My name is Isadora Quagmire. I live on a hot-air mobile home with my brothers. I scour the skies every day looking for Kla- er, the Baudelaires. Quigley and Duncan look for them too. I will tell you how we got here, but it isn't a pleasant tale.
Before the fire...
I was sitting in my room, working on a poem. Duncan was in his room. Quigley was in the library. I went to go ask Duncan what he thought of my poem. I was in the hall and smelled smoke. I wondered where it was coming from. Has mom or dad burnt something? I passed by the living room and did a double-take. The sofa and chairs were all flaming! I ran to get Duncan.
I threw open the door to his room. "DUNCAN! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!" I screamed.
"What's goin' on?" he said.
"The living room is on fire!"
"We have to get Quigley first." We went to the library but we couldn't get there. The doorway was flaming! We went back to my room because it was closest. I realized that we would have to go out the window. I grabbed my commonplace book and smashed the window. I grabbed Duncan's commonplace book and chucked it out the window.
"We'll get it when we're out of here. Quigley's probably out there with mom and dad." I said.
"OK. Let's go." he said.
I jumped out the window and landed sprawled on the ground. I just managed to get out of the way before Duncan jumped out of the window. He somehow managed to land on his feet and not fall over. We ran across the street and we watched the fire department arrive. The firemen came after the blaze was out and told us that they hadn't found any bodies. I started crying. I couldn't believe it. Mom. Dad. Quigley. All dead.
"No." I whispered to myself. "No. It can't be. No. They can't be dead."
"We'll take care of each other now, right?" Duncan said. I barely heard him. I was blinded by grief.
"Uh-huh." I said.
"Well, you two can do that at school." I heard a smooth female voice say.
"What?" I said. I wiped away my tears and looked up. A woman with short blond hair and a rather ugly white pinstripe suit was standing next to us.
"You two are going to go to Prufrock Preparatory School." the woman said. "My name is Esme Squalor. I'm the city's 6th most important financial advisor."
"We're only going to Prufrock Preparatory School if we can go together." I said, standing up.
"Well of course you're going together." Esme said sweetly. Too sweetly. The next thing I knew, we were getting into a white limousine and we were riding away from our old home. I started crying, softly so that no one would see the tears running down my face. We were really leaving.