Chapter Nine
When one is poisoned, depending on the poison, the best thing to do is seek medical assistance. If no medical assistance is available and your pet snake decided it would no longer be a pet and bit you, than it's safe to assume that one is doomed. However, the damage dealt by poisons vary in great lengths, and the poison oak that Klaus had buried his hands in was no more harmful than many other types of plants that
could provoke worse reactions in Klaus' body. Violet Baudelaire told Sunny and Beatrice to wait in the kitchen while she took Klaus to see Olive, who was in her room, in the third floor, according to Molly, the bespectacled, timid girl. The elder Baudelaires ascended to the third floor of the orphanage, and upon their arrival they noticed a series of pictures depicting many members of the Oakley family. One portrait was that of three siblings, and it had an inscription underneath. 'Osborne - Patricia - Quinn'.
'Such old-fashioned names.' Violet said. 'Let's just try to find Olive's room, shall we?' Klaus said. The rash on his hands provoked by the poison oak was itching very hard. 'Don't scratch, Klaus. You'll get blisters.' Violet warned him. She and Klaus proceeded in the hallway, which was adorned in more family pictures, three of them depicting each of the previously seen siblings' weddings. 'Osborne and Ophelia...Patricia and David...Quinn and Quentin.' Upon seeing the portrait of David and Quentin, the Baudelaires were awestricken as they both resembled two noble volunteers they were fortunate enough to be able to meet, one of them long since dead. 'Wow...' Violet couldn't help but to utter as she gazed upon the depiction of Quentin, whose green eyes greatly reminded of those eyes she so missed.
'Violet! My rash!' Klaus desperately reminded his sister as his poison oak was getting worse. 'Oh, I'm so sorry, Klaus. Let's go.' Violet and Klaus walked further down the hallway and arrived at a door which had the engraving of an olive tree on the door. 'This has to be Olive's room.' Violet knocked three times. Olive Oakley opened the door. 'Oh, Baudelaires. I was wondering where you had gone off to.' Olive then examined the Baudelaires carefully. 'Klaus, what happened to your hands?' Olive asked, noticing how red Klaus' hands had become. 'Poison oak. Long story. Help?' Klaus said, the itching was driving him insane. 'Oh, please, come in.' Olive said, and the Baudelaires entered her room. It was all decorated in dark olive green and black, but something about the room did not match Olive's personality at all, as if her real place was not there, as if she was trapped in a reality that she did not want to be in. Several portraits were hung across the room, depicting Olive throughout the course of her life; as an infant, as a child, as a young girl, as a young woman, and the most recent one, with Olive already a full grown woman. Seeing the portrait of Olive in her teens made Violet even more convinced of the physical simmilarity between her and Isadora Quagmire. The two were practically identical.
'I used to get poison oak all the time when me and my brothers played in the orchard, when we were kids.' Olive said, opening a drawer and removing a glass container containing a brown substance. 'This is a medicinal clay soaked in aloe vera, it will soothe the itching. I'll need to bandage your hands too.' Olive sat down with Klaus and proceeded onto taking care of his wounds.
'How on earth did you get poison oak in your hands? I guess it's my fault. I should have warned poison oak grows everywhere around the property. You don't wanna know how hard it was to keep the children from coming into contact with it.' Olive said, as she rubbed the clay on Klaus hands, the characteristic of aloe vera mixed with the smell of moist clay invading their nostrils. 'We have a confession to make.' Olive stopped and looked at Violet. 'We went into the orchard. We were following Mr. Flounder and Esmé Squalor.' She said. 'Mr. Flounder and Esmé? What business could they have in the orchard?' Olive was not pleased. 'Olive. Esmé is not just a mourning widow. She is a criminal, a villainess, and our sworn enemy. She came here because long ago, she buried something in that orchard. Nearby a dead tree.' Olive's expression suddenly changed. It was almost as if she was remembering events of the past she'd rather not. She stopped rubbing the clay on Klaus' hand and walked across the room, aprehensively. 'What are you saying?' Olive asked. 'I'm saying that long ago she was known by other name. She was Esmé Gigi Geniveve...
Salinger.'
'No! She can't be!' Olive's expression was almost of sheer horror, and her already pale complexion took on an even paler shade. 'Olive, how old are you?' Klaus asked. Olive said nothing. Violet walked up to Olive's infant portrait. 'You're twenty-eight, are you not, Olive?' Violet asked. 'Y-Yes.' Olive was now very nervous, every once in a while taking quick looks out the window. 'Esmé is not much older than you, which means that you must have known her while she was here, as Esmé Salinger, am I right?' Violet said. Olive stood silent - an expression which here means Olive said nothing, not that she actually
stood, as she was sitting - touching the locket she wore around her neck, which the Baudelaires hadn't noticed was a locket until now.
