What Happens?
The children, minus the Quagmires, try to figure out what Olaf’s
plan might be and how to escape from him. Eventually the Quagmires come up with
a way to help the Baudelaires; by sneaking out to keep an eye on what goes on
that evening. Out on the front lawn, Genghis/Olaf makes the children paint a
track on the grass and then sets them to running around them. It’s very
sinister.
Thoughts as I read:
I think the picture at the start of this chapter is going to be a
bit of a clue as to what will happen here. We’ve got an arm, one which is
clearly wearing a tracksuit, which is holding a tin of ‘lumo-glo’ which I’m
guessing is paint. Judging by the skull and crossbones on the label, it’s
probably not the sort of thing that children should be playing with. I’m
guessing that Olaf is going to make the children do something difficulty and
dangerous, that’s his usual MO.
The Baudelaires kind of have their minds on other things as the
day progresses and they wait for the final meal of the day when they know they
will have to go out to meet Genghis/Olaf and find out whatever it is he has
planned for them. Klaus and Sunny are pretty distracted but Violet at least has
tied up her hair, meaning that her inventive brain is doing its thing.
Things are no better at lunchtime, an event that the Quagmires do
not show up for which means the Baudelaires have to eat with their fingers. I
have to say that their lunchtime meal is one of my favourite things to eat with
my fingers, spaghetti! I was so pleased when I reached 18 and suddenly realised
that this meant I was an adult, and if I wanted to just eat a bowl of spaghetti
(with or without cutlery) I could do that; no more having to come up with
something to have with the spaghetti. Luckily Mr Click totally gets
this and just the other week, when I was starving but didn’t know what I wanted
to eat, offered to make me a big bowl of spaghetti.
Anyway, I digress.
The Baudelaires have not had as much experience at cutleryless
spaghetti eating as I have, so they find this very difficult.
Luckily the Quagmires show up for the evening meal and inform them
that they’ve come up with a solution to the Olaf situation. The Baudelaires
don’t actually give the Quagmires a chance to explain the plan immediately
though, despite time obviously being of the essence. Violet wonders if Olaf was
planning to kidnap them and Klaus has tried to work out how they can get out of
the situation:
“And at first I thought we should call Mr. Poe after all,”
Klaus said, “and tell him what’s going on. But if Count Olaf can fool an
advanced computer, he’ll surely be able to fool an average banker.”
I’m not the only one who agrees with this. Sunny does too, or at
least she says “Toricia!” which means more or less the same thing.
Whatever the Quagmires have been up to, it’s resulted in them
losing their drinking glass privileges so the Baudelaires share those with them,
as they eat their meatloaf with the shared cutlery. I’m not sure this is
entirely hygienic. What would Ofsted say, I wonder?
The plan amounts to little more than the Quagmires propping open
the auditorium door in order to sneak out and watch what Genghis does. This
means if Olaf tries anything, Isadora and Duncan can raise the alarm to warn
everyone. This isn’t quite the plan that the Baudelaires were hoping for, and
can you blame them? What’re the chances that Nero will take kindly to any sort
of interruption to his grand concert. I’m sure that’ll go down really well. By
the time that the Quagmires get him to understand the situation, Olaf could be
miles away!
And the Quagmires’ involvement in the plan adds another layer of
worry to the Baudelaires, because now they’re concerned that their friends might
get hurt because of them. After all, Olaf’s killed two of their previous
guardians, you can’t really blame them for worrying about their friends getting
into trouble too.
All too soon the Baudelaires have to head out to the lawn to meet
Genghis/Olaf who tells them that he has selected them to take part in S.O.R.E.
also known as Special Orphan Running Exercises. Sunny’s response is “Ooladu!”
which means “I wish you’d tell us what you’re really up to, Genghis.”
but which Violet translates as “That sounds exciting.” Because it’s getting late
(it is here too, definitely the evenings are so dark now) Genghis/Olaf has
luminous paint to mark out a track so they can see where they are supposed to be
running.
As we’re halfway through the book(ish) we get another full size
picture here. This one apparently of Nero playing to the auditorium, complete
with bored looking students. Right at the very back we can just make out Isadora
and Duncan sneaking out of the room. They’re directly opposite Nero so hopefully
they’ll make it out without being caught.
Olaf gives Klaus the brush and tells the children to paint out
their track on the grass. This somewhat baffles the children:
“What do you think we’re really doing?” Violet
whispered to her brother.
“I don’t know,” Klaus said. “I’ve only read three
or four books on paint. I know that paint can sometimes be poisonous or cause
birth defects. But Genghis isn’t making us eat the circle, and you’re not
pregnant, of course, so I can’t imagine.”
I love how Klaus always has all the answers. How many people can
say they’ve only read three or four books on paint? I don’t think I’ve ever even
read one! I wonder if I’m missing out. Anyway, Sunny wonders if the paint is to
be some kind of signal (or “Gargaba!”) so none of us are any the wiser at this
point.
With the circle complete Genghis/Olaf gives his instructions. The
children are to run laps. Sunny is generously given permission to crawl
considering how she is incapable of running. And so this is how we leave the
children, gradually losing track of the number of laps that they have completed;
running round and round and round and round.
And they’re going to be doing it for a while because the next
Chapter-by-Chapter review won’t be posted until Thursday!
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