The Fourth Baudelaire

THE VILE VILLAGE: part 4

After Mr Poe left the five very confused and worried children inside a deluxe holding cell, the disguised Count went to visit them bringing them what later on would be their get away solution. Their latest guardian Hector visited them as well to say goodbye and as most of their previous guardians he was good but unhelpful. Still, he left them with a message telling that if they'd managed to escape by cocktail hour they could float away in his self-sustaining hot-airmobile home. Klaus recurred to information even in this situation because as a researcher that's what he does, and quoting the expression that might or might not know; deus ex machina. In case you do not know what Klaus was talking about, "deus ex machina" is a Latin term meaning "god from the machine" or in this unfortunate situation would fit better "something helpful happening when you least expect it" which as we know in the lives of these orphans was not going to happen.
So as the children continued to think a way to get out of that terrible situation, there was nothing more they could hope but for the "deus ex machina" to happen.
"This is all wrong!" Klaus exclaimed calling everyone's attention to him. "We were supposed to rescue Camille and break Jacques out of jail, but now we are all in jail, Jacques is dead and we're never going to save our sister." He finished.
"Unless we break out." Violet said, her eyes brightening as she said so.
"Pow mow?" Asked Sunny which probably meant something like "how?"
"There must be something in this cell I can use for an invention." She replied looking around.
"You could use the rope." Duncan suggested and Isadora spoke next. "And maybe this bench."
"Klaus you could think of something useful you've read about jails." Violet suggested as she stared at her brother's expression that had changed a little bit since the last time he spoke.
"I-I just remembered something." He said.
"Is it something that can help us get out?" Isadora asked as she stood by his side.
"No, no I um- I- I just remembered that it's our birthday today. Camille and I, we-we would be turning 13." He said, while sitting in the wooden bench behind him.
"Oh, Klaus we forgot all about it." Violet said as she wen to sit next to him sitting Sunny on her lap.
"I-I know I forgot too, it's just that I've never spent my birthday without- without Cam." He said as he stared at the floor. "I thought about a book I read about a boy that goes to prison and becomes a long-distance runner and then I remembered that I got to at book a year ago exactly and that Camille got her- her harmonica with her name engraved on it..."
"I remember Mother and Father made that terrible bread pudding." Violet said with a little sadness on her voice. Sunny grabbing her brother's hand in a soothing way.
"The worst we ever tasted. And they promised us that next year we'd have the best birthday in the world. And, I don't mean to sound spoiled but I was really hoping for better than being imprisoned for murder and for my twin to be kidnapped." He said, his voice cracking a bit, probably at the memory of his twin sister. My voice sometimes cracks as well as I remember my twin.
"This is a terrible birthday. But the Quagmires are right and I guess there is a gift waiting for you." Violet said as she tied her hair up in a ribbon once again. "Deus ex machina."
And as Violet started to plan her invention with help from Duncan and Sunny, Klaus and Isadora had a moment to talk.
"Hey." Isadora said, sitting beside him. "Happy birthday!" She said as she hugged him.
"Thanks Izzy! But it's not happy until I get to share it with my sister." He said, but just as he said so, a crow stood in the small barred window again with that unusual melody for a crow.
"Klaus, isn't that what your sister played with her harmonica?" Isadora said when she had stood up and walked to the window, getting nearer to the singing crow.
At this comment Duncan, Violet and Sunny had turned their attention to a smiling Klaus.
"Klaus. You're smiling." Violet added.
"I am?" He asked not really paying attention to his sister.
"You're in jail and you're smiling." She continued.
"Well, I think I know where Cam is." He said and everyone reacted with a "Really?"
"That crow, it's singing Camille's favorite melody, she always playing it. It's the same she played from inside the red herring." Klaus said as he turned around to face a confused Violet. "The crows, it's not the first time we've heard the different type of cawing. Camille must be teaching them."
"Klaus do you think that crows are that smart?" Duncan asked carefully.
"Normally no, but I read a book about carrier birds, and it doesn't mean that they can only carry things, but messages, such as a different type of cawing." Klaus explained easily.
"But the crows are all over VFD, Camille could be anywhere!" Isadora said as she kept staring at the singing crow.
"But where are the crows at this time of the day?" Klaus asked everyone.
"The crow fountain?" They asked back with confusion.
"Exactly! That fountain is big enough to hold a person." Klaus said as his eyes brightened with joy.