'Whatever it was that Esmé Squalor, née Salinger, buried in that orchard...We need it.' Violet said single-mindedly. 'However, there are many people in our way. Mr. Flounder is clearly in league with her. Nero, Mr. Remora, Ms. Bass and Ms. Perch, on the other hand, are clueless. Miss Hannigan can become a problem too.'
'If this is true, what you say...' Olive said. 'If it is true that Esmé Salinger has returned to this orphanage...I fear she will do something terrible.' Violet and Klaus became very tense. 'What do you mean?'
'Esmé's life here was not exactly a ray of sunshine. Neither is the life of anyone who lives in Ophelia. Years ago, my father was merely a teacher here, and it was our grandfather, Odolf Oakley, who administered this orphanage. He was a very religious man with a narrow mind, and he inflicted the most terrifying punishments in the orphans who caused any trouble. In his time, if there was a girl like Pepper around, she wouldn't have lasted very long.' Olive paused her speech to swallow. 'My father, of course, had other views. For this, my father was always shot down by my grandfather as the 'weak one', while my great-uncles, Ogden and Oren, helped him in his iron-fisted administration.'
'Esmé was different than other orphans who were at Old Oaks at the time. She arrived here at eight years old, her father killed with his new wife in a fire, while her own mother had been committed to Addams Asylum. Francesca Salinger, she was my father's classmate and his friend. He had promised Francesca that he would take care of Esmé if anything would happen to her.' Olive stood up and walked up to a bookshelf. She removed a leather-bound photograph album. 'Esmé did not arrive here alone, however. She had a sister.'
'She did?' Violet asked. 'Yes. Her name was...
Beatrice.'
The mention of that name sent Violet and Klaus into a numb silence. 'It can't be.' Violet said very seriously. It
could not be. Not at all. 'Well, her name was Beatrice Salinger. She was Esmé's half-sister, but the two were as thick as thieves. Best friends, who had both lost their father and their mothers' tragically.' Olive then noticed Violet and Klaus' increasingly pale and sickly complexion.
'I feel like I'm about to...Where's the nearest bathroom?' Violet asked. Olive pointed to a dark wooden door behind her. Violet went inside and soon Olive and Klaus heard the noise Violet made as she emptied her stomach. 'Are you alright, Violet? Klaus is looking a little green too.' Olive said, knocking nervously on the wood of the door while taking a look at Klaus, who was just as sickly looking. 'Klaus, you can use that trash can if you want.' Olive pointed to a trash can nearby her desk. Klaus rushed to it, and also plummeted the contents of his stomach into it. Olive rushed to his side and patted him gently on the back. 'Is it the aloe? Are you allergic to it?' Olive asked worryingly. 'No...It's not the aloe, that's for sure.'
'Beatrice...Tell me more about her.' Violet said, as she came out of the bathroom after flushing. 'There's not much to tell, I don't remember those times. I was an infant, and so were my brothers.' Violet gave Olive a strange look. 'Wait, you, and your brothers, Oliver and Otto...are you triplets?' Olive was very surprised. 'Yes. It runs in our family. My aunts Patricia and Quinn also had triplets. My grandfather thought it was a blessing from God, and took very much pride in it.'
'I'm sorry if we sound so inquisitive, but it's not up to us. We need to know everything you can tell us, Olive.' Klaus said, wiping his mouth with a tissue from his own pocket. 'Are you...by any chance...related to Duncan, Quigley and
Isadora Quagmire?' Violet asked. At the mention of those names, Olive was
very surprised. 'Wait, how...Where... Where do you know them from?' Olive said. 'We met Isadora and Duncan at our time in Prufrock Prep. And Quigley, much later, in the Mortmain Mountains. If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be here talking to you.' Violet said.
'Do you...by any chance...know where they are?' Olive's eyes were now teary, her hands together in a gesture of pure-hearted hope. 'No. Unfortunately...The last we heard of them...They were taken...By the Great Unknown.' Klaus said. Olive froze at those words. She closed her eyes and crumbled to the floor, momentarily losing her consciousness. 'Olive! Olive!' Violet and Klaus uttered as they rushed to the fallen Olive. 'They can't have been...My brothers, Otto and Oliver...The errand they're on, is looking for Isadora, Duncan and Quigley!' Olive was crying, and Klaus and Violet attempted to comfort her. At that point, they wished nothing more than to be able to tell Olive everything was going to be okay, and that Isadora, Duncan and Quigley were out there somewhere, safe and sound. Telling her this would be a lie, but the Baudelaires felt as if they had destroyed Olive's hope forever. 'My aunt Quinn...We promised her we would take care of them.' Olive said, amidst her cry. 'I'll have to tell Otto and Oliver...Next time they call, that is. They will be so disappointed. They've been looking for Duncan and Isadora for the longest while since they were both kidnapped at Prufrock Prep. We didn't even know that Quigley was alive until Dewey told us Kit had met with Quigley...But now Dewey is dead too.'
