Family Comes First- ASOUE

Chapter 19: Unpleasant Arrival

*Duncan's POV*

"Good morning!" Count Olaf said in a heavy accent to match his disguise. "I am Stephano, Dr. Montgomery Montgomery's new assistant."

"It's afternoon," My sister corrected him, "And you're Count Olaf."

He ignored her however. "Perhaps one of you can take my suitcases up to my room. The ride along that smelly road was dull and unpleasant, and Stephano is very tired."

"If anyone ever deserved to travel along Lousy Lane, it's you, Count Olaf!"

"We will not help you with your luggage and we will not let you into this house." Klaus added sharply, reaching for the door to slam it in his face and lock it, but before it could close, Olaf stabbed the door, stopping it from closing all the way.

"I see you children haven't changed a bit. You're obviously as stubborn as ever, trying to keep a guest out. I am a guest in this house, orphans, and you will address me how I wish, unless you'd like to meet my knife. Personally..."

"We'll call you Stephano if you insist on threatening us," Violet said, rolling her eyes. "But we won't be together in this house for long." Stephano opened his mouth to say something, but Violet wasn't interested in continuing the conversation. She turned on her heel with Sunny in her arms and marched through the door of the reptile room. Klaus, Isadora, and I followed closely behind. Anyone else who was there probably would have thought we were so brave as to talk to him that way and then just walk away, but after we closed the door, and we heard him give up with all of the gizmos on it, we relaxed to the best of our abilities, trying to calm our pounding heartbeats. Izzie had sunk into a chair clutching a pillow, Klaus sat up against the wall, Sunny curled into a tiny ball on the floor, Violet leaned against a sturdy cage, and I laid down on the floor staring at the ceiling.

"How did he find us?" Klaus asked in a hoarse whisper, as if his throat was sore.

"He vowed that he'd get his hands on the fortunes..." Isadora answered, her voice shaky.

"That was the last thing he said to Isadora and me," Violet added. "That he'd get his hands on the fortunes if it was the last thing he ever did."

"What do we do? Monty won't be back for hours."

"If we leave now, we might be able to catch a train in town and we can live on our own. We can go anywhere but here." Isadora suggested.

"But what about money? It'd probably be difficult to get jobs at our ages."

There were a few moments of silence as we thought about it. "It sounds lonely." I said finally. "We can't leave Uncle Monty, and if Olaf found us here then he'd find us anywhere else. Besides, now we know for a fact Uncle Monty and 'Stephano' aren't in cahoots. He wouldn't insist on using a different name if that were the case."

"Good point, Duncan," Violet replied. "You're right. So we'll wait for Uncle Monty."

"We'll wait," Klaus and Isadora said in unison, nodding.
"Tejoo." Sunny repeated firmly.

Waiting was a great struggle, so we tried to read to take our minds off of all of it, but we simply couldn't focus. Instead we just waited, and waited, and waited, watching out of the window for Monty's jeep to pull up, listening to the sounds of StEpHaNo moving upstairs, not daring to think about what he could be unpacking...

Finally, as the snake-shaped hedges began to cast shadows on the lawn, his orange and white jeep pulled into the driveway and we sighed in relief, knowing we could resolve this horrible mess soon. There was a large canoe strapped to the top and Monty struggled with some bags of groceries and Chinese takeout as Raymond slithered towards the reptile room. Monty smiled at us through the window of the reptile room and we smiled back, leaving the reptile room to try to get a moment alone with him. By the time we got to the front door, however, Stephano was already there introducing himself.

"So let me get this straight," he said, "You're my new assistant- sent to me even though I didn't ask for one- by the Scientific Society Seeking to Soothe Stress and Suffering."

"Precisely," Stephano said, "We do love our alligator down at SSSSSS."

"You mean alliteration, not alligator." I corrected him once we had approached them.

"Bambini!!" Monty exclaimed. "This is my new assistant, Stephano. Stephano, these are my children."

"We've met." Violet said with a frown. "He hasn't made a great first impression."

"Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear that," Monty said, "What happened?"

Isadora opened her mouth to answer, but Stephano decided to answer for us. "I was impatient to get inside. I don't like the smell of horseradish but these orphans tried to slam the door on me!! If anything they made a bad impression with me, not the other way around!" Monty looked at him warily before speaking.

"Alright then. Stephano, if you would go inside while I remind the children of their manners."

He looked at our guardian with wide eyes as if he couldn't believe his lie was believable, then nodded, keeping an eye on us as he walked inside, and he shut the door behind him. Uncle Monty waited a moment to be sure he wouldn't be overheard. "I'm sorry, children, you're not in trouble and I'm sure you need no reminder of your manners. He is quite suspicious I'll admit. I'm terribly sorry. I had no idea our enemies would catch up with us so quickly-" We spotted Stephano peek his head out of his window, so he changed the subject, "- Now it would be so helpful if one or two of you could take some of these bags off me, and I'll also need help with the canoe!"

Klaus and Isadora took a few bags from him and we all helped take the canoe off the roof of the jeep, holding it over our heads so we wouldn't be seen talking.

"It's clear now that I cannot turn my back for a second!" Monty continued.

"So you recognized him?" Violet asked.

"Of course I recognized him! I'm not some half-witted banker! He can wear as many lab coats and tell as many lies as he wants, but Count Olaf is no more a lab assistant than I'm a three-mouthed Brazilian Waxed Turtle!"

"So you're one-hundred percent not in cahoots with him?" I asked.

Monty blinked at me. "What does H-A spell?"

"Ha." Sunny answered.

"You can't let him know that you know," Klaus told him. "He has a knife!!"

"Understood. For now we'll be watchful and wary, okay? I will contact the proper authorities for a man like that soon."

We were so happy Uncle Monty was on our side, and for now we had to be cautious, or it'd mean bad things...