Chapter Eight
Sunny walked out of the admnistrative building with Beatrice in tow, a word here meaning ‘hand in hand’. The two little girls were bound for the Cafeteria, across the plate-covered patio. Sunny hoped that she could be helpful in tha Cafeteria, maybe as Chef, or even if someone needed to open a can. Sunny did not bite things as often as she did before, but her teeth were still as sharp as they were when she used them to climb the elevator shaft wall at 667 Dark Avenue to save her siblings. Beatrice, on the other hand, hoped that she would be allowed to help if anyone needed their clothes sewn. She was still a baby for all effects, but she already had sewn before. One hot summer afternoon, when Violet had been fixing a sewing machine and finished, she later came back to find Beatrice using the machine instinctively, and the three elder Baudelaires were surprised and impressed by their younger adoptive sister-daughter. Their only wish was that Kit Snicket and Dewey Denouement had lived long enough to see their daughter’s skills blossom.
‘Take care, Bea. If the plates fall, we can get hurt.’ – Sunny said to her little sister. Sunny was often the one being taken care of in her previous adventures with her siblings, and she sort of liked having someone to take care of for a change. Out of the three Baudelaires, Sunny was the one with whom Beatrice communicated the most, because Sunny could still understand her every word, unlike Violet and Klaus, who often had to ask Sunny to translate Beatrice’s shrieks.
‘
Oui’ said the little Beatrice, which here meant something alone the lines of ‘Yes, Sunny.’, as the two walked past mountains of broken plates and solid towers of enormous plates Sunny could only imagine had been used to harbor very big meals at least once before.
Sunny noticed the Cafeteria was just ahead, and that the doors were open, and a lot of noise could be heard. Sunny and Beatrice entered the building, with a sign that laid above the entrance that read ‘
Cafeteria; B.Y.O.P.’ Sunny found that very curious. When they entered, Sunny felt as if she was back at Prufrock Prep, as the cafeteria looked almost exactly like that of the austere school the Baudelaires had spent a particularly distressing semester in, and that was also where the Baudelaires first met Duncan and Isadora Quagmire. Sunny’s little heart suddenly became heavy; the Quagmires had been missing, and no attempt at finding them taken by the Baudelaires had led to any useful clue. Sunny looked at the long tables, almost as if Duncan, and Isadora were there somewhere. It has a big hall, and Sunny looked at every table, unconsciously trying to spot her dear friends. The cafeteria was empty save for the farthest table, where a group of workers conversed energetically.
‘Ze boss said you could cook.’ A male voice sounded right behind the two little girls and they quickly turned their head to see a tall, thin man wearing a white chef hat with grease stains, and an aprom that Sunny would imagined that had been used to mop the floors with.
‘Yes, sir. You must be the chef.’ Sunny replied.
‘I’m Pierre, ze chef. And you are?’ asked the chef, Pierre.
‘I am Sunny Baudelaire, and this is Beatrice Baudelaire.’
‘But you are a
petite fille!
Un enfant!’
‘
Fillet?’ Beatrice asked, which probably meant ‘Beef?’
‘Non, non,
petite fille is little girl, little girl.’ Said Pierre.
‘I may be a little girl, sir,’ – Sunny said, -‘But I can really cook. I’ll prove it to you if you want.’
‘Not necessary, Prunille, or
qui serait tu nom.’
‘Sunny, sir, not Prunille.’- Sunny did not undestand why the man would mistake her name for one that was so different.
‘Whatever. Come to ze kitchen. Can ze ozer
enfant cook too?’ Pierre asked, while walking and turning his head back to face the two girls.
‘No, but she can sew.’
‘
Ici ne c’est pas ze place to sew,
c’est la place for cuisine,
comprend?’ Pierre stated. ‘
L’enfant can stay
ici, while you help
moi in ze kitchen. Come, Prunille.’
Sunny told Beatrice to stay sitting at one of the tables, and she accompanied Pierre to the kitchen. It looked a lot like the kitchen of the restaurant she had visited at Hotel Denouement, if only slightly dirtier. There several aide cooks tending to hot frying pans and pots that burbled and boiled, several stoves occupied in baking pies and cakes. A cook prepaires sushi, while another mixed the pudding, for dessert.
‘Your job, fille, is to make
les glaces. Or ze ice, as you call it your language.’
‘Ice? But that’s not cooking!’
‘
Oui,
je comprend,
mais, we need ice. So, make ice,
bonne petite fille.’ Pierre gave Sunny ice containers and pointed to the fridge. Then he went to another part of the kitchen from where clouds of steam floated out constantly.
Sunny then began the process of filling the ice containers with water and putting them in the freezer. She had to ask for an aide cook to put the containers in the freezer, as she could not reach them, and this proceeded for several hours that were incredibly boring to Sunny. But while she made ice in the kitchen, something really interesting happened out in the cafeteria and Beatrice was there to witness it.
