'That's it!' Violet said. 'Chapter Forty.'
Klaus flipped pages as Sunny gave another desperate wheeze, although I wish the middle Baudelaire could have had the time to return to some of those pages he flipped past. ' 'The Gorgonian Grotto,' ' he read, ' 'located in propinquity to Anwhistle Aquatics, has appropriately wraithlike nomenclature –' '
'We know all that,'' Violet said hurriedly. 'Skip to the part about the mycelium.'
Klaus's eyes scanned the page easily, having had much practice in skipping the parts of books he found less than helpful. ' 'The
'And waning,' interrupted Violet, as Sunny's wheezing continued to wax. 'Skip to the part about the poison.'
' 'As the poet says, ' ' Klaus read, ' 'A single spore has such grim power / That you may die within the hour. Is dilution simple? But of course! / Just one small dose of root of horse.' '
' 'Root of horse'?' Violet repeated. 'How can a horse have a root?'
'I don't know,' Klaus said. 'Usually antidotes are certain botanical extractions, like pollen from a flower, or the stem of a plant.'
'Does 'dilution' mean the same thing as 'antidote?' Violet asked, but before her brother could answer, Sunny wheezed again, and the diving helmet rocked back and forth as she struggled against the fungus.
Klaus looked at the book he was holding, and then at his sister, and then reached into the waterproof pocket of his uniform.
'What are you doing?' Violet asked.
'Getting my commonplace book,' Klaus replied. 'I wrote down all the information on the history of Anwhistle Aquatics that we found in the grotto.'
'We don't have time to look at your research!' Violet said. 'We need to find an antidote this very minute! Fiona's right – He or she who hesitates is lost.'
Klaus shook his head. 'Not necessarily,' he said, and flipped a page of his dark blue notebook. 'If we take one moment to think, we might save our sister. Now, what did Kit Snicket write in that letter? Here it is: 'The poisonous fungus you insist on cultivating in the grotto will bring grim consequences for all of us. Our factory at Lousy bane can provide some dilution of the mycelium's destructive respiratory capabilities...' That's it! V.F.D. was making something in a factory near Lousy bane that could dilute the effects of the
'Lousy bane?' Violet said. 'That was the road to Uncle Monty's house. It had a terrible smell, remember? It smelled like black pepper. No, not black pepper...'
Klaus looked at his commonplace book, and then at
Violet was already striding to the kitchen. 'Let's hope Phil likes to cook with horseradish,' she said, and pushed open the door.
Klaus picked up the wheezing helmet and followed her into the tiny kitchen. There was scarcely enough room for the children to stand in the small space between the stove, the refrigerator, and two wooden cabinets. 'The cabinets must serve as a pantry,' Klaus said, using a word which here means 'place where antidotes are hopefully stored.' 'Horseradish should be there – if he has it.'
The elder Baudelaires shuddered, not wanting to think about what would happen to Sunny if horseradish were not found on the shelves. Within moments, however, Violet and Klaus had to consider that very thing. Violet opened one cupboard, and Klaus opened another, but the children saw immediately that there was no horseradish.
'Gum,' Violet said faintly. 'Boxes and boxes of gum Phil brought from the lumbermill, and nothing else. Did you find anything, Klaus?'
Klaus pointed to a pair of small cans on one shelf of his cupboard, and held up a small paper bag. 'Two cans of water chestnuts,' he said, 'and a small bag of sesame seeds.' His fist closed tightly around the bag, and he blinked back tears behind his glasses. 'What are we going to do?'
Sunny wheezed once more, a frantic whistle that reminded her siblings of a train's lonely noise as it disappears into a tunnel.
'Let's check the refrigerator,' Violet said. 'Maybe there's horseradish in there.'
Klaus nodded, and opened the kitchen's refrigerator, which was almost as bare as the pantry. On the top shelf were six small bottles of lemon-lime soda, which Phil had offered the children on their first night aboard the
'I forgot,' Violet said, tears running down her face.
'Me too,' Klaus said, taking the plate out of the refrigerator.
Phil had used the last of the kitchen's provisions – a word which here means 'cooking supplies' – to prepare a cake. It looked like a coconut cream cake, like Dr. Montgomery used to make, and the two siblings wondered if Sunny, even as a baby, had noticed enough about cooking to help Phil concoct such a dessert. The cake was heavily frosted, with bits of coconut mixed into the thick, creamy frosting, and spelled out in blue frosting on the top, in Phil's perky, optimistic handwriting, were three words. 'Violet's Fifteenth Date,' Klaus said numbly. 'That's what the balloons were for.'
'It was my fifteenth birthday,' Violet said. 'I turned fifteen sometime when we were in the grotto, and I forgot all about it.'
'Sunny didn't forget,' Klaus said. 'She said she was planning a surprise, remember? We were going to return from our mission in the cave, and celebrate your birthday.'
Violet slunk to the floor, and lay her head against Sunny's diving helmet. 'What are we going to do?' she sobbed. 'We can't lose Sunny. We can't lose her!'
'There must be something we can use,' Klaus said, 'as a substitute for horseradish. What could it be?'
'I don't know!' Violet cried. 'I don't know anything about cooking!'
'Neither do I!' Klaus said, crying as hard as his sister. 'Sunny's the one who knows!'
The two weeping Baudelaires looked at one another, and then steeled themselves, a phrase which here means 'summoned up as much strength as they could.' Then, without another word, they opened the tiny door of Sunnv's helmet and quickly dragged their sister out, quickly shutting the door behind her so the fungus would not spread. At first, their sister looked completely unchanged, but when the wheezing young girl opened her mouth, they could see several gray stalks and caps of this horrible mushroom, splotched with black as if someone had poured ink into Sunny's mouth. Wheezing horribly, Sunny reached out her tiny arms to each of her siblings and grabbed their hands. She did not have to utter a word. Violet and Klaus knew she was begging for help, but there was nothing they could do except ask her one desperate question.
'Sunny,' Violet said, 'we've researched an antidote. Only horseradish can save you. But there's no horseradish in the kitchen.'
'Sunny,' Klaus said, 'is there a culinary equivalent of horseradish?'
Sunny opened her mouth as if trying to say something, but the elder Baudelaires only heard the hoarse, whistling sound of air trying to make its way past the mushrooms. Her tiny hands curled into fists, and her body twisted back and forth in pain and fear. Finally, she managed to utter one word – a word that many might not have understood. Some might have thought it was part of Sunny's personal vocabulary – perhaps her way of saying 'I love you,' or even 'Farewell, siblings.' Some might have thought it was pure nonsense, just the noises one might make when a deadly fungus has defeated you. But there are many others who would have understood it immediately. A person from Japan would have known she was talking about a condiment often served with raw fish and pickled ginger. A chef would have known that Sunny was referring to a strong, green root, widely considered the culinary equivalent of horseradish. And Violet and Klaus knew that their sister was naming her salvation, a phrase which here means 'something that would save her life,' or 'something that would rescue her from the
'Wasabi,' Sunny said, in a hoarse, mushroom-choked whisper, and she did not have to say anything