The children walked back to the lumbermill together, and realised that they had missed lunch. Violet shut her eyes, filled with guilt about what she was about to do to her brother, and then said, "Klaus, go to Lucky Smells Lumbermill and begin to work."
"Yes, sir."
As Klaus went off and did just that, Rowan turned to Violet.
"Why did you do that?"
Violet frowned. "I want to do something - something important - and I don't want Klaus getting in the way."
"Um, okay." Rowan turned away.
"Come on!" Violet exclaimed, beginning to run. "We've got to get to the library, quick."
They shut the door of the library.
"Sir will get mad if he finds out." Rowan pointed out.
Violet locked the door and smiled. "That's why he won't find out."
Violet took her dark purple hair ribbon out and tied up her hair.
"You're thinking of an invention." said Rowan.
"No." said Violet. "But I'm thinking of something.
She took out a book on the shelf - Advanced Ocular Science by Georgina Orwell - and turned to the contents page.
"I think that Dr. Orwell has left us a clue." said Violet.
Rowan shook his head. "No. She's definitely evil. She's on Count's Olaf side."
Now Violet shook her head. "Not on purpose. In the form of a book."
"Exaca!" shrieked Sunny, which meant, 'I think you're correct!'.
"Introduction." read Violet. "Basic ophthalmology. Nearsightedness and farsightedness. Blindness. Itchy eyelashes. Damaged pupils. Blinking problems. Winking problems. Surgical practices. Glasses, monocles, and contact lenses. Sunglasses. Hypnosis and mind control. Hypnosis and mind control! That must be it. Chapter 12. Page 927!" she quickly flipped to that page.
There was a knocking at the door.
"Who's in there?" asked Rowan, looking up.
"It's Charles." said the voice.
"Oh, okay." said Violet, and unlocked the door. "You can come in now."
"Hello, children. Where's Klaus?"
Violet and Rowan exchanged glances.
"Well," said Rowan. "We wanted to study in the library, but Klaus wanted to work to make up for the earlier incident."
He smiled as Violet gave him an appreciative nudge.
Charles winked at them. "I won't tell Sir. When I noticed you weren't working, I knew where you were immediately. I bought a present for you."
"What is it?" asked Violet as Charles handed Rowan a round package.
"A peach." said Charles, satisfied.
"Oh." said both of the children, faking a smile. They were grateful that Charles had managed to smuggle them a peach, especially since they had missed their gum, but it wasn't what they were hoping for.
"Anyway, goodbye, children." said Charles, leaving the room and locking the door behind him.
"Where was I?" asked Violet. "Oh yes, page 927."
"What does it say?" asked Rowan.
Violet began to read. "Hypnosis is an efficacious yet precarious methodology and should not be assayed by neophytes. That's the first sentence and I don't understand most of the words."
"What would Klaus do?" asked Rowan.
"Klaus hardly ever struggles with words." sighed Violet. "But when he does, he leaves those words out, and looks them up later."
"We don't have any dictionaries to look the words up with, but we can try and make sense of it without the difficult words." said Rowan firmly. "Just replace them with 'something' or 'blank'."
"Once a subject has been hypnotised," began Violet. "a simple blank word will make him or her perform whatever blank acts any blank wants blank."
Violet read about five more pages and finally made a conclusion.
"I still don't understand all of the words, but it sounds like one word will hypnotise Klaus and one word will make him unhypnotised."
"I agree." Rowan nodded. "Now we just have to find Klaus - before it's too late."
YOU ARE READING
Baudelaires and a White
Fanfiction"I think we should do it." said Rowan quietly as the man opened the door. "Okay." said Violet. "But who are you?" gasped Isadora, sliding into the taxi. The man took a breath. "My name is Lemony Snicket, and I am here to take you away." Would the s...
