A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket Page A

Baudelaires looked at one another in dismay as Count Olaf called the fake name of the woman beside them. "Madame Lulu! Where are you?" "I am in fortune-telling tent, my Olaf," Olivia replied, slipping into her accent as easily as the Baudelaires could slip into the ruffled shirt. "But do not come in, please. I am doing secret ritual with crystal ball of mine." "Well, hurry up," Olaf said grumpily. "The pit is done, and I'm very thirsty. Come pour us all some wine." "Just one minute, my Olaf," Olivia said, reaching down to grab the material for her turban. "Why don't you be taking of a shower, please? You must be sweaty from the pit digging, and when you are done we will all be having of the wine together." "Don't be ridiculous," Count Olaf replied. "I took a shower ten days ago. I'll go put on some extra cologne and meet you in your caravan." "Yes, my Olaf," Olivia called, and then turned to whisper to the children as she wound the turban around her hair. "We'd better cut short our conversation," she said. "The others will be looking for you. When we leave here tomorrow, I'll tell you everything you want to know." "Couldn't you just tell us a few things now?" Klaus asked. The Baudelaires had never been closer to the answers they were seeking, and delaying things any further was almost more than they could stand. "No, no," Olivia decided. "Here, I'd better help you get back into your disguises or you'll get caught." The three children looked at one another reluctantly. "I guess you're right," Violet said finally. "The others will be looking for us." "Proffco," Sunny said, which meant "I guess so, " and began to wind the beard around her. Violet and Klaus stepped into the fur-cuffed pants, and buttoned the shirt around them, while Olivia tied her necklace back together so she could become Madame Lulu once more. "Our scars," Klaus remembered, looking at his sister's face. "We rubbed them off." "And our hair needs repowdering," Violet said. "I have a makeup pencil, please," Olivia said, reaching into the trunk, "and also the powder of talcum." "You don't have to use your accent right now," Violet said, taking the ribbon out of her hair. "Is good to practice, please," Olivia replied. "I must be thinking of myself as Madame Lulu, otherwise I will please be forgetting of the disguise." "But you'll remember our promises, won't you?" Klaus asked. "Promises?" Madame Lulu repeated. "You promised you wouldn't tell Count Olaf that we're here," Violet said, "and we promised to take you with us to the Mortmain Mountains." "Of course, Beverly," Madame Lulu replied. "I will be keeping of the promise to freaks." "I'm not Beverly," Violet said, "and I'm not a freak." Madame Lulu smiled, and leaned in to pencil a scar on the eldest Baudelaire's face. "But it is time for disguises, please," she said. "Don't be forgetting of your disguised voices, or you will be recognized." "We won't forget our disguises," Klaus said, putting his glasses back in his pocket, "and you won't forget your promise, right?" "Of course, please," Madame Lulu said, leading the children out of the fortune-telling tent. "Do not be of the worrying, please." The siblings stepped out of the tent with Madame Lulu, and found themselves bathed in the blue light of the famous hinterlands sunset. The light made each of them look a bit different, as if they were wearing another blue disguise on top of their carnival disguises. The powder in Violet's hair made her head look a pale, strange color, Klaus's fake scars looked darker and more sinister in the shadows, and Sunny looked like a small blue cloud, with small sparks of light where her teeth reflected the last of the sun. And Madame Lulu looked more like a fortune-teller, as the sunset glistened on the jewel in her turban, and shone on her long robe in an eerie light that looked almost magical. "Good night, my freaky ones," she said, and the Baudelaires looked at this mysterious woman and wondered if she had really changed her