While Sunny made ice in the kitchen, Beatrice saw the three Fullfilments walk into the cafeteria, at which point a cook who also seemed to serve as a waiter came rushing towards them to take their orders. Apparently, Ferdinand was tired of losing to Victoria in their game of cards, and Cindry decided to tag along with them in their break.
‘I just can’t win from you can I Vicky?’
‘No you can’t, and don’t call me Vicky in front of the workers, Ferdinand.’
‘What are your orders today, Mr. and Misses Fullfiment?’ asked the subservient waiter cook.
‘The usual, Andreas, or what’s-your-name.’ said Victoria, sitting at a table considerably smaller, and much more expensive than all the others, where apparently the family always enjoyed their meals at the cafeteria apart from all the workers.
‘I don’t know why they come here anyways.’ Mumbled the cook waiter as he walker by Beatrice’s table.
‘Wait, isn’t that the littlest of Baudelaires over there?’ asked Ferdinand, noticing Beatrice sitting several feet ahead of them.
‘Yes, it’s her. Come here, Beatrice, have tea with us!’ Victoria invited.
Beatrice walked over to the Fullfilments’ table and sat with them, in a comfortable armchair that contrasted deeply with the wooden benches the workers sat on to have their meals.
‘We were just talking about you, Baudelaires. We think you’ll fit right in here at FFF no problem. But we will have to find something for you to do, young Baudelaire.’ Said Ferdinand, who still hadn’t learned Beatrice’s name.
‘Her name is Beatrice, uncle.’ Said Cindry, looking at her uncle as if he were an idiot.
‘I thought it was Beatrix, or Bellatrix.’ Ferdinand replied, looking at Cindry as if she were an idiot.
‘But it is Beatrice.’- Cindry replied, as if declaring that Ferdinand was, de facto, an idiot.
‘I think it is Bellatrix.’
‘Beatrice.’
‘Bellatrix.’
‘
Beatrice.’
‘
Bellatrix.’
‘
Beatrice!’
‘
Bellatrix!’
‘Oh, shut it, you two!’-Victoria shouted. At this point Ferdinand and Cindry’s angry faces were inches from each other and the two had climbed on top of the table.
‘Cindry, my dear niece, exactly how
long do you plan on staying here?’ – Ferdinand tried to sound as if he was asking casually, but when he was actually and very transparently fed up with Cindry.
‘Changing the subject,’ – Victoria interrupted – ‘I think we should talk seriously, Ferdinand. I have sensed certain hostility from the staff lately, I think we may be facing a…
strike.’ – Victoria said the last word so low that it was almost impossible to hear as if she had said a very dirty secret.
‘A strike? That’s impossible!’ – said Ferdinand.
‘No, actually Laverne has mentioned something like that earlier.’ Victoria said. ‘ We’ll have to attend today’s Union gathering later today, and hopefully we’ll be able to stop the strike.’
‘Understood. Also, did you notice we haven’t received the
Punctilio, Victoria? I have been meaning to ask Laverne what happened. The last letter told me that
he could communicate somehow through the
Punctilio, but we haven’t seen a single issue of the paper since we hired Laverne and Ferguson.’- Ferdinand said.
‘Are you sure it’s safe to mention
him in front of the baby?’ – Victoria looked at Beatrice very strangely, as if Beatrice could attack her at any moment.
‘It’s not like she is working with the
other side, Victoria. And after all she is a baby. The Baudelaires can be trusted. Haven’t you read…the…
reports?’ Ferdinand asked.
‘I have, Ferdinand. I know they can be trusted, but what about Laverne and Ferguson? We didn’t exactly look much into their pasts. Nor did we do with any of the workers, now that I think of it.’
‘Nonsense. I don’t think Laverne or Ferguson are on the other side.’
At this point, the waiter arrived and interrupted the conversation. Cindry, who had been boringly stared at Beatrice the whole time, suddenly became very excited, but before eating she asked if those dishes were brand new. The waiter stopped, all of a sudden, and she immediately realized the dishes had been used before. Cindry literally went crazy at such discovery, climbed on the table and kicked the plates and cups off the table, demanding brand new dishes. It was only after the waiter brought their orders in a new set of dishes that she stopped midway thorugh her tantrum, and Ferdinand, Victoria, and Beatrice could clean themselves of the pieces of cake and tea stains. After that they continued their conversation, but on other subjects. Ferdinand and Cindry even started arguing many times with Victoria always interrupting them.
Beatrice didn’t know what to think of what she had overheard. She had to wait for Sunny’s break to reveal what she had heard, because Sunny could translate it more properly to her siblings what she said. Suddenly, the siren sounded, and after a while a line of workers began to pour in from outside. It was lunch time, and when Beatrice saw Violet and Klaus coming in followed closely by Laverne, she was as happy as she was worried.
