In your lifetime (or, possibly, seconds before your death), you have probably heard the phrase "between a rock and a hard place." This simply means that no option you are faced with is attractive. And while I am in fact literally between a rock and a hard place, which is chafing my suit, this term is figuratively (a word which here means "metaphorically") used to describe Violet and Sunny. They did not want to transport the Sugar Bowl the Prospero, but they did not want to go home, and let the villains triumph once again. But the Baudelaire girls did not voice their conflict when Aunt Josephine sat in Violet's lap in small wooden box.

"This contains the Sugar Bowl", Josephine said.
"Watch over it. Protect it. When you reach the Prospero, place it on the sink counter in the ladies' room. Then your work is done."

And so off the Baudelaire girls went, on a journey that was mundane and boring enough to make one suspicious. The two Great Danes that pulled the trolley, Ching and Ling, were unnervingly obedient. The food, which ranged from rainbow trout to Sunny's favorite, chicken kiev, was strangely delectably. And the roads were disturbingly smooth. In fact, enough time had passed without an unfortunate event of some sort that the Baudelaire's had begun to enjoy their trip. But, of course, a group of novels called A Series of Unfortunate Events are bound to be filled with a series of unfortunate events. Otherwise, this book would begin with the heading A Series of Unfortunate Events That End Half-Way Through The Novel and Never, Ever Return. And now I sadly say that another unfortunate event did in fact strike the Baudelaires. The sisters stopped at a small lakeside park to allow the restless dogs some exercise. Violet was playing fetch with Ling when she was approached by a man with no beard and eyebrows.

"Hello", said the Man With No Beard and Eyebrows, "You must be Violet. Oh yes, oh yes."

"You must be mistaken", said Violet, giving away nothing with her mouth or her eyes.

"No. No. Oh yes, oh yes", the Man With No Beard and Eyebrows replied.

"You have the Sugar Bowl with you. Oh yes, oh yes."

It took every ounce of strength in Violet not to disclose the secret of the Sugar Bowl's location.

"The what?" she said coyly.

For a moment there was silence.

"Pity about your parents. Tell Jerome hello for me. Oh yes, oh yes", the Man said, flashing a yellow toothed grin. The man then walked off, leaving Violet silent and terrified.