A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Carnivorous Carnival Read Free Page A

door of the booth. Now that the sun was down the air was getting colder, and she shivered in the evening breeze. "Who will help us?" she asked. "Who will take care of us?" "We'll have to take care of ourselves," Klaus said. "Ephrai," Sunny said, which meant "But we're in real trouble now." "We sure are," Violet agreed. "We're in the middle of nowhere, with no place to hide, and the whole world thinks we're criminals. How do criminals take care of themselves out in the hinterlands?" The Baudelaires heard a burst of laughter, as if in reply. The laughter was quite faint, but in the still of the evening it made the children jump. Sunny pointed, and the children could see a light in one of the windows in Madame Lulu's caravan. Several shadows moved across the window, and the children could tell that Count Olaf and his troupe were inside, chatting and laughing while the Baudelaire orphans shivered outside in the gloom. "Let's go see," Klaus said. "Let's go find out how criminals take care of themselves."
    Chapter Two
    Eavesdropping, a word which here means "listening in on interesting conversations you are not invited to join", is a valuable thing to do, and it is often an enjoyable thing to do, but it is not a polite thing to do, and like most impolite things, you are bound to get into trouble if you get caught doing it. The Baudelaire orphans, of course, had plenty of experience not getting caught, so the three children knew how to walk as quietly as possible across the grounds of Caligari Carnival, and how to crouch as invisibly as possible outside the window of Madame Lulu's caravan. If you had been there that eerie blue evening and nothing in my research indicates that you were, you wouldn't have heard even the slightest rustle from the Baudelaires as they eavesdropped on their enemies. Count Olaf and his troupe, however, were making plenty of noise. "Madame Lulu!" Count Olaf was roaring as the children pressed up against the side of the caravan so that they would be hidden in the shadows. "Madame Lulu, pour us some wine! Arson and escaping from the authorities always makes me very thirsty!" "I'd prefer buttermilk, served in a paper carton," Esme said. "That's the new in beverage." "Five glasses of wine and a carton of buttermilk coming up, please," answered a woman in an accent the children recognized. Not so long ago, when Esme Squalor had been the Baudelaires' caretaker, Olaf had disguised himself as a person who did not speak English well, and as part of his disguise, he had spoken in an accent very similar to the one they were hearing now. The Baudelaires tried to peer through the window and catch a glimpse of the fortuneteller, but Madame Lulu had shut her curtains tightly. "I'm thrilled, please, to see you, my Olaf. Welcome to the caravan of mine. How is life for you?" "We've been swamped at work," the hook-handed man said, using a phrase which here means "chasing after innocent children for quite some time." "Those three orphans have been very difficult to capture." "Do not worry of the children, please," Madame Lulu replied. "My crystal ball tells me that my Olaf will prevail." "If that means 'murder innocent children,'" one of the white-faced women said, "then that's the best news we've heard all day." "'Prevail' means 'win,'" Olaf said, "but in my case that's the same thing as killing those Baudelaires. Exactly when does the crystal ball say I will prevail, Lulu?" "Very soon, please," Madame Lulu replied. "What gifts have you brought me from your traveling, my Olaf?" "Well, let's see," Olaf replied. "There's a lovely pearl necklace I stole from one of the nurses at Heimlich Hospital." "You promised me I could have that," Esme said. "Give her one of those crow hats you snatched from the Village of Fowl Devotees." "I tell you, Lulu," Olaf said, "your fortune-telling abilities are amazing. I never would have guessed that the Baudelaires were hiding out in that stupid town, but your crystal ball knew right away." "Magic