Also Not a Chapter
From this point on the story resumes it’s sequential rhythm, and the chapters narrate things that happen one after the other instead of all at one time. If you read the last chapters, you’ll probably agree that this is story is far to dreadful to keep reading and will go find something else to read, like a show choir rule book.
Chapter Nine
The lunch is the second more important meal of the day, seconded only by breakfast. Because if don’t have breakfast due to your hurry in escaping the house of a host you just discovered is actually trying to kill you, you must at least find some time to have lunch or you won’t have the strength it takes to disguise yourself as a friend of your enemy host and go back into their house to retrieve an important file that fell out of your briefcase, so you can be back home for dinner in time to check if no one poisoned your soup. The four Baudelaires now sat at the Fullfilments’ table at the Cafeteria, where Ferdinand insisted they should sit, because it was their first day. Cindry decided to take a walk before joining the Baudelaires for lunch, and the three Fullfilments left the Cafeteria, leaving the Baudelaires alone to discuss what they had done and witnessed in their first shifts.
‘Clearly what Ferguson burned at the factory building was the paper and the note. But are you certain it was sent by the same person that sent us the letter?’ Violet asked Klaus.
‘Yes. You’ll remember the red wax seal on the letter. There was a smudge of what could only be red wax in the note, and the handwriting looked very similar, at least.’ Klaus answered.
‘We have to warn Ferdinand, then. I think Laverne and Ferguson intercepted the newspapers and the note.’
‘But what did Ferdinand mean by other side? Does he suspect they’re in the other side of the schism? Are the Fullfilments in V.F.D.?’ Sunny asked.
‘They must be. Or else, why would we get the letter? The person who sent it must know us enough to know about our involvement with the organization. They want us to stop whoever is up to something here at the factory, but everyone is so suspicious-looking I’m not sure who to suspect.’ Violet said.
‘Cindry, for certain, is not in V.F.D., according to what Beatrice said. The whole time she looked bored. I don’t think she knows that her aund and uncle are in any organization.’ Klaus added.
‘At least one organization that doesn’t involve recycling china.’ Violet said.
‘Understood. So our plan is to reveal what we know to Ferdinand?’ Klaus asked.
‘No, I don’t think we should do that.’
‘Why not, Violet?’ Sunny asked.
‘You must certainly remember Esmé Squalor. We didn’t know who she actually was until it was too late. We cannot know for sure if Ferdinand and Victoria are noble, of if they are villains.’
‘
Noble enough.’ Muttered the little Beatrice.
‘Yes, Violet, but Ferdinand and Victoria are very kind to us, Esmé never pretended to care about us, all she cared about was being
in.’ Klaus added.
‘
Sugar!’ said the little Beatrice, and this time even Violet and Klaus understood her immediately.
‘
How could we have forgotten? Last night, when offered tea, Laverne asked for sugar, Violet!’- Klaus said, slapping himself in the forehead.
‘Do you think she could be looking for the sugarbowl?’, Violet asked. ‘But isn’t the bowl at the bottom of the lagoon by what once was Hotel Denouement?’ Violet shruddered. The mention of the lagoon reminded her of the dark moment where Dewey had his chest pierced by a harpoon gun. She still guilted over it, as he was only shot when the Baudelaires dropped the heavy harpoon gun that Olaf violently shoved into their arms.
‘Dewey…’ Sunny mumbled, looking at Beatrice. The little Beatrice was the spitting image of her father, Dewey Denouement, with a little bit of Kit Snicket thrown in.
‘We will never know for sure, Violet. We didn’t search the lagoon.’ Klaus said, reasonably.
‘But the only possibility is if the sugarbowl fell into the lagoon and was retrieved by someone.’
‘I guess we will never really know. But if Laverne asked for sugar in her tea, and Ferdinand reacted the way he did, then it can only mean one thing, Klaus.’
‘Ferdinand is a member of V.F.D.’ Looking at it now, Klaus thought it was an obvious conclusion.
‘Now we have to decide if Laverne wanted sugar…or if she was testing Ferdinand as to see if he had information on the bowl.’ Violet concluded.
‘She certainly
looks suspicious, with those goggles.’ Sunny said.
‘
Eccentrica.’ Beatrice said, which Sunny translated to her siblings as ‘She is strange looking, and acts very strangely as well.’
‘Well, I don’t know that, but if she deserves suspicion, Ferguson deserves three times as much. He is just…
shady.’ Klaus said.
‘We’ll have to talk to Ferdinand and Victoria after the Union gathering, then. We can’t let this by, Klaus. This time, we can do something, and we will.’
