What Happens?
The children walk through the village with Hector and learn about
some of the bizarre rules that have been implemented by the Council of Elders.
They also learn just what V.F.D. stands for and tell Hector about everything
they have been through since the deaths of their parents. Hector also learns
about the Quagmires and then reveals something strange; a slip of paper
containing a rhyming couplet.
Thoughts as I read:
I love the picture at the beginning of this chapter. It shows a house with a massive tree behind it. It’s like those photos of the big plants taking over old ruins in the jungle. Except this house is very much still standing. There is a big root creeping round the side of the house and I wouldn’t want to be in the house if the tree was about to fall over. Can’t say it’d be a great place to live, considering there branches are full of birds. I suppose it would be good for fertilising the garden but might make the roof a bit messy.
Hector’s really impressed at the sight of the birds all flying away. I suppose when you’re a handyman in a town as crazy as V.F.D. little things like a bunch of birds flying into a tree are going to impress you more than they might normal people. Then again, Hector’s not all bad, he’s doing them chicken enchiladas for tea. That’s one of my favourite things, we quite often have Mexican on a Saturday and I look forward to it each week.
As they head for their new home Hector explains the definition of the phrase ‘as the crow flies’ which has a rather more literal meaning in this village. That tree we saw on the first page is Nevermore Tree and the house belongs to Hector. I imagine that will make it a rather noisy and messy place to live.
The children are more interested in learning just what V.F.D. stands for, which makes sense, if I moved to a place with a random acronym for a name I’d want to know what it stood for. Before Hector can give them a proper explanation however he is distracted by explaining what a group of crows is called; it’s a murder for anyone who might be planning on appearing on Pointless in the future. Sunny is the one to ask the question: “Sturo?”
“‘Murder’ is the word for a group of crows, like a flock of
geese or a herd of cows or a convention of orthodontists…”
I love this.
Anyway the founders of the village were fascinated by the birds
and so named the place The Village of Fowl Devotees. It’s a bit of a
disappointing secret, especially as it’s not really a secret at all and the
children are the only ones who don’t know the meaning. Violet is forced to
explain that the Quagmires led them to believe that there was some secret
surrounding something with the initials V.F.D.
This then leads on to a discussion about the errors in the paper
The Daily Punctilio as Hector believes that Count Omar is after the
children and therefore Count Olaf must be some relation of his. Luckily, unlike
most of the children’s guardians up to this point, Hector actually wants them to
fill him in on exactly what has happened to them. Could it be that they’ve found
someone just a little bit like Uncle Monty?
We then get another two pages which recap everything that we’ve
learned so far in the last six books, just in case we haven’t been paying
attention. We’re reminded of the saying ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’
because the children find it quite therapeutic to get all these terrible,
traumatic events in their past out in the open with an adult who actually wants
to listen to them. Sunny says “Kyun” to finish up which means “And that’s why we
chose this town, in the hopes of finding the secret of V.F.D., rescuing the
Quagmire triplets, and defeating Count Olaf once and for all.”
Hector is quite sympathetic but he’s the one who has to break it
to the Baudelaires that there’s nothing special about the name V.F.D. because
things have been as they are there for over three hundred years, with the
exception of the Fowl Fountain. Hmm, I’m guessing that’ll come into play in the
future then.
Sunny’s disappointed to hear this, asking “Pojik?” meaning “Do you
mean we’ve come here for nothing?” The Baudelaires are concerned about being
forced to give up their search for the Quagmires, but Hector won’t hear of this.
He’s determined to help them in between his handymanning and their chores,
though there’s always the risk of being caught by the Council of Elders.
And so we come back to the weird rules in the village, like number
67 “no citizen is allowed to build or use any mechanical devices.” This is
definitely going to cramp Violet’s style. It’s really lucky that they’ve been
placed with Hector though. He’s got all the inventing materials that he was told
to remove from the village and he’s been doing a little inventing himself. His
current project is a mobile home in the shape of a hot air balloon. Sunny’s not
sure what one of these is and says so, “Neebdes?” meaning “Could you explain
that a bit more?”
So he does. He basically plans to fly away in it and he’s made it
completely self-sufficient so he doesn’t ever need to land. Or at least he would
if he could just work out a few kinks. At least now he’s got Violet they’ll
probably be able work something out with it.
Next up it’s Klaus’s turn to get some bad news. Rule 108 is “the
V.F.D. library cannot contain any books that break any of the other rules.” This
means that the stock is somewhat limited. Any guesses what Hector did when he
was told to remove all of the rule breaking books? He’s got his very own secret
library. I wouldn’t mind having one of those.
Sunny reassures Hector “Azzator!” meaning “Don’t worry – your
secret is safe with us!” before she is asked what she likes to do. Her response
is pretty self explanatory: “Bite!”. Violet and Klaus aren’t the only ones to
get bad news (and good news) on the way to their new home.
“Rule #4,561 clearly states that citizens are not allowed to
use their mouths for recreation. If the Council of Elders knew that you liked to
bite things for your own enjoyment, I can’t imagine what they’d do. I’m sure we
can find you some things to bite, but you’ll have to do it in secret.”
I love how their rules just get more and more bizarre and I can’t
help but wonder what might have happened to prompt these being actual rules.
And then we arrive at Hector’s house which consists of a house, a
barn and a massive tree. It’s taller and wider than the properties near it and
it’s full of crows. The children are pretty impressed by the sight, while Sunny
observes “Ogufod!” which means “What a lot of crows!”
Considering he’s a handyman, Hector’s got a pretty nice house. The
children have the choice of rooms and there’s even room for the Quagmires,
should they turn up. The conversation moves in the direction of Duncan and
Isadora, touching briefly on poetry before stopping on the rhyming couplets that
she writes. At this moment Hector produces a scrap of paper which contains the
lines:
For sapphires we are held in here.
Only you can end our
fear.
Hmm, that sounds like one of Isadora’s, doesn’t it?
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