Ramona Forever (10 page)

Beezus paid no attention. “And Roberta has brown hair—”

Mr. Quimby interrupted. “What's this all about, Ramona?”

“A doctor said I had something, some kind of
it is
, and I have to have this right away.” She handed her father her prescription and
scratched one shoulder. “If I don't, I might get sicker.”

Mr. Quimby read the scribbly cursive, and then he did a strange thing. He lifted Ramona and gave her a big hug and a kiss, right there in the lobby. The itching stopped. Ramona felt much better. “You have acute siblingitis,” explained her father. “
It is
means inflammation.”

Ramona already knew the meaning of sibling. Since her father had studied to be a teacher, brothers and sisters had become siblings to him.

“He understood you were worried and angry because you weren't allowed to see your new sibling, and prescribed attention,” explained Mr. Quimby. “Now let's all go buy ice-cream cones before I fall asleep standing up.”

Beezus said Roberta was too darling to be called a dumb word like sibling. Ramona
felt silly, but she also felt better.

For the next three nights, Ramona took a book to the hospital and sat in the lobby, not reading, but sulking about the injustice of having to wait to see the strange new Roberta.

On the fourth day, Mr. Quimby took an hour off from the ShopRite Market, picked up Beezus and Ramona, who were waiting in clean clothes, and drove to the hospital to bring home his wife and new daughter.

Ramona moved closer to Beezus when she saw her mother, holding a pink bundle, emerge from the elevator in a wheelchair pushed by a nurse and followed by Mr. Quimby carrying her bag. “Can't Mother walk?” she whispered.

“Of course she can walk,” answered Beezus. “The hospital wants to make sure people get out without falling down and suing for a million dollars.”

Mrs. Quimby waved to the girls. Roberta's face was hidden by a corner of a pink blanket, but the nurse had no time for a little girl eager to see a new baby. She pushed the wheelchair through the automatic door to the waiting car.

“
Now
can I see her?” begged Ramona when her mother and Roberta were settled in the front, and the girls had climbed into the backseat.

“Dear Heart, of course you may.” Mrs. Quimby then spoke the most beautiful words Ramona had ever heard, “Oh, Ramona, how I've missed you,” as she turned back the blanket.

Ramona, leaning over the front seat for her first glimpse of the new baby sister, tried to hold her breath so she wouldn't breathe germs on Roberta, who did not look at all like the picture on the cover of
A Name for Your Baby
. Her face was bright pink, almost
red, and her hair, unlike the smooth pale hair of the baby on the cover of the pamphlet, was dark and wild. Ramona did not know what to say. She did not feel that words like darling or adorable fitted this baby.

“She looks exactly like you looked when
you were born,” Mrs. Quimby told Ramona.

“She does?” Ramona found this hard to believe. She could not imagine that she had once looked like this red, frowning little creature.

“Well, what do you think of your new sister?” asked Mr. Quimby.

“She's so—so
little
,” Ramona answered truthfully.

Roberta opened her blue gray eyes.

“Mother!” cried Ramona. “She's cross-eyed.”

Mrs. Quimby laughed. “All babies look cross-eyed sometimes. They outgrow it when they learn to focus.” Sure enough, Roberta's eyes straightened out for a moment and then crossed again. She worked her mouth as if she didn't know what to do with it. She made little snuffling noises and lifted one arm as if she didn't know what it was for.

“Why does her nightie have those little
pockets at the ends of the sleeves?” asked Ramona. “They cover up her hands.”

“They keep her from scratching herself,” explained Mrs. Quimby. “She's too little to understand that fingernails scratch.”

Ramona sat back and buckled her seat belt. She had once looked like Roberta. Amazing! She had once been that tiny, but she had grown, her hair had calmed down when she remembered to comb it, and she had learned to use her eyes and hands. “You know what I think?” she asked and did not wait for an answer. “I think it is hard work to be a baby.” Ramona spoke as if she had discovered something unknown to the rest of the world. With her words came unexpected love and sympathy for the tiny person in her mother's arms.

“I hadn't thought of it that way,” said Mrs. Quimby, “but I think you're right.”

“Growing up is hard work,” said Mr.
Quimby as he drove away from the hospital. “Sometimes being grown up is hard work.”

“I know,” said Ramona and thought some more. She thought about loose teeth, real sore throats, quarrels, misunderstandings with her teachers, longing for a bicycle her family could not afford, worrying when her parents bickered, how terrible she had felt when she hurt Beezus's feelings without meaning to, and all the long afternoons when Mrs. Kemp looked after her until her mother came from work. She had survived it all. “Isn't it funny?” she remarked as her father steered the car into their driveway.

“Isn't what funny?” asked her mother.

“That I used to be little and funny-looking and cross-eyed like Roberta,” said Ramona. “And now look at me. I'm wonderful me!”

“Except when you're blunderful you,” said Beezus.

Ramona did not mind when her family,
except Roberta, who was too little, laughed. “Yup, wonderful, blunderful me,” she said and was happy. She was winning at growing up.

BEVERLY CLEARY
is one of America's most popular authors. Born in McMinnville, Oregon, she lived on a farm in Yamhill until she was six and then moved to Portland. After college, as the children's librarian in Yakima, Washington, she was challenged to find stories for non-readers. She wrote her first book,
HENRY HUGGINS
, in response to a boy's question, “Where are the books about kids like us?”

Mrs. Cleary's books have earned her many prestigious awards, including the American Library Association's Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, presented in recognition of her lasting contribution to children's literature. Her
DEAR MR. HENSHAW
was awarded the 1984 John Newbery Medal, and both
RAMONA QUIMBY, AGE
8 and
RAMONA AND HER FATHER
have been named Newbery Honor Books. In addition, her books have won more than thirty-five statewide awards based on the votes of her young readers. Her characters, including Henry Huggins, Ellen Tebbits, Otis Spofford, and Beezus and Ramona Quimby, as well as Ribsy, Socks, and Ralph S. Mouse, have delighted children for generations. Mrs. Cleary lives in coastal California.

Visit Ramona Quimby and all of her friends in The World of Beverly Cleary at www.beverlycleary.com.

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