Everybody went home for lunch, but Tom and Becky only pretended to go home. They did not go home. They came back to the empty school. They talked to each other about things they liked and things they didn't like. They both liked sweets, and they both liked circuses, but Becky didn't like dead rats.
"Have you ever been engaged?"' asked Tom.
"I don't know. What's engaged?"
"It's when you promise you love somebody and that you will never love anybody else. And then you kiss. Then one day you marry. Anybody can do it. "
They decided to get engaged.
"I like being engaged, Tom,"
"It's good fun. Amy Lawrence and me"
Tom realized that he had made a mistake.
"You've been engaged before!" Becky began to cry,
"I don't love her now."
"Yes, you do!'"
Becky would not speak to him. Tom tried to give her a brass door handle, but she would not take it. She threw it on the floor, Now Tom was angry. He walked out of the room and out of the school. After a while Becky went out to find him. She wanted him to come back, but he did not come back that day.
Tom ran out of town and into the forest. He went to his secret place and sat down. He thought about Jimmy Hodges, who died a few weeks ago. Life was so difficult. It seemed easier to be dead. You didn't have to think about girls then. What should he do about Becky? He would make her sorry! Perhaps he would go away and never come back. That would make her sorry!
Perhaps he would become a soldier and come back a famous war hero. Perhaps he should be an Indian and hunt buffalo and come back a famous chief.
Then he thought about being a pirate. That would be best of all. He had read some pirate stories. He knew that people were always afraid of pirates, He would become a very famous pirate, and everybody would know his name. Then when he came back, Becky would be sorry and would want to be his friend again.
