of their voices as they scampered into the living room. “Bingle-bongle-by.”
Howie grabbed the vacuum cleaner, turned on the switch, and charged across the room. “I’ll suck you up!” he shouted. “I’ll suck everybody up in the vacuum cleaner!”
“Bingle-bongle-by!” shouted the others above the roar of the vacuum cleaner.
One little girl began to cry. “I don’t want to be sucked up in the vacuum cleaner,” she sobbed. Willa Jean, looking bulgy because of the diapers and plastic pants under her overalls, clung to a chair and wept.
Ramona appeared with her arms full of toys, but no one paid any attention to them. The vacuum cleaner was much more fun.
“I want to push the vacuum cleaner,” screamed Susan, who lived in the next block.
Ramona offered Susan her panda bear, but Susan did not want it. Ramona hit Susan with the panda. “You take my bear,” she ordered. “This is my party and you’re supposed to do what I say.”
“I don’t want your old bear,” answered Susan.
Beezus tried to grab the vacuum cleaner, but Howie was too quick for her. The room was getting uncomfortably hot, so Beezus darted to the thermostat to turn down the heat. Then she dashed to the other side of the room and disconnected the vacuum cleaner at the wall. It died with a noisy groan. Suddenly everyone was quiet, waiting to see what would happen.
“Hey,” protested Howie, “you can’t do that.”
Beezus frantically tried to think of some way to keep fifteen small children busy and out of mischief. At least, she thought there were fifteen. They didn’t stand still long enough to be counted.
“Where’s the party?” one little boy asked.
Ramona appeared with more toys, which she dumped on the floor. This time she brought a drum. Howie quickly lost interest in the vacuum cleaner and grabbed the drum. Beezus seized the vacuum cleaner and shoved it into the hall closet, while Howie began to beat the drum. “I’m leading a parade,” he said.
“You are not,” contradicted Ramona.
“This is my party.”
Susan snatched a pink plastic horn and tooted it. “I’m in the parade too,” she said.
“I want to be in the parade! I want to be in the parade!” cried the others.
That was it! They could play parade! Beezus ran to the bedroom and found a whistle and a couple of horns left over from a Halloween party. What else could be used in a parade? Flags, of course! But what could she use for flags? Beezus thought fast. She gathered up two yardsticks and several rulers; then she ran to the front bedroom and snatched some of her father’s handkerchiefs from a drawer. She had to move fast before the children grew tired of the idea.
“I want to be in the parade!” screamed the children.
“Mother, help me,” cried Beezus.
Somehow Beezus and her mother got Father’s handkerchiefs tied to the sticks and distributed to the children who did not have noisemakers.
Howie banged the drum. “Follow me,” he ordered, beginning to march. The others followed, blowing whistles, tooting horns, waving flags.
“No!” screamed Ramona, who wanted to boss