To Beatrice

IAll good things must come to an end.

You were no exception./I

Chapter 1

Many artists, playwrights, or café owners say that when they come to the end of their work, everything they have written finally seems connected.

An artist who has painted thousands of different paintings during his lifetime may finish his last work of art, look back at all he has done, and realize that it's all just different views of the same apple on a coffee table. A playwright might write the last line of his last play, and realize that every play he has written has been really about him and his relationship with his cat. A café owner may finally close up his shop for the last time, and realize that the man who came into his café every day for twelve years and asked to use his back room for a few hours was really holding secret meetings for an organization divided because of a simple four letter word.

All these men may come too the end of their life's work and see the hundreds of little threads that have connected everything they have ever drawn, directed, or served.

A writer however, always knows the connections between his stories, because he puts them there for reasons. Some authors want their readers to understand the deeper meaning in a story, so they drop subtle hints of the underlying morality of the story on random pages. Other authors want to show the reader a ripple effect of things in his novels, how one small thing at the start influences something enormous at the end. And then there are some authors who write their novels with so many tiny thread like connections, that some just end up floating into oblivion; a word which here means 'an abyss of mystery and unanswered questions'. A reader may think they know exactly what is happening to a character from the very start, but during the book the author may weave other elements into the story, such as a suspicious looking ferret, an ugly pair of blue curtains, or a woman so beautiful whom more than one man lusted after, and change the path of the character completely. Even in the final chapter of the story, the writer could throw in a huge surprise for the audience that seemed totally unexpected, but really had been hinted at since the first mentioning of the word 'cheese fondue'.

The Baudelaire's knew a lot about subtle connections, for their lives were filled with thousands of them. As each of the three children wandered across the sturdy ship they were sailing in with Count Olaf, each thought about those connections, and how even after all this time, they hadn't found the roots for any of them.

Violet, the eldest Baudelaire, was sitting on the deck of the ship, a word which here means 'the cold and wet floor', and gazing out at the city they was drifting by. The city she had been born in, the city she thought she knew. How many more mysteries were hidden in its buildings? she thought. Justice Strauss, their neighbor when they first were living with Count Olaf, had entered and left their life so suddenly, that they thought they'd never see her again. Yet, just a few hours ago they had fled from her, after she tried to stop them from leaving with Olaf. The same had happened with Jerome Squalor, another guardian, who had just walked out on them, had returned all of a sudden, with the news he had been following them since they had left 667 Dark Avenue. Why had they followed them? She thought, and how did they find them again? Were they volunteers? Did she really know them at all?

Klaus the middle child, stared gloomily from the stern, a word which here means 'the front of the ship', at the sea all around them. He thought of the connections that had come from under it, in and out of the submarine IQueequeg/I. They had finally learned of the sugar bowl, or Vessel For Disscharades, but they had yet to learn of it's purpose, or why Olaf and VFD so avidly wanted to keep it safe. The connections all there, but each led to nowhere and just more mystery.

Sunny, the youngest Baudelaire, was most confused and saddened of all the Baudelaires, mainly because while she had grown and matured substantially over the last few months, she was still just 2 years of age, and couldn't quite understand every connection or their meaning. The other reason was the building behind her, the one slowly disappearing in a haze of smoke. This building, the Hotel Denouement, was surely the largest bundle of new connections they had found, and yet they hadn't spent anywhere near enough time to comprehend any of them. They would never be able to at all now, for the building was ablaze with fire, and crumbling down. Sunny thought of how she had started that fire, so they could send a signal to Kit Snicket and their friends the Quagmires not to come. It had seemed the noble thing to do, but now she thought of all the people still stuck inside, and shuddered.

"Quit staring at nothing Baudelaire's. Help me with this spatula."

The Baudelaires' all turned to look at the source of the order. In that moment, they all knew why they were on this ship destined for anywhere. Count Olaf, the man who no matter where they went, no matter what good things happened to them, was there to spoil it. Even if they didn't want to admit it to one another, they knew that Olaf was bThe/b connection to their entire mystery riddled journey. He flowed through all their lives, no matter how much they hated them. They all knew now that if they ever wanted to reach the end of their misfortune, or find the solutions to all their mysteries, it would be through this evil man.

"Where are you taking us Olaf?" Violet asked as the Baudelaires moved to help Olaf lift the great spatula paddles of the ship up onto the deck.

"Are you taking us to your other assistants, the man with no hair and woman with no beard?" Klaus asked. He was speaking of two of Olaf's dastardly compadres, whose names the Baudelaires did not know.

"Fernald and Fiona?" Sunny asked, referring to whether they were headed to Olaf's associate Fernald, and his sister Fiona, of whom Klaus was mildly fond of.

Olaf did not respond for several minutes, but finally turned to the Baudelaires with one of the strangest looks they had ever seen. It looked almost like a melancholy frown, a word which here means 'meek and sad look of depression' , certainly not a look they had seen on Olaf.

"We are not going to meet anyone. I have learned that you cannot truly trust anyone, and so I am heading to the one place I know I can sit and think for while. An island out past the Tedious Tribune, past Briny Beach and past all the shores of the city. It was where I was first taken from, and where my family once lived."

The Baudelaires were unsure of what Olaf meant by 'taken' but they thought it might have to do with the mysterious organization V.F.D., which had become a focal point in their lives for quite some time. Only until just recently had they even learned what the letters stood for; and only at hotel Denouement had they learned they were connected to it.

"Aren't you going to try and take our fortune though?" Klaus said in a defiant voice. Olaf had tried almost every trick in the book to get the Baudelaire fortune, but had not mentioned it since they had been on the ship, which was strange, all things considered.

"No." Olaf said simply. "I wanted that fortune for reasons more than you know Baudelaires. I wanted you to suffer, and still do to tell you the truth, but right now I'm not sure the money is what I really want."

The Baudelaires looked at one another. Olaf didn't want their fortune? Was something wrong? Was he trying to fool them into thinking he was good now? Moreover, why did he want them to suffer? Did something really happen between his parents, and theirs, as he had told them? Were their parents just as bad as him?

Even now, looking back at my time with the Baudelaire parents, I'm not truly sure they were all good, or all bad. But as the Baudelaire's began lifting up the other paddle on the ship, they began to wonder if they would end up like Olaf and maybe their parents, and commit more acts that weren't so noble. They wondered if this strange island they were headed for would lead the to the roots of their ever growing mysteries, or to the truth of the evil that might be running through their family.