CHAPTER FOUR
The Dinner Club
Sick to death of him already, the children took Count Alof on a short tour of the house, saying he can use the guest room to use as his bedroom. To be safe, they only showed the rooms they knew already. They disguised their hatred of the decision to have someone take care of them. They wanted to be able to live all by themselves, to put stuff on the floor and not be told to clean it up. To listen to music and play it louder than they used to be allowed to. Worst of all, they still had to go to school. After the tour, Count Alof made a dinner of cabbage and Brussels sprouts stew. The Children ate every last bite of it and almost threw up.
"Look at us, all here," said Alof. "It's like we're a dinner club. All of us, having dinner, talking about the day that has passed, and what a lovely day it was."
"But didn't our parents die today?" said Klaun, force-feeding himself the disgusting stew.
"That part of the story's behind us now." Said Alof. "Now, what did you do today?"
"We were playing on the beach and we were told our parents died…" began Rose
"I said that story's behind us now!" said Alof, a little angry.
"Well, nothing much else happened. We haven't even been told when the funeral is going to be." Said Klaun.
"Didn't you hear? The murderers took the bodies. We can't have a funeral without the dead bodies!" said Alof.
"But there could be a memorial…"
"For the last time, that part of the story is behind us now! Your parents are dead, granted, but there will be no funeral till the bodies are found. They may never be found. So forget about your parents!" Alof calmed down and drank some water. "How's your stew, kids?"
Klaun, Rose and Moony looked down at their vulgar stew. "Can we have chilli next time?" said Klaun.
After dinner, the children went straight to their room. They all slept in one single room, with two beds and a crib for Moony. They sat on their beds, talking to each other. "That so called uncle of ours is a right pain in the neck." Said Rose. "He's ruining our chance to be free from parental control."
"And he makes the most disgusting food, that stew was sickening, imagine what he's going to do with that chilli tomorrow?"
"Annoying!" said Moony. "Weird!"
"Weird is right," agreed Rose. "Did you see the way he wanted us to forget about our parents?"
"Well, maybe it's best we do forget about them, we hated them, remember?" said Klaun.
"That's true, but he sounded serious, I think he was going to go insane if we mentioned them one more time."
"Alof go away." Said Moony.
"That's it! Moony, you're a genius!" said Rose. "Klaun, we have to get rid of him!"
"But how? We can't be able to do that."
"We can drive him insane. Tomorrow at dinner, we keep saying the same thing over and over again, until he goes mad and runs out of the house!"
"That's not a bad idea!" said Klaun. "And even if it doesn't work, we still have all those rooms we can see for first time!"
At that moment, Count Alof, opened the door. "Children, Mr. Doe just called, he told me your parents banned you from certain rooms, so I'm afraid that while I'm your guardian, you still can't get in. Sorry." He closed the door again.
Klaun looked Rose in the eye. "That plan of yours must work."
The next day the children were watching TV when they heard Alof call "Children! The Dinner Club meeting is now in session!" It was time for dinner. It was also time to see if their plan would work. "Rose, have you decided what we're going to say over and over?"
"Yes, we're having chilli, so we're going to say 'chilli' every few seconds." Said Rose. "If it works, he'll be so annoyed he'll run out of the house, if it doesn't work, than it's back to the drawing board."
They walked into the kitchen, and sat down at the table. Alof came over with stuff that couldn't be chilli. It was brown, like chilli, it looked slightly like chilli, but it sure wasn't chilli.
"Chilli?" asked Moony.
"Yes, chilli." Said Alof. "Like you asked."
"Chilli!" said Moony. "Chili!"
"Chilli." Said her siblings. "Chilli chilli chilli chilli chilli…"
"But this is chilli," said Alof. "Have a taste."
The children tasted it. It tasted of cabbages.
"Cabbage chilli?!" said Klaun.
"Yeah, I made it using…"
"Chilli."
"the cabbage and…"
"Chilli."
"Brussels Sprout stew I made…"
"Chilli."
"Yesterday. What is with your fascination with the word chilli?"
"Chilli. Chilli. Chilli." It went on for the rest of the dinner and for a few days afterwards too. They didn't stop saying chilli. But it didn't make Count Alof go away. In fact it amused him. He started saying chilli along with them. After the fourth day of saying chilli, the children had another meeting.
"Alright, we need a new plan, obviously annoying him won't get him out of our hair." Said Rose.
"It's almost midnight, do we need to think of a plan now?" said Klaun. Moony was already asleep.
"Yes. We need to think of something as soon as possible." She thought. "I know, how about we trick him into thinking he's won a competition, and the prize is a holiday in a country far away!"
"He wouldn't fall for that. He'd try to bring us with him."
"Good point." Rose thought. "I have an idea! Klaun, we're going to the bus station tomorrow!"