A/N: Entry for Fictober 2018, day 4.
Prompt: "Will that be all?"
One of Violet Baudelaire's favorite activities when she was three years old was accompanying her parents to the City. Two or three times a month her parents would take a whole day to go to different buildings to deal with boring-sounding adult business, like delivering and receiving paperwork, paying bills, and other things that she didn't even understand yet. Violet was still too young to go out on her own so she loved going with them on these trips to the busiest parts of the City, being able to see the newest automobiles on the street and all sort of devices in the waiting rooms.
Her parents noticed that she wasn't as excited today. They exchanged worried looks with each other, knowing something was wrong. At first, it could seem that she was concentrated in some new idea, but her hair was not tied up with her ribbon. Her mother asked her a few times if she was feeling well, but Violet just nodded in reply.
Violet wasn't sure if she felt well. Her body was alright, but she was a little scared, because since the family left the trolley, she had the impression they were being followed. Every time she turned around, she could see a man not far behind them. He was always with his head covered behind a newspaper, but Violet was sure that it was always the same man, by his clothes and hat.
She wanted to tell her parents about it, but she was afraid that doing so would make the man aware that she noticed him and he would go away. For some reason, she didn't want him to go away. She thought he could be bad intentioned, which was why she was afraid, but part of her considered that he could have another reason to be following them without being noticed. He had not done anything bad yet, and he had no to gain by simply following the Baudelaires to a bunch of boring offices. Violet wanted to wait and see what he would do. If he didn't end up being bad, he would not stand a chance against her father anyway. Her father was one of the strongest men in the world, losing only to Hulk and to The Rock.
So her mind raced during the walk, and she would always turn around when her parents weren't looking to see if the man was still there. It didn't seem like he was leaving.
Violet considered herself a patient girl, but her patience eventually ran out. So when they stopped for her father to drop some paper at the Mulctuary Money Management, she was ready to tell someone. She had to wait with her mother and her baby brother in the waiting room while her father went in to do his business. The man did not follow them inside. It was her chance.
But as she was about to open her mouth to speak, a woman Violet had never seen before walked to her mother.
"Beatrice! Long time no see!" She said, unnecessarily loudly.
"Hello." Violet's mother stood up to greet her. "It has been indeed a long time."
"Is that Violet?" Her mother nodded. "Look at how big she is! I remember when she was just a baby."
"Hello, madam." Violet greeted her politely. She didn't like it when adults she didn't know said they knew her when she was a baby. It felt unfair.
"And who is this little one?" The woman asked, switching to a mock baby voice, something Violet could never understand why people did.
"This is my youngest, Klaus." Her mother introduced him.
The woman greeted him with the mock baby voice. Violet might not know that woman, but she knew that no one could resist Klaus' cuteness. She also knew that her mother loved talking about her brother. They could stay distracted forever.
They could stay distracted forever.
An idea crossed Violet's mind. That was one of the first times, but definitely not the last, that she found herself in a common dilemma: doing what she knew to be right, that was staying with her mother in the bank, or doing something that might be better for everyone, in this case slipping outside unnoticed and finding out on her own about the mysterious man.
The latter won.
So, Violet soon saw herself for the first time alone on the sidewalk of a very busy street. She looked around and saw no sign of the man. Yet, her instincts told her that he had to be nearby.
The idea of crossing the street on her own was a little terrifying. On the same side she was there were some other banks and a small cafe. She imagined a child would call more attention in a bank than in a cafe, so she decided to start her search there.
She was right. No one looked at her as she entered, and sitting by the counter, with his back to the door, was the man. She remembered well the color of his suit, and he had the hat and the newspaper resting on the counter.
Violet was suddenly nervous. She did not plan what to do once she found him. Now he was there and she had no idea of what to do.
She took a deep breath and approached him.
"Excuse me, sir." She said, voice involuntarily low.
He turned his head slightly to her side, and his brown eyes widened as he saw her. It was like the little girl was the last person he expected to call him.
"Yes?"
"My name is Vi… Vincent. Vincent Bauer." At the last second she realized that maybe it was not a good idea to use her real name, but as she had not planned it beforehand, it ended up weirdly. She was sure the man could see straight through her lie, but he didn't anything. "I am doing a school project." Another unplanned lie. But Violet knew most adults that didn't have children seemed unable to tell a child's age, so she hoped it wasn't too obvious for him that she actually had just started pre-school. "We have to interview a stranger."
He frowned.
"If you are going to interview me, shouldn't you have a paper to write down my answers?" He asked, his tone soft but nowhere near a mock baby voice.
"I-I forgot it with my mother. But it's alright, I have a good memory."
He nodded.
"Does your mother know you are here?"
Violet hesitated, hit by guilt for having disobeyed her parents.
The man left some coins on the counter, took his hat and newspaper and stood up.
"I'm sorry, Vincent. I wish I could help you, but I am not fit for this. You should go back to your mother and ask for her help with this project. A young person like you should not be approaching strangers on her own."
"Please, sir, just one question!"
He sighed and turned back to her.
"Alright. One question. Will that be all?"
"Yes. One question is enough."
Violet thought for a while of what could be the best question to get the answer she wanted.
"What brought you here?" She finally asked.
He could have said anything. He could have lied. He could have said he liked the coffee there, or he could have said that it was the love of his mother and his father. He could choose from thousands of excuses that Violet would never be able to verify. But for some reason, he decided to say the truth.
"I came to deliver a message to an old friend."
Violet frowned. What could this have to do with her family?
"Did you manage to deliver it?" She asked.
"I only promised to answer one question. See you around someday, Vincent."
Before Violet could stop him, he walked out of the cafe. Despite his word choice, she had the feeling she wouldn't see him again. She was right.
She walked back to the bank, and found her mother still talking with the woman, though the subject had strayed away from Klaus for a while now. Her mother didn't seem aware that she had left. Her brother, however, gave her a questioning look.
"I will tell you someday." She whispered to him.
Violet ended up never telling him about the strange encounter. As curious as she had been about the man, he slipped from his mind, and soon she had forgotten all about the incident.
The man, however, never forgot about it.