sorrows and woes - klaus baudelaire

the miserable mill

TO BEATRICE

MY LOVE FLEW LIKE A BUTTERFLY

UNTIL DEATH SWOOPED DOWN LIKE A BAT

•••••••••••••

"I HOPE MR. POE ISN'T TOO WORRIED ABOUT US." Violet nervously played with her coat as the truck kept driving through the forest. Natalia scoffed and rolled her eyes. Mr. Poe was probably on his way back to the bank right now instead of looking for them. Violet noticed everyone's looks and agreed, "Good point."

Natalia peered over the boxes to see if they were almost there. She was getting bored of sitting in the back of the truck. She gasped as she made eye contact with the driver. He immediately stopped the truck and the children got out as he yelled, "Get a job, hitchhikers!"

The truck drove off and Klaus glumly asked, "What now?"

"We walk."

•••••••••••••

When the children were finally out of the woods, they realized that their surroundings looked nothing like the photograph from Aunt Josephine's library. Everything was charred and black. All the buildings had been turned to ash. Everything except the lumbermill.

"It looks like there was a fire here," Klaus commented. "Everything is gone."

"Not everything," Natalia pointed at Lucky Smells Lumbermill.

"Maybe this is where all the clues lead us?" Violet said. "The secret safe and the strange photographs at Aunt Josephine's."

"The secret message and the strange statue lady at Uncle Monty's," Klaus added.

Sunny babbled something which meant, 'Count Olaf. He's just strange.'

"The only thing standing between us and all of our parents' secrets is an enormous wooden wall," Natalia stated as they all stopped in front of the wall.

"What if we don't like what we find?" Klaus asked. "Knowing can be a terrible thing."

"But not knowing is worse," Natalia replied. Klaus sadly nodded, knowing she was right. It was better to find out bad news than no news at all.

Violet set Sunny down and pulled out her ribbon. She began to tie her hair up, "I bet I could invent a catapult to get us over."

"I've read about walls," Klaus added. "The Wall of Jericho, the Great Wall of China."

"All I need is a lever, a counterweight, and a very large spoon," Violet began to look around for the objects.

"Pink Floyd's 'The Wall.' Although, Mother wouldn't let me watch that one," Klaus added with a chuckle.

The gate started to creak open and Natalia looked down to see that Sunny had pushed it open all by herself. "Sunny?" Natalia said as she picked up the infant.

Klaus noticed a sign that said 'WARNING! TRESPASSERS WILL BE PUT TO WORK!' Klaus pointed to the sign and asked, "Does this make us trespassers?"

"We're children," Violet answered.

"Children aren't mutually exclusive," Natalia explained as handed Sunny to Violet.

"If we get caught, we'll just say we were on a school trip," Violet said before walking into the lumbermill. "Come on."

Natalia gulped and looked at Klaus, "I don't have a good feeling about this."

Klaus took her hand and reassured, "It'll be okay. I won't let anything happen to you."