Klaus awoke with the fuzzy remains of a pleasant dream in his head, he couldn't quite place what it had been about exactly. He didn't try too terribly hard. Sitting up in the pleasantly squishy bed, he attempted to recollect the events of the previous night. There was Kit; a long drive, a supper, and questions, a lot of questions. Which he needed to write down. The middle Baudelaire gazed around the room, his eyes finding their targets.

"Violet, Sunny. Good morning, I didn't know you were awake."

"B-barely," Sunny yawned widely and obviously.

"So, I was thinking, we need to make a list of all our-"

"Endless questions regarding the misery that is our lives," Violet finished for him with a watery smile, "I know."

"Paper?" Sunny pushed herself off the bed and, landing unsteadily, started rummaging through drawers. "Pencil." Upon finding them, Sunny handed them up to her siblings.

The list wasn't hard to start. So many questions had been floating around in the siblings heads ever since the moment they'd occurred to them, and had never left. It was making sure that none were forgotten that was hard.

"Regarding the tunnel leading from the mansion remains to 667 Dark Avenue?"

"There"

"Our parent's affiliation with VFD?"

"Check"

"Questionsubmarine?"

"Also there…I think we're okay. If anything else occurs to us, I'm sure we can add it on." Klaus knew Violet was impatient, as was Sunny, and himself. Because, really, when it all came together, the most important question was first on the list.

Are either of our parents alive?

Klaus wondered whether or not VFD would have any knowledge of the whereabouts of the Quagmires that the Baudelaires did not… Then wondered where that question would come in on the list. He was fond of the Quagmires, but sometimes he wondered if his fondness compared to the way Violet incessantly fawned over Duncan, or Quigley.

The siblings stood up and, still not having anything to change into, made their way out of the hotel room and down to the hall. Approaching, they heard a angry voices rumbling from within the dining room. They glanced at each other and made a silent decision to eavesdrop. Violet dropped her ribbon, and they crouched by the steel door.

"It's simply unreasonable to want sugar bowls on each table, when we aren't even serving food!" trilled a male voice the Baudelaires did not recognize.

"K, you know as well as I that we need those sugar bowls there." This voice was recognized as Kit's.

"Perhaps there is a way we can manage to serve food, there are dinner plays," replied a rolling voice that was slightly familiar.

"Hmm..We can work this out later, right now I need to find those siblings," sighed the first voice. The familiar sound of a chair being pushed back was heard, but two and two weren't put together-

"Eaaargh!" Klaus inarticulately cried as the door his ear was pressed against swung painfully against his head, causing him to fall backwards.

From the ground, Klaus wondered if the man was really this tall, or if the amount of smallness he felt at the moment was somehow affecting his eyesight. He realized, from the way Sunny and Violet were staring at the man as they pulled Klaus to his feet, that it was not just his mind sight.

"Baudelaires! There you are! What- when- there you are!"

Klaus's mind was still reeling from the blow, and also the sudden and unusual embarrassment of falling and possibly looking less than intelligent, but somehow within his pain he realized that replying might possibly be a nice idea. Saying who are you seemed awfully rude, and so he took a different direction "Yes, um, here we are. How do you do."

The siblings glanced dubiously at each other, and Klaus had an idea of what the others were thinking. It was Violet who spoke.

"We…er. Had some questions about our parents, and other matters, Kit said we could ask tomorrow…which is today. So, can we ask you?"

The large man seemed distracted, staring at the Baudelaires as if in a trance. "Yes. Yes, go ahead. I suppose we'd better move somewhere more comfortable."

He led them into a small room off the side of the hall, which was small and cozy, and the décor seemed to emit warmth. There was a desk and several chintz armchairs. The man gestured to the armchairs, and took at seat himself at the desk.

He sighed again, and spoke, "I'd better introduce myself. You can call me M, if you'd like, but my full name is-" The man suddenly fell into a coughing fit and covered his face with a handkerchief. When he looked up, however, it appeared he had no further intention of carrying on with his sentence, so the Klaus spoke up.

"And we're the Baudelaires, as I'm sure you are aware of."

"Yes, that I know. Before we begin with the questioning, I'd like to ask one question of my own. Where were you sleeping last night? We looked for you for a bit, didn't know where you were," the man looked inquiringly at the siblings.

"Well, Aunt Josephine had told us there was a room prepared for us. We slept there." Violet looked at M uncertainly.

M looked just as uncertainly back. "Room prepared for you? So far as I know, we had only one empty room, prepared for triplets that are arriving today. The Quagmires."