The Fourth Baudelaire

THE VILE VILLAGE: part 2

"Welcome children! We are the council of elders." An old woman said from a high top counter where other two old person sat beside her.
"Hi I'm Vio-" violet started but was interrupted by the other old woman.
"Silence on the platform!" She shouted. "Rule 902 clearly states no one is allowed to talk on the platform."
"We know who you are Baudelaires and Quagmires. And we know all about your terrible circumstances." The old man finally spoke.
"We know the notorious villain Count Olaf follows you everywhere." The first woman said.
"We know you've been moving guardian through guardian because they all seem to die." The second woman said dryly.
"And we know you Quagmires were kidnapped by the same man, that now had kidnapped one of the Baudelaire siblings too. Am I right?" The man ended.
"Yes, exactly. We were expec-" Klaus started to be once again interrupted by the first angry woman.
"Silence on the platform. How many times do we have to tell you about rule 902?"
"Now, that we have cleared who you are, let's talk about what guardians do." The second woman said.
"Guardians make children do chores, and as we all are your guardians, you'll do all the town's chores." The man said excited, while receiving claps and cheers from the crowd.
"Any questions?" The man asked.
"Actually we do-" Duncan was going to say after being interrupted by the first woman like Klaus and Violet.
"Silence! I meant if any of them had any questions." The man shouted referring to the crowd.
"Mrs Morrow." The second old woman said.
"Thank you. I'm all in favor for the "it takes a village" program and other doing my chores. But these children were involved in that kidnapping scandal. I don't want trouble like that in my town."
"That wasn't a question." The first old woman stated dryly.
"It was more of a statement." Mrs Morrow responded and sat down.
"Me, me." I man said jumpy raising his hand.
"Man in plaid pants" the second old woman repeated.
"Yes, I have a question. Where are these children going to live? It may take a village to raise a child but I don't want noisy children cluttering around my home, eh, right?" He said and received nods from the rest of the town.
"The children will be staying with, our handyman. Hector. Isn't that right Hector?" One of the women started.
"I-I- Um- uh-I..." *thud* the man supposed as Hector stuttered before falling on his back leaving a thud sound on the room.
"The council will take Hector's latest fainting spell to mean he'll feed and clothe them and and teach them our rules, so they won't do terrible things like talking on the platform." The man confirmed.
"The council hears no objection." The first woman announced.
"Now, the next item of business, report from our chief of police." The woman in the middle said.
Surprising everyone, a loud bang made door flew open and left free pace to a woman that the Baudelaires specifically did not wanted to see ever again in their lives.
"Ciao. Hello." Esme Squalor said with a horrible Italian accent and stepping on the platform when she said the last part, which annoyed the children as they were being silenced from talking on the platform. "Greetings... VFD. My name is Sabrina Pepper Anastasia Marigold. But you may call me officer Luciana, your new chief of police."
"What happened to the old chief of police?" The man in plaid pants asked. "I kind of liked that guy."
"He has a sore throat." She said dreadfully. "He accidentally swallowed a box of thumbtacks."
"We didn't hire a replace me." One of the woman defended.
"The agency sent me." She said fast.
"VFD I will protect your town serving justice while I rock this outfit, and as a fan of punishment I promise you that even the smallest rule that is broken will be severely punished." Officer Luciana said looking straight at the children.
"Perhaps that way the orphans will learn that you cannot speak on the platform." One of the elders implied.
"Unless you're chief of police." Esme said almost whispering with her normal voice.
"Unless you're chief of police." Everyone else in the room repeated, including the elders.
"Now off you go." Officer Luciana shouted at the kids so everyone could hear her.
"This session is officially done." The man said hitting a judge hammer against the big tall counter the elders were sitting on and in the same way informing the town that they could go.
***
After the assembly with the council of elders, the Baudelaires and Quagmires walked with Hector to his home. Telling him along the way about both their siblings, Camille Baudelaire's kidnapping and Quigley Quagmire's dead in a mysterious fire. They practically told him the story of their life, how Vount Olaf always follows them and how he's been trying to steal both their fortunes. Hector, as well, explained to them why he faints, he's so scared of the council of elders because he's been breaking so many rules that he just fakes to try and not to call much of attention to him. He secretly hid, construction materials inside of his barn; crunchy foods and books that are not 'The little elf' or 'The VFD rules book'; which are all things that have been prohibited by the council of elders' rules. So with all of that he's made a
'Self-sustaining hot air mobile home, that when is ready will be a suitable place for him to live and he generously invited the youngsters to join him, as it is suitable for seven or maybe even eight people.
The Baudelaires knew that Hector would be a good guardian and they were grateful to him, but even though he was indeed a well-intended person, he was too scared to stand up to the council and help them find Camille.
The next morning, the orphans woke up and headed to the house's porch, to have a delicious breakfast Hector had prepared them.
"Wow, this is really good Hector!" Isadora complimented him while taking a bite at her French toast.
"Is, it's right Hector." Klaus reassured him, giving a cheesy smile to Isadora and squeezing her hand under the table.
"Thank you! It was my Ma's recipe. She loved French toast." Hector replied without a bit of melancholy.
Suddenly the crows that as Hector explained, flew everyday from the town fountain to Nevermore Tree behind Hector's barn, started cawing a different melody, to say it that way.
You know many people I knew and some that I hope I could still say know, used to say that birds are the safest channel to communicate a secret message is through birds, preferably some that doesn't recall to much attention, as eagles for example. Those birds are the most selfish birds I've ever studied.
So if you are a noble and well-read person, then perhaps you'll prefer to use crows to deliver your secret message.
As I was saying going back again to the crows, suddenly the crows flew to the fountain but when doing so, one of them instead of cawing a horrible sound that mostly everyone finds annoying, the crow tried to caw a melody, but failed and after a few minutes he returned to his feathered 'siblings' leaving the Baudelaires and Quagmires in a quandary. Why would a crow out of thousands stop in front of them to try and start cawing a melody that as he tried made no sense to them?
The children then, decided not to bother about it and just to let it go, so they got off to work and secretly look for Camille because as they had deduced just yesterday, "If Esme is here, then so if Olaf," said Violet trying to not attract the elders attention when Esme entered the room, "then so is Camille." Klaus whispered too. By this statement they decided to take advantage of having to do chores, because as you and I know no one likes to do chores and probably now you have to go and do your chores, so it is once again my duty to advise you to stop reading this and save yourself from the destiny of the Baudelaire children and now the Quagmire children that had joined our journey for better or worse.
After a tedious days of doing chores like giving the donkey a bath or cleaning the town that had been vandalized the night before, the children received a new that they thought they would never hear, but as almost everything in their life it was full of misinformation.
"Count Olaf's been captured!" A woman said running to the town hall.
"What did you say?" The four children asked no one in particular.
"She said Count Olaf's been captured." Mr Poe said appearing out of nowhere.
"Mr Poe, what are you doing here?" Klaus asked confused, while he and the others followed Mr Poe and the rest of the town to the town hall.