A Series of Unfortunate Events Book the Fourteenth

Chapter Six

I know I said before that this story is happier than any other in the lives of the Baudelaire children, and that it has a much happier ending. But I would be lying if I said that their whole adventure was sunshine and rainbows. Sunshine and rainbows is an expression which here means "having no sadness", and I'm sure you can already tell that this story has had plenty of sadness so far. The youngsters had lost Quigley Quagmire and were forced to work as detectives for a murder mystery. They had each other, sure, but it didn't change the trauma they went through. Beatrice was barely two weeks old, and she was already going through things that no one should ever go through. VFD wasn't doing much to help. Samling was a dull and pointless town with too many daisies. I could go on.

There are many more of these distressing moments to come, and I just thought I'd warn you before they'd happen. Because while this story is much happier than the others in this dreadful series, and while it does have a happy ending, it is certainly not all sunshine and rainbows.

So when the man in the police uniform ran out yelling, the children were convinced that more trouble was coming their way.

"Gilbert! What happened?" Maribelle exclaimed.

Gilbert Hemmstone, the chief of police, was panting very hard, unable to speak. The youngsters and Hector stepped back a bit, afraid of what he was going to say.

"I... I... my drawings!" he said.

The Baudelaires exchanged looks with the Quagmires. Drawings? What could he possibly be talking about?

Maribelle sighed. "What about your drawings?"

"I spilled coffee on one of them," said Officer Hemmstone. "And it was a good one too. One of the best I'd ever drawn."

"Drawings?" said Hector. "What kind of drawings?"

"Gilbert, please. There's no time for your drawings," said Maribelle, ignoring him. "You have guests. Your assistant detectives."

"I thought Collins was my detective," said Officer Hemmstone. "These are kids."

"These were the children I was telling you about. The ones that are going to help out Mr. Collins," said Maribelle. "Mr. Techor, why don't you introduce yourselves?"

The youngsters had momentarily forgotten that they were going by different names. Hector winced, and his eyes squeezed shut, hoping he wouldn't mess up. "Uh... well, I'm Issac Techor. I'm a novelist, see, and I came to Samling for... inspiration for a new book I'm hoping to write. I brought my children- this is Rose, Nicholas, and Sandy- and my nieces and nephew, Collin, Isabelle, and Beverly. Children... uh... say how do you do."

It was clear he was nervous, because he spoke so fast and yet unsure, so the youngsters stepped in quickly.

"How do you do?" said Violet and Klaus, now Rose and Nicholas.

"How do you do?" said Duncan and Isadora, now Collin and Isabelle.

"How you do?" said Sunny, now Sandy.

"Odo yow!" said Beatrice, now Beverly.

Gilbert hesitated before he shook their hands. "I'm fine, thank you. I guess I'll go next- my name's Gilbert Hemmstone. I'm chief of police."

"Sheriff Hemmstone, what were those drawings you were shouting about?" asked Violet, repeating Hector's earlier question.

Sherif Hemmstone's face split into a large smile. "Come on! I'll show you!"

"No, Gilbert, we don't have time for that- we need to do your meeting-" said Maribelle, but she was interrupted by Sherrif Hemmstone leading the children and Hector into the police station.