Chapter Two
Upon entering the Anwhistle Aquatics, the Baudelaire orphans felt great relief. Inside the large station, it was warm. Lars took them to a room that much resembled the room where Capt Widdershins kept his Herman Melville waterproof uniforms in the long gone
Queequeg. Violet could not be happier to get out of her soaked clothes and put on new, dry ones. Instead of a dress and a coat, boots, pants, and a new set of tight leather overalls. Klaus put on a large sweater, new pants and a scarf to avoid catching a cold. Sunny got a new warmer dress, and Beatrice had a tougher time choosing an outfit as there were so many that befitted her fashion sense. She ended up choosing a warm dress and a hood to keep her head warm.
'Did you like your new clothes?' asked Lars, after changing his own. Before, Lars was wearing a large blue coat not much different from the one Count Olaf once sported back when he was under the disguise of Captain Sham.
'Yes, Mr. Gabriel.' Violet answered. Getting out of their damp clothes was a relief, but Violet needed more than warm, dry clothes. She needed answers.
'How did you know to pick us up, Mr. Gabriel?' she asked, looking determined as she stared right into Lars' eyes. He looked at Violet, and then at the other Baudelaires. Lars sat down on the near bench, and began talking.
'I was informed through Volunteer Factual Dispatch of your misadventures at Montague Manor. I was supposed to wait for you where I was, as Mortimer asked me to.' he said, looking as if he was haunted by a ghost. 'Once I saw he fire had began, I knew they had suceeded. I could have left, but I made a vow to never break promises again. I promised Mortimer Montague I would wait for you, and so I did.'
'You knew him?' Klaus asked. He approached Lars, and crouched on the floor, their eyes now in the same level. 'What else did you know?'
'I knew you were the Baudelaires, from the stories I heard. Awful stories, almost too dreadful to tell, read, or write. I feel your pain, Baudelaires. When you thought you found an ally, he dies.' Lars looked at the floor, almost as if it was his fault that the Baudelaires now stood before him, after having their lives thrown into the
maelstrom of misfortune and horror that they now were.
Maelstrom, of course, is a word which here means 'whirpool', or more acuratelly, 'something that is too dreadful and damp to describe, but is terrifying nonetheless.'
'It's not like it's the first time.' said Violet, sitting besides Lars. 'Our lives have been a turmoil of despair for too long.' Violet picked Beatrice and put the little girl on her lap.
'I lost allies too. Invaluable volunteers. My partner... All because of...' Lars suddenly stopped, and the Baudelaires could tell that he had talked too much.
'Because of what?' Sunny asked, as neither Violet or Klaus dared to, and Beatrice could only have said 'Enigma?' which Lars probably would not have understood. Lars stood up, and faced the four Baudelaires. 'I have to take you to my boss, Elizabeth Anwhistle. She wants to meet you. She heard great things about you, Baudelaires.'
'Lars, is she related in any way to
Gregor Anwhistle? The icthyologist?' Klaus asked. The Baudelaires had heard of Gregor before in a letter from Kit Snicket concerning the research of the medusoid mycelium, which is so dreadful that I will now refrain from commenting on, as it will appear once again in the Baudelaires' lives.
'Well...Elizabeth...I should best not talk about her family. Since Gregor's death, she has been particularly adamant about it.' Lars said, using a word which here meant 'insistant on not talking about one's family' 'I'll give you a tour of the station as we head for the bridge.'
Making a hand gesture telling the Baudelaires to follow him, Lars Gabriel led them through several rooms and areas of the
Anwhistle Aquatics. There was a room full of fish skeletons and fossils, with a portrait of a man who the Baudelaires assumed to be Gregor Anwhistle, who greatly resembled his brother, Ike Anwhistle, from the pictures of the latter that they had seen during their stay at their Aunt Josephine's house. There was a large cafeteria decorated in mosaics that immitated the ocean floor, resembling the walls of the Gorgonean Grotto, the cavern that laid beneath the
Aquatics, where Violet had spent her fifteenth birthday, with Klaus, Sunny, and volatile friend named Fiona. Sunny did not even have time to peek at the kitchen, as they quickly went outside of the station, not before Lars grabbed enough rain coats for all five of them.
