Eleven
There are many things in this world that are quite dangerous and that we should avoid at all costs and some of these include daggers, knives, handguns, harpoons, dynamite, poisons, saws, chandeliers, matches, bombs, tanks,
cars, letters to the editor, sandpaper, dangerous villains, coded messages, sandwiches without mustard, bank robbers, trains, termites, octopuses, rulers used in school, bananas, doilies, floods, tornados, lice, bad recipes, infernos, evil girlfriends, royal gardens, lumber mills, leeches, hypnotists, wicked assistants, disguises, unreliable newspaper articles,
lions, snow gnats, kittens, troupe members, flooded passageways, abandoned buses, circuses, half-built hospitals, coral reefs, odious lusts after finances, thieves, trained eagles, snow scouts, Incredibly Deadly Vipers, xylophones, zoos, telegrams, misguiding obituaries, jealous bachelors, forged paintings, scam artists, artists,
architects, beaches, vice presidents in charge of orphans' affairs, evil twins, identical twins, predecessors, tomato relish, needles, bones, meals without tapioca pudding, magistrates, surgeries, Venus fly traps, French restaurants, Doctor's appointments,
trips to the dentist, tripping, elevator shafts, fishnets, unknowns, the metric system, jungles, machines, computers, headlights, antlers, hurricanes, Al Funcoot, empty boxes, sonnets, couplings, carriers, mailmen, milk women, lighthouses, badgers, badges, boats, famous plays, Olaf-Land, elephants, dangerous taxi drivers, orphans, thirteen volumes of unfortunate events,
lists of useless information, dictionaries without every word in them, lunchboxes hiding weapons, weapons hiding lunchboxes, guitars, dinosaurs, Virginia Wolfe snake, birthday parties, hidden chambers, old photo albums,
Pig Latin, roasted beef, old movies, crayons, Igpay Atinlay, unrequited love, murderers, writers, typewriters, rapiers, My Silent Knot, wishful thinking, ferries that have terrible engines, names that are too difficult to pronounce, libraries that don't use the Dewey Decimal System, I have hidden this message among a long list at the beginning of this chapter hoping no one will think to read all of it but rather skip down to the more important portion of the chapter and am also inclosing a list of items you should bring with you, which should also make it seem part of the original list I mentioned; maps, car keys, commonplace book, the tickets to La Forza De Destinio, shovels,
a disguise for both of us, the money needed to purchase this manuscript, pencil and paper, erasers, a map of Lake Lachrymose, a copy of Ivan Lachrymose: A History of Lachrymose, that map you drew the other day and thumbtacks and the rest of this list is of no consequence to you so please hurry and I hope to see you soon, with all due respect, L.S., bottle caps, bottle rockets, unicorns, bottles,
natural disasters, dinner guests that show up uninvited, wire hangars, diving equipment, handguns, people with six fingers on their right hand, aquatic research stations, men in black, bullfighters, people dressed as bullfighters, O and E, D and N, R and T, the bottom of the ocean, trampolines, phonebooks with numbers missing, suspiciously linked accounts,
poor actors, mimes, mutes and a long list of dangerous items that I cannot even begin to fathom; but that are equally dangerous. But none of these dangerous things in anyway compares to the dangerous item that Mister Dominic just inquired about and none ever will, for there is nothing more dangerous in this world than the Medusoid Mycelium.
Klaus, Violet, Sunny and Beatrice stood rigidly whenever their archenemy Mister Dominic had arrived at Anwhistle Aquatics and now they were even more frightened by his request to obtain this dangerously poisonous organism and the children could only wonder what hideous plan he had in store for it if he did in fact get his hands on it. Waving the handgun toward Gustav Sebald again, their nemesis remarked, "Perhaps you are quite deaf, Dr. Sebald? I requested the location of the Medusoid Mycelium. Are you going to tell me where it is or will I have to start firing a few rounds?"
"This is why you wanted us to find the diving equipment in the Lavender Lighthouse," Klaus exclaimed. "You tricked us to drain the water for you," Sunny stated. "You children do seem to have a knack for figuring things out whenever it is too late to do anything whatsoever about it," Mister Dominic observed and then turned to the adult and stated, "Or perhaps I should threaten one of these miserable orphans? They are of no consequence to me, you know."
"Leave the Baudelaires out of this, Dominic," Gustav said and stood protectively in front of the children.
"Hmm, you know I recall Isaac said the same thing before I shot him," Mister Dominic said thoughtfully as he reflected on some wicked deed he'd done in the past and then replied, "Unfortunately, I still need you alive, Gustav; so tell me where I can find the Medusoid Mycelium."
