A Tale of Wretched Occurrences: The Beginning

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓣𝓱𝓲𝓻𝓽𝔂-𝓣𝓱𝓻𝓮𝓮

“We finally get a break,” Violet sighs.

“Just in time, too. I’m starving,” you say.

“Ee zoo bel,” Sunny agrees, which means, “Even I’m tired of biting things.”

“Lunch break! Five minutes!” Foreman Flacutono yells.

“Oh boy, five whole minutes!” Phil chuckles.

He passes a small cardboard box to Violet. You look inside, expecting to see your lunch, but instead, the box is full of–

“Gum. This is gum.” Violet holds out the box as if no one else realized.

“Gum isn’t lunch,” Klaus says.

“It’s not even a snack,” you add.

Phil shrugs. “Well, it’s not very filling, but it’s all they’ll let us eat until dinnertime.”

“Can we use our wages to buy sandwiches?” Violet asks.

Cesar scoffs. “Lady, we’re not paid in wages. We’re paid in coupons.”

“I got one for 20 percent off a shampoo at Ed’s Haircut Palace,” Norma Rae chimes in.

“I got a free refill of iced tea.”

“I got buy two banjos, get one free. ‘Course, I can’t buy any banjos ‘cause I don’t have any money. Just coupons.”

You frown. “That can’t be legal. You’re not even being paid minimum wage.”

“Well, it’s not like we have a constitution,” Phil laughs.

“If this place is so miserable, why don’t you leave?” Klaus asks.

All the workers suddenly stand up. “Lucky Smells is our life. Lucky Smells is our home,” they recite in unison. Then they sit back down and resume chewing their gum as if they don’t realize how disturbing that is.

You and your siblings turn away from them.

“We– we need to find those answers and get out of here, fast,” Klaus concludes.

㊋㊋㊋㊋

Violet slowly opens the front door of the building Sir’s office is in. The night before, Klaus had discovered the door across from his office is a library from the maps included in your welcome packages. While Sir never explicitly said the library is off-limits, you feel like the fact the library isn’t exactly on the main path implies it. Also, the fact that no sooner does Klaus open the library doors do the doors to Sir’s office open, and Sir and Charles come barging out.

“Trying to get out of log day, are ya?” Sir asks, eyeing you disapprovingly.

“We wanted to visit the library on our lunch break, Sir,” Violet informs him.

“Oh, what a lovely idea! I told you a library would be good for morale,” Charles says to Sir.

Sir isn’t convinced. “Nonsense. Lunch breaks are for chewing gum, not sneaking off to libraries. That’s why you only need five minutes.”

“But, Sir–” Charles begins.

“You’re not going to cause trouble for this mill, are you?”

“Trouble? I’m your partner.”

“I’m speaking to the Baudelaires.”

“Right.”