Read Online Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary - Free Book Online Page B

she suggested.
    â€œYou shut up,” said Howie.
    Uncle Hobart’s good nature was not disturbed. “Shut up yourself,” was his cheerful order as he led his troops into a girls’ shop, where he bought a pair of navy blue kneesocks for Howie. “Now, Beezus, what else do we need for a wedding?”
    â€œFlowers,” was the answer.
    On the way to the florist, the shoppers came to a ski goods store that was having a sale. “Just what your aunt and I need,” said Uncle Hobart, leading the way among the racks of ski clothing, where he quickly bought quilted down jackets for himself and his bride, water-proof pants, fur-lined gloves, heavy socks, and boots, all great bargains. Fortunately, Beezus knew her aunt’s sizes.
    â€œYou don’t suppose he would wear any of this stuff at the wedding, do you?” Ramona whispered to Beezus as she pulled a man-sized jacket off Willa Jean.
    â€œWho knows?” said Beezus. There was no telling what Uncle Hobart might do.
    The troops carried all the bags and boxes across the hot parking lot to the van. On theway back to the mall, Willa Jean, who spotted the ice-cream store that sold fifty-two flavors, told her uncle she needed an ice-cream cone. Uncle Hobart agreed that ice-cream cones were needed by all.
    Inside the busy shop, customers had to take numbers and wait turns. Ramona, responsible for Willa Jean, who could not read, was faced with the embarrassing task of reading aloud the list of fifty-two flavors while all the customers listened. “Strawberry, German chocolate, vanilla, ginger-peachy, red-white-and-blueberry, black walnut, Mississippi mud, green bubble gum, baseball nut.” Grimly, Ramona read on, skipping pistachio because she wasn’t sure how to pronounce it, and stumbling over nectarine and macadamia nut. “Avocado (avocado ice cream?), fudge brownie—” She thought Uncle Hobart’s number would never come, but of course it did.
    â€œFive double scoops of chocolate mandarin-orange dipped in nuts,” was Uncle Hobart’s order.
    Double scoops with nuts. Beezus and Ramona were impressed.
    As ice-cream cones were handed around and the group walked out into the sunbaked parking lot, Uncle Hobart said, “In the heat and dust of Saudi Arabia, I lay on my bunk at night listening to the wolves howl and longing for chocolate mandarin-orange double-scoop ice-cream cones dipped in nuts.”
    Ramona licked a drip of ice cream. “I thought you said you dreamed of your mother’s apple pie.”
    â€œThat too,” said Uncle Hobart. “A man can have more than one dream in life.”
    â€œThey don’t have wolves in Saudi Arabia,” said Howie.
    â€œOkay, listening to camels howl.” UncleHobart led the way to a flower shop in the mall, where they were told they could not enter with ice-cream cones. This did not bother Uncle Hobart, who pulled a list from his pocket, stood in the doorway, and ordered one bouquet of white flowers for the bride, three wreaths of little flowers for girls—here he pointed to the girls—and two bridesmaids’ bouquets, not too big. “What color?” he asked Beezus, and took a big bite of ice cream.
    â€œMostly pink, to go with our dresses,” said Beezus, daintily nibbling into her ice cream instead of licking.
    â€œPink,” ordered Uncle Hobart, “and a little bunch of flowers for the flower girl. We can’t have a flower girl without flowers, can we, Willa Jean?” Willa Jean was too busy trying to keep ahead of her melting ice cream to answer. “And whatever one groom, one best man, and two ushers wearin their buttonholes. Oh, yes, and a flower for my ring bearer here.”
    â€œAw, Uncle Hobart,” grumbled Howie as his uncle handed over a credit card to the astonished florist and gave the time the flowers were to be delivered to the Quimbys’ address. Willa Jean’s flowers and the