"If you promise to not harm anyone here in Anwhistle Aquatics, I will show you," Dr. Sebald answered, to which the villain answered, "Very well, I promise." He winked toward the four siblings and stated, "I believe the Baudelaires have already found that I am a man of my word." Beatrice, Klaus, Violet and Sunny shivered involuntarily at their adversary's awful display of despicability and then Gustav walked toward the back of the aquatic research station and said, "How did you even know it would be here, Dominic?"
"I know that one of our Prime Ministers took some with him quite some time ago and he informed my contacts and I that the research for the Medusoid Mycelium had occurred in this very lab," Mister Dominic answered and turned to the children before commenting, "I bet you didn't realize that V.F.D. could be behind something so sinister, did you?"
"It was a last effort to stop the wickedness, but we inadvertently became wicked ourselves. Fernald realized that," Gustav proclaimed as they walked down a flight of stairs. The orphan's opponent kept his gun at the back of the scraggily bearded man at all times as the group moved thru the abandoned corridors of Anwhistle Aquatics and Mister Dominic commented, "Yes, but it is too bad some of you volunteers felt that he was a traitor; otherwise maybe the schism might not have been quite as severe?"
"What's done is done," Dr. Sebald said and then pointed toward a portion of the floor that had apparently rotted away. There growing thru the tile was the object of Mister Dominic's desire, the Medusoid Mycelium and currently the mushrooms were waning instead of waxing; something that made everyone feel a lot safer.
"Marvelous," Mister Dominic said as he took out a glass jar he'd been carrying and scooped up one of the mushrooms in it before commenting, "I wish Gregor Anwhistle were still alive. I would congratulate him personally." He kept the handgun pointed toward Gustav and stated ominously, "Of course I could say the same of your parents, Baudelaires."
"Our parents weren't involved in creating the Medusoid Mycelium!" Sunny objected. "True, but they were leaders of .V.F.D. whenever these malicious mushrooms were concocted; so surely they knew of them," Mister Dominic countered.
Klaus and his sisters didn't know what to say about that and so fell silent as Mister Dominic left the chamber the way they'd come and remarked, "Now if you'll excuse me, I do believe I have to go. I will keep my word and harm no one here in Anwhistle Aquatics as long as you do not follow me." "We will give you an hour's head start," Gustav Sebald conceded, to which their adversary laughed and said, "More than enough." As he turned to leave with the Medusoid Mycelium in one hand and the handgun in the other, Klaus was feeling particularly brave and perhaps particularly foolish and lunged toward their nemesis to grab either one or the other; but the villain was too fast for him and quickly had the middle Baudelaire in an iron grip a phrase which here means, "held him so tightly it was difficult to breathe."
"Leave our brother alone!" Sunny stated. "I must admit, had I not given you my word; I would snap your neck where you stood," Mister Dominic whispered in his ear and then added, "Tell your sister to remember what I told her." Shoving him back toward the group, Gustav caught Klaus before he fell and then they watched as Mister Dominic departed with the Medusoid Mycelium.
"Are you all right, Klaus?" Violet asked, checking to see if her brother had any injuries.
"Only my pride is hurt," he commented. "I think it is time for us to leave as well, Baudelaires; we only have a couple of hours after all," Gustav Sebald said as he walked back up the flight of stairs; apparently unconcerned that the Medusoid Mycelium had just been stolen.
The Baudelaires had so many questions on their mind that they weren't sure to start and so therefore quietly followed the adult into his office, where the scraggily bearded man procured some matches and proclaimed, "I should've done this whenever I arrived, but I felt it was wrong for me to do so… but I believe it is the only way to prevent that fungus from ever being misused again."
"You'll burn the last remnants of the mushrooms," Klaus said, nodding in understanding. "I should've guessed that dangerously poisonous mushroom was what Mister Dominic wanted all along," Gustav lamented as he got some old papers from a file cabinet and added, "But now the secret to creating that dangerous weapon will die just as quickly as Gregor did."
Tossing the papers toward the mushrooms and then lighting the match, Gustav and the Baudelaires watched as the tiny patch of the Medusoid Mycelium burnt and fell apart and once they were certain nothing was left; Sunny said, "I suppose this is one instance in which starting a fire is better than stopping it."
Her siblings made no comment about this remark and Dr. Sebald remarked, "We can take my car to the Lavender Lighthouse to meet up with your current guardian and my sister."
