Chapter 13
There are many places I am sure you wan to be, and I am sure a taxi is not one of them. I Myself have been inside many taxis in my life, sometimes as the driver, sometimes as the passenger, and sometimes hidden in the trunk, or occasionally inside a suitcase on the backseat. Taxis are sued for transporting people who cannot be bothered to learn to drive or simply walk down the street, to a destination of their choice for a ridiculous fee. Despite this fairly simple method, Taxis remain as miserable as the people who drive them.
But this particular taxi was even more gloomy than your average taxi, because the three people inside it all had great reason to be miserable.
Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire paid the driver, and walked down the long path to Justice Strauss’ house without saying a word to one another.
Violet knocked on the door, and they heard the noise of somebody running down the stairs, and turning the key before letting them in.
The Baudelaires went and sat on the sofa in the front room, and they sat here a half hour, waiting fro something to happen. And then the doorbell rang. Klaus went and let Jerome in, and Frank came in from the kitchen, and all five of them sat down in the front room to discuss what was happening next.
Thankfully, it had been the wrong number, but really that was all the Baudelaires could be thankful for. In fact, as Joseph soon remembered, the correct number was 17, not 18. But by that point, an out of breath and extremely worried Justice Strauss had already warned them of the bomb set to go off.
‘Why do you think he did it?’ said Klaus
;Joseph?’ said frank ‘No one can truly understand how a madman’s mind works, Klaus. But I suppose the prospect of death was more appealing than having tof ace up to the murders he had committed earlier that very same day.’
‘She should have stayed outside.’ said violet.
‘Don’t blame yourself sweetheart.’ said Jerome ‘She wanted to stop her son from killing himself. There was nothing w could do.’
Of the many gravestones I have visited over the course of my long and lonely life, the five gravestones of the five people who died on that day will always sadden me the most, because it reminds me not only of what I failed to do, but also of what I had succeded in doing. Justice Strauss, Joseph Strauss, Daniel Mitchum, A man whose name is so terrible I can only refer to him as the man with a beard but no hair, and, strangely enough, mister M, had all died on that fateful day, and those deaths were only the start of many more deaths to come.
‘Do you know where Esme is?’ asked Klaus
‘Unfortunately.. No.’ said Jerome ‘But we have reason to believe she is somewhere in the hinterlands, but we’re not sure yet.’
The sad event’s surrounding the kidnap of Beatrice Baudelaire the second are of course, terrible. I am sure it is not impossible for you to guess what happened, and I certainly hope it is not. Klaus had, of course failed in his confrontation, and with the help of Samuel, and Carmelita, the Baudelaires were soon outnumbered. If ti hadn’t been for David Faraday, and the swift arrival of a strange girl called Anka, Klaus, Sunny, and Beatrice would all have been arrested. But one of the policemen who had arrested Esme had turned out to be working for Esme all along, and had
Klaus not recognized the wart-faced man from that fateful performance of The Marvellous Marriage, He and sunny would not have been able to escape. Sadly, however, Beatrice was not saved.
‘What do we do?; Sunny asked
‘What do you mean by that exactly?; said frank
‘She means what do we do next. Us. The Baudelaires.’ said violet.
‘Well.. I don’t know.’ said frank. ‘It depends on what you want to do.’
‘I think I know what you should do, Baudelaires.’ said Jerome ‘After all, that’s why I came.’ Jerome Pulled out a small piece of paper from his pocket and began to read what was written on it.
‘From D to J
We are ready to meet in the specified location. D, D, D, D, I, Q, J, and D are there. We hope you bring V, K, S, B and J with you.’‘that’s Why I came here in the first place. VFD is ready to meet. There are a lot of thing that need to be sorted out. In the last two years, Baudelaires, everything has just got so confusing. Nobody knows who to trust, who is friend or foe. Nobody know who anybody is, and even if you know who someone is, you don’t even know where that person is anyway. It is our hope that\VFD can finally meet up and we can decide what to do.’
All three Baudelaires thought about this option, and all three of them came to a different decision.
Violet spoke first ‘But what about Mr Poe? Where is he?’
‘Nobody really know‘s.’ said Frank ‘Except that Esme Squalor took him.’
‘And are you tying to find him?’
‘Me, personally?’ said frank ‘No. But I’m sure someone somewhere is. That’s the problem, you see. Nobody knows what anyone else is doing, and we’re hoping the meeting can sort all that out.
‘But’ said Klaus ‘what about that Mister M person? He said he was from the future and he also said…’ Klaus paused. He had not yet told Violet what Mister M had said about Klaus’ death, and he was particularly worried, because if the future had not changed, then surely that meant…
‘From what little information I can gather’ said Jerome, interrupting Klaus’ trail of thought ‘It seems Mister M really did travel back from the future, as impossible as it may sound. But I’m afraid, Baudelaires, I cannot tell you any more until I know you’ll come with me to the VFD meeting.’
‘We’re coming’ said violet. ‘Just let us change out of our mourning clothers and then we can pack our things.’
‘Sugar bowl.’ said sunny. Sunny was, of course, the youngest Baudelaire. But over the course of her life, the mystery of the sugar bowl and what exactly it contained had always rested on the young child’s mind, and when she had learned her sister had come close yo having it, sunny desperately wanted to know where it was.
‘Ah.’ Said Frank ‘Its upstairs.’
Frank had, of course, been responsible for saving violets life, and so the Baudelaires had had no choice in offering him a room at the house that was formally Justice Strauss’ but was now there’s. But for the last three days, they had had no idea he had the sugar bowl hidden in his room
‘It’s here?’ said Klaus ‘Well lets go and get it. What’s inside it?’
‘I’m afraid I can’t do that Klaus. The Sugar Bowl must remain hidden. We fed the lie to OFD about it being hidden in the bank, and they fell for it hook, line, and sinker. But now the
Sugar Bowl must remain with me, and it must remain unknown. If anyone learned what was actually inside… well, I think the entire world would begin to search for it.’
‘Oh.’ said sunny, rather disappointed.
‘Right.’ said Jerome. ‘I suppose we best be off. The train to our location leaves in an hour.’
And so the Baudelaires went to pack things and change into new clothes, and 20 minutes later, they prepared to leave the city it had taken so long for them to return to. Frank refused to take Jerome’s invitation to go to the VFD meeting, and he asked the Baudelaires if he could remain in their house, to which they told him it was fine.
As the Baudelaires boarded the train, they were all worried
‘Don’t worry.’ said Jerome. ‘We’ll find Beatrice. And we’ll find out what Mister M was talking about. And we’ll sort out everything. I promise.’
Jerome didn’t know, of course, if he would sort everything else, and of course we would not. But at that moment in time it was just what the Baudelaires wanted to hear, and it was the best for which they could ask
Dear Reader
As I type this, looking down at the wreckage of the small building in which the remains of VFD Met all those years ago, I can only pray that you will not continue on the Baudelaires journey of unfortunate events, because only more death, despair, and misery await.
I pray that you will not read the next 13 stages of the Baudelaire lives collectively known as The Meagre Meeting, because I warn you, you do not want to know about the return of two old friends, the return of another old friend, the introduction of several new friends, the return of several old enemies, the introduction of a new enemy, and a man called Mr Rook.
When this next book begins publication on April 10th, I implore you not to turn on your computers, or else I will have to go to your internet service providers and kill them for you.
With All Due Respect
Mister M
Thanks to Madita. You're awesome