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"So Madame Lulu needs a carrot, too, eh?" the hook-handed man said with a laugh.
"First thing tomorrow morning," Olaf continued, "Madame Lulu will consult her crystal ball again, and tell me where the Baudelaires are."
Esmé glared at Lulu. "And what sort of gift will you give then, Olaf?"
"Be reasonable, my dear," Count Olaf said to his girlfriend. "The lions will make Caligari Carnival much more popular, so Madame Lulu can devote her time to fortune-telling and give us the information we need to finally steal the Baudelaire fortune."
"I hate to criticize," Hugo said hesitantly, "but is there any way we can make the carnival more popular without feeding us to the lions? I must confess that I'm a little nervous about that part."
"You heard the crowd when I told them about the new attraction," Count Olaf said. "They couldn't wait to see the lions devour you, and all of us need to do our part to give people what they want. Your part is to return to the freaks' caravan until tomorrow. And the rest of us will do our part and start digging the pit."
"Pit?" one of the white-faced women asked. "What do we need a pit for?"
"To keep the lions in," Olaf replied, "so they only eat whichever freak jumps down there. Let's dig it over by the roller coaster."
"Good idea, boss," the bald man said.
"There are shovels in tool caravan," Lulu said. "I will show you, please."
"I'm not going to dig a pit," Esmé announced as the others walked away. "I might break a nail. Besides, I need to talk to Count Olaf–alone."
"Oh, all right," Count Olaf said. "Let's go in the guest caravan where we won't be disturbed."
Olaf and Esmé walked off in one direction, and Madame Lulu led the henchmen in the other, leaving the three children alone with their coworkers.
"Well, we'd better go inside," Colette said. "Maybe we can think of a way not to get eaten."
"Oh, let's not think about those fearsome creatures," Hugo said with a shudder. "Let's play another game of dominoes instead."
"Chabo, my other head, and I will be along in a moment," Violet said. "We want to finish our hot chocolate."
"You might as well enjoy it," Kevin said glumly, following Hugo and Colette back into the freaks' caravan. "It might turn out to be the last hot chocolate you ever drink."
Kevin shut the door with both hands, and the Baudelaires stepped farther away from the caravan so they could talk without being overheard.
"Adding cinnamon to hot chocolate is a terrific idea, Sunny," Violet said, "but I'm having trouble enjoying it."
"Ificat," Sunny said, which meant "Me too."
"Count Olaf's latest scheme leaves a bad taste in my mouth," Klaus said, "and I don't think cinnamon will help."
"We have to get into that fortune-telling tent," Violet said, "and this may be our only chance."
"Do you think it's really true?" Klaus asked. "Do you think Madame Lulu really saw something in her crystal ball?"
"I don't know," Violet said, "but I do know from my studies of electricity that lightning can't appear inside a tent. Something mysterious is going on, and we need to find out what it is."
"Chow!" Sunny said, which meant "Before we're thrown to the lions!"
"But do you think it's real?" Klaus asked.
"I don't know," Violet said testily, a word which here means "in her regular voice, forgetting her disguise because she was becoming very frustrated and upset." "I don't know if Madame Lulu is a fortune-teller. I don't know how Count Olaf always knows where we are. I don't know where the Snicket file is, or why someone else had Olaf's tattoo, or what V.F.D. stands for, or why there's a secret passageway that leads to our house, or–"
"If our parents are alive?" Klaus interrupted. "Do you know if one of our parents is really alive?"
The middle Baudelaire's voice quivered, and his sisters turned to look at him–a feat that was difficult for Violet, who was still sharing his shirt–and saw that he was crying. Violet leaned so that her head was against his while Sunny put her mug down and crawled closer to hug his knees, and the three Baudelaires stood quietly together for a few moments.
Grief, a type of sadness that most often occurs when you have lost someone you love, is a sneaky thing, because it can disappear for a long time, and then pop back up when you least expect it. When I am able, I go out walking on Briny Beach very early in the morning, which is the best time to find materials important to the Baudelaire case, and the ocean is so peaceful that I feel peaceful, too, as if I am no longer grieving for the woman I love and will never see again. But then, when I am cold and duck into a teashop where the owner is expecting me, I have only to reach for the sugar bowl before my grief returns, and I find myself crying so loudly that other customers ask me if I could possibly lower my sobs. With the Baudelaire orphans, it was as if their grief were a very heavy object that they each took turns carrying so that they would not all be crying at once, but sometimes the object was too heavy for one of them to move without weeping, so Violet and Sunny stood next to Klaus, reminding him that this was something they could all carry together until at last they found a safe place to lay it down.
"I'm sorry I was testy, Klaus," Violet said. "There's just so much we don't know that it's hard to think about all at once."
"Chithvee," Sunny said, which meant "But I can't help thinking about our parents."
"Me neither," Violet admitted. "I keep wondering if one of them survived the fire."
"But if they did," Klaus said, "why would they be hiding in a faraway place? Why aren't they trying to find us?"
"Maybe they are," Violet said quietly. "Maybe they're searching for us everywhere they can think of, but they can't find us, because we've been hiding and disguising ourselves for so long."
"But why doesn't our mother or father contact Mr. Poe?" Klaus said.
"We've tried to contact him," Violet pointed out, "but he doesn't answer our telegrams, and we can't seem to reach him by phone. If one of our parents has survived the fire, maybe they're having the same wretched luck."
"Galfuskin," Sunny pointed out. By "Galfuskin" she meant something like, "This is all guesswork–let's go to the fortune-telling tent and see if we can find out anything for sure, and we'd better do it soon before the others get back."
