FIFTEEN
A quarter of an hour ago, she was thoroughly immersed in the story. She could just about imagine the dark shaft of the ersatz elevator—welding torches sounded so cool.
Then they—she heard her name?
No, that was her imagination going too far.
"Elfnein, yoo-hoo!"
And then the matron had dragged her to the office—the office?
And then the matron introduced her to the couple waiting.
The same pink hair she had seen the day before. A stern face she had never seen before. The matron kept going on and on about visitor rules and how this was just a tentative meeting, a "'get to know you' type thing."
Now she's sitting on the floor—and she's awkward, and they are awkward, too.
She can't help but stare.
Her brain kind of… short circuits. Giant question marks… and her confusion covers whatever other feelings she has. She has no idea how to interact with elements foreign to her confined system.
Do they want her to talk about herself?
Should she ask them who they are? Well, she already knows that, kind of.
Tsubasa Kazanari and Maria, presumably also Kazanari.
But that doesn't explain at all why they are here… why she is here.
They're nervous.
That… doesn't make sense….
Why are they nervous?
What's going on?
She wants to ask them. But her brain is still scrambling around. Mrs. Kazanari—the one with funny pink hair—was supposed to be Ken's new mother, right?
But she made that assumption.
"Maria's hairstyle is rather peculiar, is it not?" Mrs. Kazanari—the stern one—tentatively says, breaking the silence.
She smiles a little bit, because that's not what she's thinking but Mrs. Kazanari is trying and that makes her feel a little better.
And then she blurts out, "How many pins does it take?"
And she wants to slap her hands over her mouth but she's holding her book really tightly already and did she really say that?
So she focuses all her brainpower on imagining the needle structure inside the "cat ears;" hopefully that will keep her from blanking out again because that was just awful.
They're nice about it, there's some humor—comic relief—and she actually manages to laugh. Mrs. Kazanari (okay, Mrs. Tsubasa and Mrs. Maria—just to keep them straight in her head!) really likes to tease her wife. They really love each other.
Then Mrs. Maria asks about her book. Does she really want to know? Do they really want to hear her talk about a kid's book? Do they really care?
When they continue asking, so nicely, they do look interested, so she gives in.
Mrs. Tsubasa actually knows their names and that's so cool, and then she pulls out her glasses, so she must be interested and finally she has someone to about Café Salmonella and red herring and Armani and—
The Baudelaires end up at the burnt remains of their home.
She hadn't read that far.
a/n: This one was hard to write. It's getting more and more challenging!
P.S. Did you see that foreshadowing there? Next chapter's going to be painful.