'We have to go up these outdoor stairs to the second level!' shouted Lars, barely audible over the sound of the heavy wind and rain. 'It's maddening, but they still haven't fixed the main stairs yet. They were of emerald wood, they burned quite completely in the fire!'
Never before had the Baudelaires felt such a cold rush of wind as they did that day, climbing their way up the metallic stairs that led to the upper levels of the Anwhistle Aquatics. Not even when they fell down an elevator shaft, or when they went down a slippery slope on a tobogan, or when they fell out of a hotel rooftop on a boat into the ocean, and this particular time, the wind seemed specially dedicated to making the task of climbing the stairs a Herculean task. 'Herculean' is a word which here means 'something that is
very hard to do', like an admission exam to a secret organization, putting out a fire with one's own saliva, or faithfully reproducing a famous painting to replace the original with. Hercules, from the Greek myths, originated such word, and as a demi-god, he was perfectly capable of performing Herculean tasks. The Baudelairs, however, were not demigods. They were four scared
humans climbing a suspiciously unstable metallic flight of stairs during a storm.
'Hitchcock!' shouted the little Beatrice, afraid of the heights at which they were at. One fall would prove to be a potentially lethal event, from were they were. With 'Hitchcock!' Beatrice here meant 'I don't want to fall!'
'You won't fall, Bea.' said Violet, who held Beatrice tightly in her arms. Klaus held Sunny, right behind them, and ahead was Lars Gabriel. It had just been dawn, but the sky was dark, and the clouds looked menacing. Down below, the sea was raging, tall waves colliding with the Anwhistle Aquatics' supporting pillars and cables.
'Is this whole station safe, Lars?' Klaus shouted, making himself be heard over the loud sound of the wind. Lars did not look back, but he answered.
'Of course, Klaus! Our best volunteers built this station! It's foundations are rock solid! Don't you worry, we're almost there!' And he pointed upwards, at an upper metal platform. The stairs spiralled upwards onto the platform, and almost as if a good sign, the wind slowed.
'Quick, before the wind rages again!' said Lars, climbing the stairs rapidly. The Baudelaires followed, and indeed in no time, they saw themselves inside a warm chamber inside the Anwhistle Aquatics. Not a second after they closed the door, the wind resumed it's raging routine.
'This way to the bridge.' said Lars, heading to the opposite door, and opening it.
'Can't we recover our breaths first? I feel as if I just climbed a mountain!' said Klaus, bent over with his hands on his knees, exhausted.
'Now you know how I felt climbing Mt. Fraught, Klaus.' Violet said, but she quickly regreted it. Mentioning Mt.Fraught brought Quigley back into the foregrounf of Violet's mind, and it was painful to think about him. She quickly tied her hair with her ribbon, to focus on something else.
'Invention?' Beatrice asked upon watching Violet tie her hair. Violet looked kindly at Beatrice. 'No, Bea. Not right now. I just don't want to think about...I just want to focus on the
now.' she said. She could not pronnouce his name.
'Great, now if you're all recovered, Elizabeth Anwhistle is waiting. And she does
not like to wait.' Lars said, holding onto the doorknob. Klaus stood up, having recovered his breath, and taking Sunny's hand, went first into the passage. Violet took Beatrice's hand and followed them, with Lars Gabriel closing the door behind them. The corridor was lit with red lights, and full of tubulations and pipes, and pressure outlets. It was steamy and hot, and not very pleasant, but the Baudelaires barely noticed. They were nervous to know that they soon would be meeting someone who could probably answer questions they had, questions about the new purpose of the Anwhistle Aquatics, the mysterious entity in the depths known as 'the Great Unknown' and several other questions that filled their minds. And for now, the four Baudelaires allowed themselves to feel relieved.