"That's brilliant!" Isadora told him with a huge smile. "Klaus, you're brilliant!"
"Camille it's brilliant." He replied with a smile towards his girlfriend.
"She's outside of that very wall." Duncan commented.
Then, we have to keep smashing that very wall..." Violet said as she hit the wall again with the stale bread.
"Happy Birthday to you!" They all sang together as they hit the wall, and as bonus annoying both Esme and Olaf that were currently being interviewed by The Daily Punctilio.
"What is that noice?" Detective Dupin yelled as he eyed the children from the top floor of the police station.
"It's Klaus and Camille's birthday! We're celebrating!" Isadora replied at him with a joyful tone, gaining an "Ugh" from him.
They sang and sang until the wall broke and there was a hole big enough for someone to get out. And so they did and ran towards the fountain careful not to be seen.
"Camille has to be in that fountain, she can't be hidden in Nevermore Tree and there's no other place where she could be." Klaus said as they turned the corner to arrive in front of the fountain.
" Myupotek" Sunny said, what I believe means "It must have some kind of mechanism."
"You're right Sunny." Violet agreed with the toddler and hurried to face the fountain. As the five children stood in front of it they stared as if they were trying to figure out what to do from there.
"I'm sure she's here." Klaus said. "Camille?" He called. But there was no answer whatsoever.
"Maybe we need to look closer." Duncan suggested As he stood up in the border of the fountain.
"Guys, this beak is hollow." Duncan said again as he stood in his toes to look inside of it.
"Let me see." Added Klaus. Going to stand next to him in the border of the dry fountain. But as he did, Duncan lost his balance and was about to fall, but he held onto the beak that as he put pressure on it, it started to move until it was wide down. With this the head of the crow-shaped fountain went back and the body opened as if it were two more wings. From it all the children could see someone standing covered in dirt. It was Camille.
"Cam!" Klaus yelled as Camille yelled "Klaus" at the same time.
"Did the crows find you?" She asked after she had hugged her sisters and dear friends. "I taught them my favorite melody. Well, I didn't actually taught them the melody but I played my harmonica in here and after a day they started to learn it, so I started talking to them, I know it must seem crazy but they were very smart and I guess they found you if now I'm talking with you guys and now I'm rambling. Sorry!" She said and everyone just hugged her.
"Camille you have no idea how happy I am that we've found you!" Klaus exclaimed with a huge smile.
"Guys, I don't mean to interrupt this moment but remember we are fugitives?" Violet said hurriedly.
"Mob!" Sunny shrieked as she pointed an alarmed finger towards the angry and yelling mob that was about to approach them. "What do we want?" "To burn children!" "When do we want it?" "Now!"
"Come on this way!" Violet said as the six ran towards a nearby alley.
"Where can we go?" Camille asked. "We're in the middle of nowhere!" She said as she looked around her.
"We know a way out." Isadora told her.
"A self sustaining hot air mobile home." Continued Klaus. "If we reach the town border we can escape."
"We'll be safe. Up in the air forever." Completed Duncan.
"But then we'll never learn about VFD!" She expressed in disappointment.
"No, we have everything in our common place notebooks." Duncan told her and she nodded. "I guess then we should figure out a way to get there then."
In this story there's always the element of surprise, that as I'm sure you know, it's very common in the lives of these resourceful youngsters, every time the treacherous villain that's after them appears in a new location and a new disguise the Baudelaires have found themselves been hit by the element of surprise, but now, they had been affected by the element of surprise in a shiny and bright flash and Mrs Poe screeching voice.
"What are your thoughts on your daring escape?" The misinformed reporter asked the children. "Oh, hello there Camryn Baudelaire!"
"It's Camille!" The girl corrected as the children ran on the other direction.
So as we are near the end of another chapter in the unfortunate lives of the Baudelaire orphans I'm sure you can imagine that neither this one has a happy ending. But as I've told you multiples times since I started documenting the lives of the Baudelaire and Quagmire siblings, you shall believe they had indeed a happy ending and stop reading this dreadful story for your own good.
And as the children once again managed to escape from the angry mob but couldn't accomplish their mission to live up in the air forever, they drove into the sunset, well, actually Sunny drove into the sunset with a mysterious poem that you may or may not know being recited in the background of the trip. I sure know it, and after this long way before their next stop the six children would know it as well.