A Series of Unfortunate Events Book the Fourteenth

Chapter Five

This chapter starts with it's the Self Sustaining Hot Air Mobile Home landing in the greenest land the children had ever seen. But it isn't how the chapter begins. The chapter begins with Klaus reading about Samling in one of Hector's books about famous places in the country.

On the way to Samling, Klaus had read about it using one of Hector's books about famous places in the country. The sun was high, and the morning skies were blue, and after a breakfast of butter and toast, the youngsters sat down to learn about the village they were going to.

"It's known for its green hills," said Klaus, reading from the book. "And daisies- that's their major flower. Samling was a village full of all sorts of crimes, like Ms Platten said."

"How come?" asked Duncan.

"Apparently they didn't have law enforcements," said Klaus, raising his eyebrows. "People could do what they wanted. Samling wasn't even considered a village until Ms Platten became mayor."

"That's awful," said Violet. "Just imagine all the people who got hurt."

Isadora looked over Klaus's shoulder to read more. "Samling overlooks the Pippin River, which floods every year. Kind of like the Nile in Egypt. The people used to believe it would wash all wickedness in their town, when things would get rough. But they were so obviously wrong."

The youngsters shared a look. They were frightened, even though they had told each other they would be brave. Brave for Hector, VFD, and Samling. If they were counting on a bunch of children, they must be desperate.

When Violet met Klaus's eyes, she almost laughed at how silly the disguise Ms Platten had sent them that day looked on him. He was sporting a blonde wig (that she admitted clashed horribly with his skin tone), bright blue contact lenses (which are colored pieces of plastic to make your eyes a different color), and an awful hat that was striped in the most grotesque colors imaginable. The word "disguise" still gave Violet chilling memories, but just like Isadora had said in one of her poems, it was a thrill to wear one.

"You're smiling at my disguise, aren't you?" said Klaus, raising an eyebrow.

"Me? No," said Violet, although there was no doubt she was lying. "And even if I was, it's not just you. It's the rest of us."

"No doubt about that," Isadora laughed.

The youngsters couldn't have looked more different. Violet held her bangs back with a headband and wore fake round glasses. Sunny's hair was styled up like she was a sprout growing from the ground. Duncan was given a cap that covered most of his face and Isadora was given many colorful extensions and very dangly earrings that were so distracting, no one would look at her face anyway. Beatrice frowned.

"Vi? Kla? Sun?" she asked. "Dun? Is?"

Violet laughed. "It's still us, Beatrice. We're just... dressed different."

"We're here!" Hector called from the front of the mobile home after a while. The Baudelaires and the Quagmires felt the mobile home descending upon a beautiful, rich green land, filled with rolling hills and picturesque houses. So this was Samling. This was the place filled with crimes beyond imaginable.

"I hope they don't burn us at the stake, like they were going to in the village of VFD," said Klaus, looking at the land nervously.

"I don't think they would," said Hector, but he didn't sound so sure. Hector was in his own disguise- large sunglasses and a fake mustache that looked real enough.

The youngsters and Hector made their way of the mobile home and found a very tall woman waiting for them in front of it. She had very cloud-like red hair, and dark purple glasses, and a daisy behind her ear. She was also dressed in blue, looking very professional, and had a big, shiny silver watch the children almost immediately noticed. They didn't even need to be introduced. This was Ms Maribelle Platten.