Secrets

Chapter 26

The idiom of "there's no use crying over spilled milk" means that there is no need to weep over trivial or insignificant things or worry about things that have happened and can no longer be changed.

My sister often told me that this was one of our mother's favourite sayings when we were growing up. As the three of us would often break things such as toys or seemingly expensive glass figurines, she would say this to us to show that it was not the end of the world and nothing could be done to change what had happened. My father would then tell us the same story to go along with my mother's words. It was about a distant aunt of ours who was caring for a mango-coloured parrot for a friend and the bird had escaped its cage. During its attempted flight to freedom through an open window, one of its wings knocked over a vase of hers and this aunt collapsed to the ground and wept over her broken china. It seemed like a rather minor thing to cry over, especially considering it had the most hideous pattern and was not her favourite vase. The sadness towards this "spilled" urn also paled in comparison because not only had the owner lost their beloved pet to the skies, but this bird could also recite poems that held important information about our secret organization. To this day, we all hope that the information or the parrot never fell into enemy hands. Sometimes I will look outside my window in hopes of seeing the mango-coloured feathers again. The tale applied well to our situation and we learned to manage our emotions and be more careful in the future. Now, I often take time to wonder if she was preparing myself and my siblings for our adult years as there would be much more sad and distressing things to cry over. More important things would become broken, never to be repaired and changes in our lives would be irreversible.

Sadly, such a saying has applied to my life in many ways. During these times, my tears were justified because of my tendency to worry about an event that happened one night at an opera and it can never be taken back. Even if it was not directly my fault, I still spent nights years afterwards shedding tears inside caves, in motel rooms, in unregistered office buildings, on sandy beaches, and under park benches due to this event forcing me to go on the LAM. It happened again when I learned the fate of the woman that I loved the most in all the world. Although it has been many years since both these important things occurred, I still cry over the broken and tragic changes that my path has taken. While my mother did say this in my childhood, I have been fortunate enough to not have it said to my face and instead behind my back during my adult years. Perhaps it is a blessing to save me from anger at others, or perhaps I need to hear it one more time to allow me to get a full night's sleep and to stop buying new handkerchiefs.

At this moment, Holly S. was crying but not over the spilled milk on the porch, but something much, much worse. Like me, her tears were justified because she had just received the terrible news that her friends had been kidnapped. Despite her knowledge that the reporting in The Daily Punctilio was awful and untrustworthy, she still read the article to get some idea of what had happened.

Apparently, her "twin" friends had been snatched from Prufrock Preparatory School by the infamous "Count Omar" who had been at the school disguised as the "world's greatest gym teacher." Two pale cheerleaders, two mascot performers and a gender studies teacher were also suspected of being taken by the villain. The wanted man had driven off to an unknown destination, leaving the Baudelaire orphans shouting for them and who were then expelled from the boarding school for not completing their S.O.R.E. exercises. Of course, Holly did not care that her friends had been expelled; that was not worth crying over, especially since the school was a terrible place anyways. What she cared about was that two of her friends had been kidnapped by the man who seemed to know about her and VFD. Was he a part of it? Is that how he knew her parents? Also, her other three friends were being placed with a new guardian and she did not know where.

Examining the date in the paper with the month misspelled, the girl realized that this happened the day after she had left and a shiver went up to her spine. Is this why she had not been able to say goodbye to them in person? Had they already been grabbed by the time she left the notes?