Chapter Seven
Klaus was uncomfortable.
He was sat in the back of Lemony Snicket's small, green motor car, squashed against the window. Next to him was his sister, and next to her was Arlo Thursday. It was a tight fit in such a small car, but there was no alternative. In the front was Lemony, and in the passenger's seat next to him was his elder brother Jacques, who they had travelled to the Verdant Valley to collect en route to Bladeridge Castle.
They were travelling south through the hot, dry desert known as the Hinterlands on a bumpy, dusty track. The car was old and the suspension was poor, so the ride was uncomfortable, and did nothing to help Klaus' position. As the road grew bumpier, Klaus began to get motion sickness, and Violet told him to take deep breaths and look straight ahead at the road in order to help him. He was also incredibly bored, as he had nothing to read on the long journey, and resorted to staring out at the vast nothingness of the Hinterlands.
Meanwhile, Violet wasn't faring much better. It may have been early October, but the Hinterlands were still swelteringly warm by day, and Lemony's old car had no air conditioning, so it grew incredibly stuffy as the hours passed with five people inside. For a while, nobody spoke, and Violet had nothing else to do but to stare out at the vast nothingness of the Hinterlands.
Arlo was also struggling on the long journey. He might not have had motion sickness from the bumpy journey like Klaus, and he had the car window open on his side, allowing him to be cooler than Violet, but he found the car's bumpy ride intolerable, a word which here means "the terrible ride quality had given him a sore back from all the bumps and jolts of the car's movement." However, like his two friends, he had nothing to do on the long journey, and had to spend most of it looking out at the vast nothingness of the Hinterlands.
However, there was one other thing that all three children had in common on that afternoon in Autumn. As Lemony's car slowly - and uncomfortably, I may add - made its way south towards Verdant Valley, all three children were left wondering why the sugar bowl mattered so much to the nefarious Count Olaf. They all knew that it wasn't the sugar bowl itself that was important, but what was inside, but as to what that was, it was anybody's guess. As
Klaus looked ahead at the dusty track they were driving along, he wondered whether the sugar bowl contained vital information, that could alter the course of the schism that divided V.F.D. in the favour of the Fire-Starting Side. As Violet looked out at the heat haze over the inhospitable desert, she wondered if the sugar bowl contained some sort of powerful invention or device that would chance the course of the schism. As Arlo stared out of his open window, he wondered whether the sugar bowl contained an all-powerful weapon that would alter the course of the schism. The three young trainee volunteers may have all thought that the sugar bowl contained different things, but they all knew that whatever was inside, it was crucial that it was kept away from the Firestarters.
Eventually, as the sun sank low in the tranquil blue sky that evening, their journey was nearing its end. The rough roads of the Hinterlands gave way to the smoothly paved roads of the forests north of Tedia, the largest town in the area. The land was hilly, but nowhere near as mountainous at the Mortmain Mountains that the children were now used to. As the night fell, the small car was travelling through a densely wooded valley, barely fifteen miles from their journey's end. The back of the car may have been quiet for hours, but Lemony and Jacques had been talking animatedly in quiet voices for hours in the front of the car. But at this point in the journey, the voices stopped as Jacques turned on the radio. There was a song playing that none of the children particularly liked, but it quickly faded out as the voice of a newsreader came over the airwaves.
"And now, the news at ten," the man read over the airwaves. "Breaking news tonight is that there has tragically been a fire at the Caligari Carnival, where at least nineteen people are feared to have died. The owner of the carnival, Ms. Olivia Caliban, often known under the name Madame Lulu, has been confirmed as one of-"
Apparently, at this point in the news article, Lemony had had enough, as he flipped off the radio in anger and frustration. Of course, you and I both know that it is excessively rude and often completely unnecessary to use profanity, but I believe that on this occasion, it is acceptable to forgive Lemony Snicket for his outburst.
"Damn!" he swore, thumping his fists into the dashboard of his car, and the children were immediately dredged out of their separate trains of thought and back to reality.
"What is it?" Arlo asked, slightly worried by his chaperone's outburst.
"Another safe place has gone up in flames," he said sadly, trying to concentrate on driving safely while attempting to contain his grief.
"The Caligari Carnival," Jacques filled in for his brother, who was at a loss for words at that moment. "Ms. Caliban is dead." The Baudelaires hadn't known her well, but they could picture Olivia Caliban alive and well at the V.F.D. Headquarters, and felt sorry that her life had come to such an abrupt and untimely end.
"These are dark days for the organisation," Jacques continued. "We are losing safe places and members more and more," he said glumly.
"That is why we cannot afford to let our enemies get their hands on the sugar bowl," Lemony said. "With the sugar bowl in their possession, our plight would be hopeless." With the mention of the elusive - a word which here means "mysterious" - sugar bowl, the three children in the back of the car saw their chance to ask more.
"What exactly is in the sugar bowl?" Arlo asked hopefully.
"That's the wrong question to ask, Thursday," Lemony said, reprimanding his apprentice. "Only our most trusted agents can know of the secrets that lie within the sugar bowl."
"So what can you tell me about it?" Arlo asked, trying again to get answers.
"That's better, Thursday," Lemony replied, smiling. "Well, I can tell you of its history - at least, what I know of it."
"Please tell us," Klaus said eagerly, to which Lemony sighed before beginning his tale.
"When I first heard of the sugar bowl," Lemony began. "It was in the possession of a V.F.D. agent; a young woman called Esmé Squalor. She was a friendly woman to be around, and while we may not have been close friends, she was definitely a good acquaintance. However, she had her flaws. She was vain, conceited and often selfish. And when the schism began, she was one of the first defectors - a word which means that she abandoned us to join the Firestarters. Of course, we couldn't just sit back and let her deliver the sugar bowl to our enemies, and so I became part of a plan to steal the sugar bowl back. After much planning, the mission was successful, with one of our agents - your mother, Baudelaires - taking the sugar bowl from Esmé Squalor. When Beatrice withdrew from V.F.D. to begin a new life in the city, she returned the sugar bowl to us, where we have hidden the sugar bowl to keep it from enemy hands."
"Where has it been hidden?" Violet asked.
"I can't tell you that, Violet," Lemony replied. "Just like the knowledge of what the sugar bowl contains, the knowledge of its location is only known by our most trusted agents." Lemony paused for a moment before voicing something that both his brother and himself had been concerned about for the whole journey. "At the moment, my greatest fear is that Olaf grows tired of waiting for the sugar bowl, and realises that Beatrice knows of its whereabouts. I don't want to think about what he might do to her then..."
For the Baudelaire children, this did nothing but stiffen their resolve, as they knew that if they did nothing, their family (and the whole of V.F.D.) might pay the price for their actions, or in this case, lack of action. And so as the small car made its way along the final leg of the journey to a reclusive part of the woods just a mile from Bladeridge Castle, the car fell silent again, with all five volunteers - or trainee volunteers - were deep in thought, grieving the loss of a comrade, and wondering how on earth they could save another.
(Serious) Author's Note: That's it for updates today (10th August), I'm afraid.
If you've enjoyed the opening chapters to this story, please review! As ever, constructive criticism is welcomed :)