'Dewey Denouement? He helped us at Hotel Denouement!' Violet uttered in sheer surprise. 'Yes. Dewey, Frank and Ernest were our cousins, sons of aunt Patricia and David Denouement. I told you triplets ran in our family.' Olive sat back up, supporting herself on her arms. 'So, Dewey, you and the Quagmires, are all cousins.' Klaus said, stating the obvious, just for confirmation, which arrived from Olive's mouth. 'Yes.'
'Since you've told me what you know about my cousins' whereabouts, I'll tell you anything else you need on Esmé Squalor, if she indeed is the same Esmé Salinger in our records.' Olive said. 'We need to know how did Esmé leave this place. We need to know where she went, and what she did.'
'Well, that's not hard to find out. I often read the old archives in my spare time, and I did read the file on an Esmé Salinger a while ago.' Olive said, the Baudelaires helping her back up. 'Esmé lived here until she was fourteen. She divided her time between the orphanage and training school, as many of Old Oaks' orphans did back then, along with Beatrice. Esmé was the best in Drama class, the teacher at the time, Mr. Flacutono, he took a special liking to her and had her star many plays here at the Orphanage. Esmé was the best actress, from what I remember. She knew exactly how to manipulate others. She never did it in front of Beatrice, however. Esmé had always had a dark side to her that only the ones who wronged her ever saw. She was often beaten and threatened by other orphans, they called her the most horrible names, because of her mother. Back then, it was really hard in Ophelia for anyone who had such an immediate family member at the asylum.' Olive said. 'When Esmé turned eighteen, she was hired at the Bank of Ophelia as an intern, due to her prowess with economics. She always has had the talent to make money. She worked there for years, I think, until she saved enough to leave for the big city.'
'But, what about her role in V.F.D.?' The Baudelaires asked. 'Well, as far as I know, she was a real volunteer at one point, and helped many other people. But Esmé disagreed with other volunteers, she wanted to charge people for the help she provided them with. In this, she was alone. V.F.D. is a phyllantropic organization, and not an organization of mercenaries.' Olive said. 'Esmé was also in a relationship with a young man her age, but I never got his name, it doesn't say in our records. Shortly after they broke up, the schism occurred. Volunteers who worked alongside each other had to choose sides, and Esmé sided with one Count Olaf, when everyone thought she would side with the volunteers. Her sister, Beatrice, had sided with the volunteers, and the two of them never so much as spoke to each other since.'
'The events that followed are shrouded in mystery, as the file on her contains nothing but paper clippings denoting her social activities at Dark Avenue. I remember how the orphans who grew up with Esmé often talked about her achievements, saying things like 'Who would have thought she'd make it that far?' and 'That nasty girl grow up to become rich, look at us now!' and it goes downhill from there.' Olive said. 'I have to say, for one thing her keeping her husbands' name does not surprise me. She hated her maiden name. She hated her origins, her father, for leaving her mother, her mother for 'abandoning her', and all of her ties to Old Oaks and Ophelia.' Olive said, reflective. 'Being here must be torture for her. It's only fitting that she chose to don mourning garb here.'
Violet and Klaus Baudelaire still had many questions, as to
exactly who was Beatrice Salinger. Their mother was called Beatrice Baudelaire, but the Baudelaires had never heard their mother speak of so much as maiden name, and they had never known their grandparents on their mother's side. Their intuition led them to believe in something they wished desperately to be untrue, and they took a silent decision to avoid the matter until further discoveries were made. They would cross that bridge when they came to it - an expression which here means 'to not suffer in advance because of something they are going to confirm very soon, while they do not know of it yet' -
'If you're going to steal whatever Esmé dug up at the orchard, I'll help you. But if things go awry, and there is no other option...I want you both to head for town. There's a train station in Ophelia, a train departs everyday to the city. If anything happens here, I want you to be inside that train. I'll be more trancquile if you promise me you both will be on board.' Olive said. 'We...We promise, Olive.' Violet said, while Klaus nodded in agreement.
Promises are curious things. Often when we do make promises we secretly hope not to have to keep them. While Violet and Klaus Baudelaire promised Olive Oakley they would leave if things went wrong, they hoped that it would not come to that. But, dear reader, this is a story of bad things happening to orphans over and over again. If you still maintain any illusions that things will all end well for this particularly dreadful story in yet another series of unfortunate events, I promise to you, that they won't.