The children followed him outside onto the winding hilltop that overlooked Lake Lachrymose, their heads still reeling from everything that had just happened and also feeling quite tired because they still hadn't gotten the full amount of sleep that they needed.
Doctors and other people who try to seem important have noted that sleeping often helps the brain to function and to think properly, just as food helps to give us energy and keeps us from becoming extremely skinny; so since the Baudelaires were very tired they had no way to ask the questions that were really on their mind. For example, had she not fallen asleep against her old brother;
Sunny might've wondered what the past was concerning Mister Dominic whenever he'd been a noble individual and had he not been so drowsy, Klaus might've been thinking about the schism and how that it had apparently gotten larger mostly due to a misunderstanding and if her brain had been fully running,
Violet might have considered that the members of V.F.D. were responsible for the creation of the Medusoid Mycelium, which was a very dangerously poisonous plant that they'd just disposed of and Beatrice; although only a year old; could've thought about the significant role older members of V.F.D. had apparently played in causing her life to be full of turmoil were she not asleep in the eldest Baudelaire's embrace.
All four of the children however, could only think of one thing as Gustav drove down the road away from Anwhistle Aquatics toward the town of Lake Lachrymose and that was just how tired they were and how much sleep they really needed; so the children took this opportunity to rest in the back seat of yet another vehicle and didn't wake up until they arrived at the Lavender Lighthouse. And since this was a little break from the action for the Baudelaires,
I suggest you take this moment to take a break from the action in this miserable story; if indeed it is exciting you and you are also interested in reading more about a fact which concerns me enough already. I recommend you get yourself something to eat or drink or perhaps even take a short nap yourself just as the Baudelaires did during this short trip and maybe sometime during your trouble someone will dispose of this book,
thus saving you the trouble of having to read any further whatsoever this dismal portion of the Baudelaires' lives and to continue to go about your lives as you would normally; rather then read what occurred whenever Gustav and the children arrived at the Lavender Lighthouse. For when they did reach it,
Gustav immediately noted that there were no cars outside and Klaus saw that the door to the structure was wide open and Violet realized that it was empty and Sunny wondered where Sally had gone off to and Beatrice was asleep. Heading into the lighthouse, Gustav checked every portion of the upper levels and then declared, "It looks like my sister isn't here, children. This is quite odd. I've never known her to leave home without leaving a note."
"I think I found the note," Sunny declared as she came out of the room that Falo had been staying in and stated, "But I think it is from Falo, not Sally." "Still, this is better than nothing at all," Gustav conceded as he sat down on the first step of the stairs that led to the upper portion of the lighthouse and looked over the note that the children's guardian had sent them.
"I think this message may be in code, children and I don't have the proper supplies to translate it," he explained and then seemed to have an idea and declared, "I think I have a few notes on this particular code back at Anwhistle Aquatics, or rather; Ike left some there." Passing Falo's note to Violet, Gustav Sebald declared, "You four children wait here and I will return in a short period of time."
As their new companion rushed back to his vehicle, Klaus took the note from Violet's weary grasp and began to study it. As he did so, Sunny yawned and laid beside Beatrice and took a nap and Violet searched in the small pantry that Sally had for anything good to eat. The Baudelaires were still in a sticky and dangerous situation, especially because now their adversary had obtained the very deadly Medusoid Mycelium and was headed to who-knows-where and they had nothing to go on except for the fact that Mister Dominic had again succeeded in making them question their parents' loyalties and whether or not they were noble people or not.
Violet made cereal for all of them as she tried hard to not think of all the things they'd dealt with since their arrival at Lake Lachrymose and turned to see that Klaus was carefully studying the note which Falo had left. "I think I may understand what it is that Falo was trying to tell us, but I'm not sure," he admitted as he continued to read over it.
"Why is that, Klaus?" Sunny asked as she yawned, trying to keep awake as Violet passed her something to eat. "The style of this code. I've seen it somewhere before," their brother answered. Violet looked over his shoulder and asked, "Is it Sebald Code?" "No, I don't think so because as far as Falo knows; we don't know that code yet," Klaus stated.
"I'm not even sure I understand it," Sunny admitted. "I wish we'd had time to ask Gustav more questions about our parents," Violet said. "There will be time for that later, right now we have to stop Mister Dominic," Sunny said. "I got it!" Klaus roared in excitement as he leapt from where he sat and said, "I think I know what code Falo is using."
"What's that, Klaus?" Violet asked. "It's the very same one we've seen before when Aunt Josephine hid from Count Olaf," he answered and then began to set to work.
More is ahead in the final chapters of this story! read and review! :D please?
