 Household items slowly go missing from the Corbett household. Initially unbeknownst to Tom and Mrs. Livingston, Eddie is the one taking the items because he and Joey Kelly are planning on running away to Mexico. Eddie wants to just because it would be a fun kid thing to do. Joey, on the other hand, has more pressing reasons: her father, Joe, is planning on getting remarried to a woman named Sherry Dornen, and Joey doesn t like the idea of another woman - any woman - replacing the memory of her real mother. Joe thinks that Joey is fine with the idea. Eddie, not fully understanding the concept of running away, wants to tell Tom, but Joey doesn t let him. Tom pieces things together when Eddie inadvertently implicates Joey in the missing items from the Corbett household. When Tom discusses this with Joe, Joe comes to the realization that Joey has been acting strangely, like hiding underwear and pajamas in her lunch-box, and perhaps the two are planning on running away. Tom and Joe secretly follow Eddie and Joey to Eddie s secret hiding place - a large wooden crate on an abandoned lot - and overhear Eddie and Joey s plans, and the probable reason for them wanting to run away. Tom convinces Joe to let them try and run away. But Eddie beats them to the punch by telling Tom what they re planning on doing so that Tom can help Joey. Just before Eddie and Joey are scheduled to run away, Tom talks to Joey, specifically about a real family having a mother. Joey understands and runs back into the arms of her father.