New to Town
by Caroline Reid, February 2020
Violet was new to town. She and her two siblings and her mom and dad had just moved here. She was nervous that she did not know anybody in her new town.
One day, her mom went with her dad to a week-long business review. Violet watched her siblings, Sunny and Klaus, when they were gone. They went to the beach. It was a cloudy day. They liked it that way. If it wasn’t cloudy, the beach would be busy, and they did not like it busy.
Violet liked to skip rocks. Like most 14-year-olds, she was right-handed. Klaus liked to read books. He liked looking at animals and researching about them in books. Sunny, who was barely out of babyhood, had unusually sharp teeth that let her bite anything.
Someone was coming toward them on the beach. They did not know who it was. Since there was fog, they did not see the person. It was a man in a weird disguise. The shirt was too long, so they could not see his hands. He grabbed Sunny and Klaus by the arm and dragged them to a nearby car. He pushed them in. He came back for Violet.
Violet tried to scream but he grabbed her and put one hand over her mouth. But then she realized they were not hands at all. They were hooks! The metal was freezing against her skin.
He drove them to a house and stopped. It looked like a dismal place. It looked like the house was leaning and at the very top, there was a tower. The window was shaped like an eye.
“Let’s take you inside to meet Count Olaf!” the hook-handed man said.
Violet was already holding Sunny, so he led Violet and Klaus to the door. The hook-handed man knocked and the door opened.
None of the children wanted to look up. They looked down. This person had shoes, but he didn’t have socks. Between his pants cuff and his shoes, the children saw a tattoo of an eye.
There was another surprise on his face as they looked up. Most people had two eyebrows, but this person had one long eyebrow across his face, and his eyes were really shiny.
“My name is Count Olaf,” he said. “You are going to live here. I don’t think it is wise for three little children to stay home with no mother or father.”
“I’m 14,” Violet said in a shaky voice. “I am watching my siblings while my parents go on a business review.”
“How did you know that we were by ourselves?” asked Klaus.
“Well, my assistant here saw you at the beach and thought you should not be all by yourselves,” replied Count Olaf. “Shouldn’t your parents be there?”
“Gak!” said Sunny. That meant We shouldn’t be talking to strangers.
“Sunny, you are right. He is a stranger,” said Violet.
“Well, I am not exactly a stranger. I am one of your relatives,” Count Olaf said.
“We don’t know you. How can we be relatives?” said Klaus.
“Well, I am an actor,” said Count Olaf. “And aren’t you new to this city?”
“How can you be an actor? Your name is Count, so you must be a count too?” said Klaus.
“Well, I can be two things at once,” said Count Olaf. “And I need Violet to be in my play, The Marvelous Marriage, next week. Violet will be my bride. You other children are going to stay in your bedroom and not make any mischief.”
The kids felt a shiver go down them.
“How about you step inside my humble home?” said Count Olaf. “Don’t forget to wipe your shoes so you don’t get any mud in my house.”
When the children stepped into the house, they realized how silly that comment was. The house was messy with mud. It would not have even mattered if they had mud on their feet.
“I will show you to your room,” Count Olaf said.
The children walked up a creaky staircase after him. As they were walking, Count Olaf gave them a rule.
“You may not go in the tower room. That is forbidden,” he explained.
When they went into the bedroom, they were surprised that there was only one bed. Instead of a pile of toys, there was a pile of rocks.
During the next week, the children had to clean the whole house! The only happy point was meeting the neighbor, Justice Strauss, who talked to them whenever Count Olaf wasn’t around. She let them take books from her library.
Klaus found a book called “Natural Law” and discovered that Count Olaf was going to be truly married to Violet! Klaus told Violet this right before it was time to leave for the play.
Violet and Count Olaf piled into the car and headed to the theater. The hook-handed man put Klaus and Sunny in a room and locked the door so they wouldn’t come out and make any mischief.
At the play, Violet peeked out from the curtain when she had a white dress on. How could she get out of the situation? She did not know any of the people, and she wasn’t sure where her mom and dad were. And who is this madman named Count Olaf?
When she went on stage, she knew her only words should be “I Do.” But she had a plan. She pulled back her black hair to think before she went on stage. Maybe, just maybe, if she did her left hand instead of her right, it would work! She did the trick perfectly, and when the curtain dropped, she knew she wasn’t really married.
“Now, my bride! Let’s go back home!” said Count Olaf.
“I’m not your bride!” said Violet.
“Yes, you are,” said Count Olaf.
“I used my left hand, and I’m right-handed,” said Violet.
“Let me look in this book and see if this is true,” said Justice Strauss. “It says you have to use the hand that you write with.”
“What! Now I will never get the Baudelaire fortune!” said Count Olaf. Count Olaf must have been spying on them since they had moved there! He wanted to get their fortune.
When Justice Strauss realized that Count Olaf had tried to really marry Violet and that he was just a bad man wanting their fortune, she took Violet, Sunny, and Klaus back to their own home. It was raining. Just then, their mom and dad came home. They ran to their children.
“One of us will stay home with you next time!” said their mother.
The End