Lemony Snicket - The Carnivorous Carnival

"Dubious," Sunny said.

"Sunny's not sure that's a very good reason," Violet translated, "and I must say I agree with her. You've caused a lot of grief, Olivia, to a lot of people, just so you could give Count Olaf what he wanted."

Olivia nodded, and tears appeared in her eyes once more. "I know it," she said miserably. "I'm ashamed of myself. But I don't know what else to do."

"You could stop helping Olaf," Klaus said, "and help us instead. You could tell us everything you know about V.F.D. And you could take us to the Mortmain Mountains to see if one of our parents is really alive."

"I don't know," Olivia said. "I've behaved so badly for so long, but maybe I could change." She stood up straight, and looked sadly around the darkening tent. "I used to be a noble person," she said. "Do you think I could be noble again?"

"I don't know," Klaus said, "but let's find out. We could leave together, right now, and head north."

"But how?" Olivia asked. "We don't have a car, or a minivan, or four horses, or a large slingshot, or any other way to get out of the hinterlands."

Violet retied the ribbon in her hair, and looked up at the ceiling in thought. "Olivia," she said finally, "do the carts on that roller coaster still work?"

"The carts?" Olivia repeated. "Sort of. The wheels move, but there's a small engine in each cart, and I think the engines have rusted away."

"I think I could rebuild an engine using your lightning device," Violet said. "After all, that piece of rubber is a bit like–"

"A fan belt!" Olivia finished. "That's a good idea, Violet."

"I'll sneak out to the roller coaster tonight," Violet said, "and get to work. We'll leave in the morning, before anyone gets up."

"Better not do it tonight," Olivia said. "Count Olaf or his henchmen are always lurking around at night. It'd be better to leave in the afternoon, when everyone is at the House of Freaks. You can put the invention together first thing in the morning, when Olaf will be in here asking the crystal ball about you."

"What will you do then?" Klaus asked.

"I have a spare crystal ball," Olivia answered. "That isn't the first one that's been broken."

"That's not what I mean," Klaus said. "I mean, you won't tell Count Olaf that we're here at the carnival, will you?"

Olivia paused for a moment, and shook her head. "No," she said, but she did not sound very sure.

"Promise?" Sunny asked. Olivia looked down at the youngest Baudelaire for a long time without answering.

"Yes," she finally said, in a very quiet voice. "I promise, if you promise to take me with you to find V.F.D."

"We promise," Violet said, and her siblings nodded in agreement. "Now, let's start at the beginning. What does V.F.D. stand for?"

"Madame Lulu!" called a scratchy voice from outside the tent. The Baudelaires looked at one another in dismay as Count Olaf called the fake name of the woman beside them. "Madame Lulu! Where are you?"

"I am in fortune-telling tent, my Olaf," Olivia replied, slipping into her accent as easily as the Baudelaires could slip into the ruffled shirt. "But do not come in, please. I am doing secret ritual with crystal ball of mine."

"Well, hurry up," Olaf said grumpily. "The pit is done, and I'm very thirsty. Come pour us all some wine."

"Just one minute, my Olaf," Olivia said, reaching down to grab the material for her turban. "Why don't you be taking of a shower, please? You must be sweaty from the pit digging, and when you are done we will all be having of the wine together."

"Don't be ridiculous," Count Olaf replied. "I took a shower ten days ago. I'll go put on some extra cologne and meet you in your caravan."

"Yes, my Olaf," Olivia called, and then turned to whisper to the children as she wound the turban around her hair. "We'd better cut short our conversation," she said. "The others will be looking for you. When we leave here tomorrow, I'll tell you everything you want to know."

"Couldn't you just tell us a few things now?" Klaus asked. The Baudelaires had never been closer to the answers they were seeking, and delaying things any further was almost more than they could stand.

"No, no," Olivia decided. "Here, I'd better help you get back into your disguises or you'll get caught."

The three children looked at one another reluctantly. "I guess you're right," Violet said finally. "The others will be looking for us."

"Proffco," Sunny said, which meant "I guess so, " and began to wind the beard around her. Violet and Klaus stepped into the fur-cuffed pants, and buttoned the shirt around them, while Olivia tied her necklace back together so she could become Madame Lulu once more.

"Our scars," Klaus remembered, looking at his sister's face. "We rubbed them off."

"And our hair needs repowdering," Violet said.

"I have a makeup pencil, please," Olivia said, reaching into the trunk, "and also the powder of talcum."

"You don't have to use your accent right now," Violet said, taking the ribbon out of her hair.

"Is good to practice, please," Olivia replied. "I must be thinking of myself as Madame Lulu, otherwise I will please be forgetting of the disguise."

"But you'll remember our promises, won't you?" Klaus asked.

"Promises?" Madame Lulu repeated.

"You promised you wouldn't tell Count Olaf that we're here," Violet said, "and we promised to take you with us to the Mortmain Mountains."

"Of course, Beverly," Madame Lulu replied. "I will be keeping of the promise to freaks."

"I'm not Beverly," Violet said, "and I'm not a freak."

Madame Lulu smiled, and leaned in to pencil a scar on the eldest Baudelaire's face. "But it is time for disguises, please," she said. "Don't be forgetting of your disguised voices, or you will be recognized."

"We won't forget our disguises," Klaus said, putting his glasses back in his pocket, "and you won't forget your promise, right?"

"Of course, please," Madame Lulu said, leading the children out of the fortune-telling tent. "Do not be of the worrying, please."

The siblings stepped out of the tent with Madame Lulu, and found themselves bathed in the blue light of the famous hinterlands sunset.

The light made each of them look a bit different, as if they were wearing another blue disguise on top of their carnival disguises. The powder in Violet's hair made her head look a pale, strange color, Klaus's fake scars looked darker and more sinister in the shadows, and Sunny looked like a small blue cloud, with small sparks of light where her teeth reflected the last of the sun. And Madame Lulu looked more like a fortune-teller, as the sunset glistened on the jewel in her turban, and shone on her long robe in an eerie light that looked almost magical.

"Good night, my freaky ones," she said, and the Baudelaires looked at this mysterious woman and wondered if she had really changed her motto, and would become a noble person once more. "I will be keeping of the promise," Madame Lulu said, but the Baudelaire orphans did not know if she was speaking the truth, or just telling them what they wanted to hear.

By the time the Baudelaire orphans found their way back to the freaks' caravan, Hugo, Colette, and Kevin were waiting for them. Colette and Kevin were just finishing a game of dominoes, and Hugo had cooked up a pot of tom ka gai, which is a delicious soup commonly eaten in Thailand. But as the Baudelaires sat at the table and ate their supper, they were not in the mood to digest the mixture of chicken, vegetables, fancy mushrooms, fresh ginger, coconut milk and water chestnuts that the hunchback had prepared. They were more concerned with digesting information, a phrase which here mean "thinking about everything that Madame Lulu had told them." Violet took a spoonful of hot broth, but she was thinking so hard about Lulu's archival library that she scarcely noticed the unusual, sweet taste. Klaus chewed on a water chestnut, but he was wondering so much about the headquarters in the Mortmain Mountains that he didn't appreciate its appealing, crunchy texture. And Sunny tipped the bowl forward to take a large sip, but she was so curious about the disguise kit that she wasn't aware that her beard was getting soaked. Each of the three children finished their soup to the last drop, but they were so eager to hear more from Lulu about the mystery of V.F.D. that they felt hungrier than when they sat down.