something in which to pack, but all she could find was an old doll’s nursing kit. Ramona

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unzipped it and placed her Q-tip box inside.

She added her best box of crayons and a pair of clean socks. Outside she heard the cheerful ching-chong, ching-chong of roller skates on cement. Some children were happy.

If nobody stopped her, where would she

run to? Not Howie’s house, even though

Howie was no longer mad at her. His grand-

mother was not paid to look after her on

Saturday. She could take the bus to Aunt

Beatrice’s apartment house, but Aunt Beatrice would bring her back home. Maybe she

could live in the park and sleep under the

bushes in the cold. Poor little Ramona, all

alone in the park, shivering in the dark.Well, at least it was not raining. That was something. And there were no big wild animals,

just chipmunks.

She heard her mother coming down the

hall.Tears stopped. Ramona was about to be

rescued. Now her mother would say, Please

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don’t run away. We love you and want you to stay.

Instead Mrs. Quimby walked into the bed-

room with a suitcase in one hand and two

bananas in the other. “You will need some-

thing to pack in,” she told Ramona.“Let me

help.” She opened the suitcase on the unmade bed and placed the bananas inside. “In case

you get hungry,” she explained.

Ramona was too shocked to say anything.

Mothers weren’t supposed to help their chil-

dren run away.“You’ll need your roller skates in case you want to travel fast,” said Mrs.

Quimby. “Where are they?”

As if she were walking in her sleep,

Ramona pulled her roller skates from a

jumble of toys in the bottom of her closet

and handed them to her mother, who placed

them at the bottom of the suitcase. How

could her mother not love a little girl like Ramona?

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“Always pack heavy things at the bottom,”

advised Mrs. Quimby. “Now where are your

boots in case it rains?” She looked around

the room. “And don’t forget your Betsy book.

And your little box of baby teeth. You

wouldn’t want to leave your teeth behind.”

Ramona felt she could run away without

her old baby teeth, and she was hurt that

her mother did not want to keep them to

remember her by. She stood watching while

her mother packed briskly and efficiently.

“You will want Ella Funt in case you get

lonely,” said Mrs. Quimby.

When Ramona said her mother did not

love her, she had no idea her mother would

do a terrible thing like this. And her father.

Didn’t he care either? Apparently not. He

was too busy scrubbing the bathroom to care

that Ramona was in despair. And what

about Beezus? She was probably secretly glad Ramona was going to run away because she

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