Beezus and Ramona - Beverly Cleary [25]
“What?” asked Beezus, pretty sure Ramona had something to do with it.
“Ramona had dropped all the eggs in the house into the batter and had started the mixer,” said Mother.
“Shells and all?” asked Beezus, horrified.
“Shells and all,” repeated Mother wearily.
“And so I had to get out the car again and drive to the market and buy more eggs.”
“Ramona, what did you have to go and do a thing like that for?” Beezus demanded of her little sister, who was playing with her doll Bendix.
“To see what would happen,” answered Ramona.
She doesn’t look a bit sorry, thought Beezus crossly. Spoiling my birthday cake like that!
“Don’t worry, dear. There’s still plenty of time to bake another,” said Mother. “If you’ll just keep Ramona out of the kitchen, I can get it into the oven in no time at all.”
That made Beezus feel better. At least she would have a birthday cake, even if it did mean looking after Ramona for a while.
“Read to me,” Ramona demanded.
“Read about Big Steve.”
“I’ll read to you, but I won’t read that book,” said Beezus, going to the bookcase. She really wanted to read one of her birthday books, called 202 Things to Do on a Rainy Afternoon, but she knew Ramona would insist on a story. “How about Hänsel and Gretel?” she asked. Next to stories with lots of noise, Ramona liked stories about witches, goblins, or ogres.
“Yes, I like Hänsel and Gretel,” agreed Ramona, as she climbed on the davenport and sat Bendix beside her. “O.K., I’m ready. Now you can begin.”
Beezus curled up at the other end of the davenport with Grimm’s Fairy Tales. “Once upon a time…” she began, and Ramona listened contentedly. When she did not have to make noises like machinery Beezus enjoyed reading to Ramona, and this afternoon reading aloud was particularly pleasant, with Mother in the kitchen baking a birthday cake. As Beezus read she listened to the whir of the mixer and the sound of eggs being cracked against a bowl.
Beezus read about Hänsel’s leaving a trail of crumbs behind him as he and Gretel went into the woods. She read the part Ramona liked best, about the witch’s trying to fatten Hänsel. Ramona listened wide-eyed until Beezus came to the end of the story, where Gretel pushed the witch into the oven and escaped through the woods with her brother.
“That’s a good story,” said Ramona, as she jumped down from the davenport.
Surprised that Ramona didn’t demand another story, Beezus picked up 202 Things to Do on a Rainy Afternoon and began to read. She was learning how to make a necklace out of beans and pumpkin seeds painted with fingernail polish when a lovely sweet vanilla fragrance began to fill the house, and Beezus knew her birthday cake was safely in the oven at last.
Ramona’s unusual silence made Beezus glance up from her book. “Ramona!” she cried, when she saw what her little sister was doing. “Stop that right away!”
Ramona was busy pulling graham-cracker crumbs out of the pocket of her overalls and sprinkling them across the rug. “I’m Hänsel leaving a trail of crumbs through the woods,” she said, digging more crumbs out of her pocket. “My father is a poor woodcutter.”
“Oh, Ramona,” said Beezus, but she had to giggle at the picture of Father as a poor woodcutter.
Ramona sprinkled more crumbs on the rug, and Beezus knew she had to do something about it. “Why don’t you pretend you’re Gretel?” she suggested, because Gretel would not leave crumbs on the rug.
“O.K.,” agreed Ramona.
That was easy, thought Beezus, and went on reading about making a complete set of doll furniture out of old milk cartons. How good her birthday cake smelled! She hoped Mother would remember she had asked for pink frosting. She heard the oven door open and close. Mother must