‘Sure, Violet. But what if…’ and Violet, Sunny, and Beatrice never heard what Klaus intended to ask because Cindry appeared, just entering the cafeteria. She had changed to another version of the uniform, and had a sweater vest on, and this time she wasn’t wearing her characteristic beret, instead, with her hair tied in a small pigtail.
Klaus blushed at this vision, and Cindry showed him a large smile as she sat next to Violet at the table.
‘I see you like this uniform, right, Klaus? Tee hee!’
‘Um…’ Klaus coughed, ‘S-sure, Cindry.’
‘What were you guys talking about?’ Cindry asked, her hand raised in the air, summoning the waiter with a gesture.
‘Um, nothing important, Cindry.’
‘Alright. Please bring me tea, waiter, and make sure you add three cubes of sugar in it, alright?And make sure you use a
brand new cup this time.’ Cindry said to the waiter.
‘
Wormwood.’ Said the little Beatrice.
‘What?’ Cindry asked.
‘Nothing, it’s just that we believe that tea should be as bitter as wormwood and sharp as a double-edge sword.’ Said Klaus.
‘That’s senseles. Tea tastes much better if it has lots of sugar in it.’
‘If you think so…’
‘Cindry, what does the
B.Y.O.P. on the Cafeteria sign mean?’ Sunny asked, remembering the strange letters.
‘
Bring Your Own Plate. I thought you knew it. My uncle and aunt are making the workers bring their own plates because apparently they can’t spend anymore in brand new quality china for everyone.’
The Baudelaires were surprised to hear this, as it seemed as if Cindry ruled her uncle and aunt with an iron fist, and they suddenly felt more admiration towards their employers.
‘Will your four attend the Union later?’ Cindry asked, sipping on the tea that had just been brought by the waiter.
‘Yes, all workers must go, right?’ Violet said.
‘Yes. I fing them really boring, but at least the reunions take place at my theater slash auditorium, in the administrative building, and they always let me to do a play after the reunions.’
‘What do you plan on enacting today?’ Violet asked.
‘This weird script I found in the library,
The World is Quiet Here by playwright Linda Rhaldeen. Someone scribbled all over it, underlining every ten words and writing notations and such…A mess, but it’s a good play.’
At the mention of the V.F.D. motto, Klaus, Violet, Sunny and Beatrice squirted their tea out their noses in surprise. They had not seem it coming, and the four of them coughed and gagged for five minutes until they were able to talk to a disgusted Cindry again.
‘What happened? Have you read the script? Didn’t you all like it?’
‘It’s not that, it’s just…’ Klaus started to speak but Cindry interrupted him.
‘Oh, Klaus, will you act in the play? I’d love it if you would go to rehearse with me, as I haven’t had much time to do so.’ And she put her hands on Klaus’ and gave him another of her big smiles.
‘S-sure, Cindry…Ouch!’ – Violet kicked Klaus’ ankle under the table, her lips silently and ostensivly reminding him what they planned to do after the reunion. ‘We…are…going to see…Ferdinand…what do you…think…you’re…doing?’
‘Uh, sorry, Cindry, I’ll have to refuse, we have to make an appointment with your uncle, it’s important…but I’ll be happy to help you with your play tomorrow or after…’ said Klaus after Cindry put on a big pout crowned with a frown worthy of Esmé Squalor.
‘I see. Ok then, if it’s so important, but I’ll get my hands on you tomorrow, Klaus and you’re not getting out of it!’ Cindry warned him. Klaus blushed and started staring at his now empty tea cup.
‘Oh, have you finished that?’ Cindry grabbed the cup without ceremony and tossed it out the window, and a breaking noise was heard.
‘Remember, never, never
ever to use the same dish twice.’ And she showed another big smile.
After a few minutes Cindry left the Cafeteria, for the administrative building. Violet pulled Klaus aside, away from Sunny and Beatrice.
‘You…like her, don’t you?’
‘I…I guess.’
‘Klaus…’
‘I know…But Fiona made her choice, didn’t she, Violet?’
‘I guess you are correct.’
‘I mean, Cindry is a
tad eccentric, but I think I’ll be able to talk her out the whole plate thing…
eventually.’
‘I doubt it, but I’m looking forward to seeing that.’ Violet gave her brother a big smile.
Violet was happy that Klaus had gotten over Fiona’s betrayal. Ever since they last saw her to that moment, Klaus had never even looked at other girls or even considered being involved with one. The Baudelaires mainly took care of each other, and Klaus was no exception. Violet would have bet the entire Baudelaire fortune that Klaus still was hurt about Fiona, and she was happy that her brother had been able to finally open his heart to another girl, even such an eccentric – and spoiled, if I may say so – girl as Cindry Fullfilment.
As for herself, Violet knew she would not be able to do the same thing.
He was still out there somewhere, she believed.
‘We will meet again, Quigley.’ Violet thought. ‘And we’ll be together.’