Dear Mr. Henshaw Letters 16-20 Summary

Leigh is a good sport who's willing to sacrifice it all to finish answering these questions. (Of course, this has nothing to do with the fact that his mom is on his case to finish.)
Question #9: what bothers you?
A lot bothers him apparently, like kids stealing food from his lunch, little kids with runny noses, and having to walk super slow to get to school.
Mom leaves the house early for a college class and the house is too lonely, so Leigh leaves early for school. He can't stand being alone in the mornings.
The problem is that kids can't be on campus early, so he has to take a really long time to get there, even though it doesn't take a really long time.
He's tried taking baby steps and walking backward, but it doesn't help, so he hides in the bushes at school until it's time to go in.
He's also bothered when his dad calls on the phone but calls him "kid" instead of Leigh, and when his dad won't say he misses him.
He's bothered when his dad doesn't call at all, which is most of the time.
Question #10: what do you wish?
Leigh's wish list has two things on it: for whoever's stealing the good stuff from his lunch to stop and for his dad to pull up on his big rig and take Leigh to school like a big shot.
That's the end of the questions, and Leigh signs off with "fooey on you" (16.7).

Leigh apologizes for being rude in his last letter.
He says he was mad because his dad didn't send money this month. And he wants his dad to want to see him.
Get this: after all that complaining about answering all those questions, Leigh sort of misses writing. Go figure.
He thinks he'll write a book called The Great Lunchbag Mystery because today his deviled egg went missing.
Leigh really wants Mr. Henshaw to write back.

Mr. Henshaw sends Leigh a postcard from Wyoming. He says he's busy writing a book and chopping wood, and for goodness' sake stop writing so much because he's tired of answering all of Leigh's letters. Think he means it?
One day before school, Leigh is hiding out in the bushes and sees Mr. Fridley hang the state flag upside down.
Mr. Fridley asks him to come early every day and help with the flags.
Now Leigh doesn't have to walk so slowly to school. One problem solved.
Nothing was stolen from his lunch today because he ate it before school.
Mr. Henshaw's postcard suggests that Leigh start keeping a diary.

Leigh buys a notebook and puts a killer title on it but can't figure out how to start it.
He doesn't want to write "Dear Composition Book" or "Dear Piece of Paper."
Help, Mr. Henshaw.

Mr. Henshaw writes that Leigh should pretend to be writing to someone in the diary.
Leigh thinks there's no one better than Mr. Henshaw to pretend to write to. We couldn't agree more.