William S. and the Great Escape by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

decide which route would be safest, and where he might find some hiding places if he needed them. When he finally did go to sleep,he had this awful dream about being chased all over town by a whole lot of angry Baggetts who kept jumping out at him from behind corners, and even crawling out from under parked cars, looking like alligators wearing boots and black leather jackets.
    But morning finally came, and he and Jancy got up and kept the little kids quiet until they heard the car leaving. Then Clarice came down to get them and breakfast was pancakes again, and everything was pretty much the same as before. Except that William couldn’t help being on the lookout for any signs that Jancy was right about Clarice.
    He couldn’t really believe it. Especially after he sized himself up in the mirror over the sideboard. Carefully checked out his bony face and scrawny body, and then did the same with Clarice. She really wasn’t all that bad looking, he decided, particularly now and then when she happened to be smiling.
    Not a chance,
he told himself.
Jancy has a big imagination.
But then there
was
the Ariel possibility. That was, perhaps, something else again. Testing it out, he tried to get into an Ariel frame of mind. Not that he started leaping and twirling, but he did try to bring to mind the wild, free, unlimited feeling he’d always gotten when he was onstage. And it sort of worked. Right about then, when he caught Clarice looking at him, he thought he saw a hint of what Jancy had been talking about, in the way her eyelids were kind of fluttering.
    But so what? All that meant was he was going to have to be particularly careful today not to let Clarice know what he was planning. Not to say a thing about what he would be doing the minute she left to go shopping and make her midday visit to her aunt’s.
    And he didn’t. Not a word while the kitchen was cleaned up, the kids were escorted up to get a new batch of toys, and a bunch of leftovers from last night’s feast were packed up to be carried down to the basement for lunch. But then Clarice got on her bicycle and rode off, and it was time to start.
    Actually it wasn’t until then, when Clarice was gone and the little kids were busy playing, that he told Jancy what he was getting ready to do, and at first she hated the idea a whole lot.
    â€œBut I have to,” William kept telling her. “We can’t drag the little kids through town and down to the bus station without knowing whether or not Clarice was telling the truth about the police and everything. And without even knowing for sure what time the bus leaves for Gold Beach.”
    When he got that far, Jancy was still shaking her head, but then he went on, “Or even if I really have enough money for four tickets.”
    That did it. Jancy’s big eyes got even bigger, and she bit her lower lip for a while before she said, “Okay. Okay. I guess you have to. But just be awful careful, William.”Grabbing him by both arms, she shook him and repeated, “Please, please, be awful careful.”
    â€œDon’t worry,” he told her. “I sure will.” And he couldn’t have meant it more. He certainly wasn’t looking forward to going as far as the Greyhound bus station through a town where anyone might know about the mysterious disappearance of the four youngest Baggetts and be all prepared to throw him in jail and call Big Ed. The very thought was enough to give him that heart-racing, throat-shrinking feeling.
    â€œI wish there was some way we could sort of disguise you,” Jancy was saying.
    â€œLike what?” he asked.
    She thought for a moment, then said, “Hey. Wait a minute.” She took off, running up out of the basement and then, as William lagged behind, on up to disappear into the kitchen. It wasn’t long before she returned, carrying a bunch of clothing over her arm.
    â€œWhat’s that?” William wanted to know.