The Grim Grotto

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Chapter Twelve

The expression 'the tables have turned' is not one the Baudelaire orphans had much occasion to use, as it refers to a situation that has suddenly been reversed, so that those who were previously in a powerless position could suddenly find themselves in a powerful one, and vice versa. For the Baudelaires, the tables had turned at Briny Beach, when they received news of the terrible fire, and Count Olaf suddenly became a powerful and terrifying figure in their lives. As time went on, the siblings waited and waited for the tables to turn back, so that Olaf might be defeated once and for all and they could find themselves free of the sinister and mysterious forces that threatened to engulf them, but the tables of the Baudelaires' lives seemed stuck, with the children always in a position of misery and sorrow while wickedness seemed to triumph all around them. But as Violet hurriedly opened the tin of wasabi she had been keeping in her pocket, and spooned the green, spicy mixture into Sunny's wheezing mouth, it seemed like the tables might turn after all. Sunny gasped when the wasabi hit her tongue, and the stalks and caps of the Medusoid Mycelium shivered, and seemed to shrink back from the powerful Japanese condiment. In moments, the fungus began to wither and fade away, and Sunny's wheezing faded into coughing, and her coughing faded into deep breaths as the youngest Baudelaire rallied, a word which here means 'regained her strength, and ability to breathe.' The youngest Baudelaire hung on tight to her siblings' hands, and her eyes filled with tears, but Violet and Klaus could see that the Medusoid Mycelium would not triumph over their sister.

'It's working,' Violet said. 'Sunny's breathing is getting stronger.

'Yes,' Klaus said. 'We've turned the tables on that ghastly fungus.'

'Water,' Sunny said, and her brother stood up from the kitchen floor and quickly got his sister a glass of water. Weakly, the youngest Baudelaire sat up and drank deeply from the glass, and then hugged both her siblings as tightly as she could. 'Thank you,' she said. 'Saved me.'

'You saved yourself,' Violet pointed out. 'We had the wasabi this whole time, but we didn't think of giving it to you until you told us.'

Sunny coughed again, and lay back down on the floor. 'Tuckered,' she murmured.

'I'm not surprised you're exhausted,' Violet said. 'You've been through quite an ordeal. Shall we carry you to the barracks so you can rest?'

'Rest here,' Sunny said, curling up at the foot of the stove.

'Will you really be comfortable on the kitchen floor?' Klaus asked.

Sunny opened one exhausted eye and smiled at her siblings. 'Near you,' she said.

'All right, Sunny,' Violet said, grabbing a dish towel from the kitchen counter, and folding it into a pillow for her sister. 'We'll be in the Main Hall if you need us.'

'What next?' she murmured.

'Shh,' Klaus said, putting another dish towel on top of her. 'Don't worry, Sunny. We'll figure out what to do next.'

The Baudelaires tiptoed out of the kitchen, carrying the tin of wasabi. 'Do you think she'll be all right?' Violet asked.

'I'm sure she will,' Klaus said. 'After a nap she'll be as good as new. But we should eat some of that wasabi ourselves. When we opened the diving helmet, we were exposed to the Medusoid Mycelium, and we'll need all of our strength to get away from Olaf.'

Violet nodded, and put a spoonful of wasabi into her mouth, shuddering violently as the condiment hit her tongue. 'There's one last spoonful,' Violet said, handing the tin to her brother. 'We'd better make sure that diving helmet stays closed until we get our hands on some horseradish and destroy that fungus for good.'

Klaus nodded in agreement, closed his eyes, and ate the last of the Japanese condiment. 'If we ever invent that food code we talked about with Fiona,' he said, 'the word 'wasabi' should mean 'powerful.' No wonder this cured our sister.'

'But now that we've cured her,' Violet said, remembering Sunny's question as she fell asleep, 'what next?'

'Olaf is next,' Klaus said firmly. 'He said he has everything he needs to defeat V.F.D. forever – except the sugar bowl.'

'You're right,' Violet said. 'We have to turn the tables on him, and find it before he does.'

'But we don't know where it is,' Klaus said. 'Someone must have taken it from the Gorgonian Grotto.'

'I wonder –' Violet said, but she never said what she wondered, because a strange noise interrupted her. The noise was a sort of whir, followed by a sort of beep, followed by all sorts of noises, and they seemed to be coming from deep within the machinery of the Queequeg. Finally, a green light lit up on a panel in the wall, and a flat, white object began to slither out of a tiny slit in the panel.

'It's paper,' Klaus said.

'It's more than paper,' Violet said, and walked over to the panel. The sheet of paper curled into her hand as it emerged from the slit, as if the machine were impatient for the eldest Baudelaire to read it. 'This is the telegram device. We must be receiving –'

'A Volunteer Factual Dispatch,' Klaus finished. Violet nodded, and scanned the paper quickly. Sure enough, the words 'Volunteer Factual Dispatch ' were printed on the top, and as more and more of the paper appeared, the eldest Baudelaire saw that it was addressed 'To the Queequeg,' with the date printed below, as well as the name of the person who was sending the telegram, miles and miles away on dry land. It was a name Violet almost dared not say out loud, even though she had felt as if she had been whispering it to herself for days, ever since the icy waters of the Stricken Stream had carried away a young man who meant very much to her.

'It's from Quigley Quagmire,' she said quietly.

Klaus's eyes widened in astonishment. 'What does he say?' he asked.

Violet smiled as the telegram finished printing, her finger touching the Q in her friend's name. It was almost as if knowing that Quigley was alive was enough of a message.

' 'It is my understanding that you have three additional volunteers on board STOP,' ' she read, remembering that 'STOP' indicates the end of a sentence in a telegram. ' 'We are in desperate need of their services for a most urgent matter STOP. Please deliver them Tuesday to the location indicated in the rhymes below STOP.' '

She scanned the paper and frowned thoughtfully. 'Then there are two poems,' she said. 'One by Lewis Carroll and the other by T. S. Eliot.'

Klaus took his commonplace book out of his pocket, and flipped pages until he found what he was looking for. 'Verse Fluctuation Declaration,' he said. 'That's the code we learned in the grotto. Quigley must have changed sonic of the words in the poems, so no one else would know where we're supposed to meet him. Let's see if we can recognize the changes.'

Violet nodded, and read the first poem out loud:

' 'O Oysters, come and walk with us!' The Walrus did beseech. 'A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk, Along the movie theater.'

'That last part sounds wrong,' Violet said.

'There were no movie theaters when Lewis Carroll was alive,' Klaus said. 'But what are the real words to the poem?'

'I don't know,' Violet said. 'I've always found Lewis Carroll too whimsical for my taste.'

'I like him,' Klaus said, 'but I haven't memorized his poems. Read the other one. Maybe that will help.'

Violet nodded, and read aloud:

'At the pink hour when the eyes and back Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits Like a pony throbbing party.'

The voice of the eldest Baudelaire trailed off, and she looked at her brother in confusion. 'That's all,' she said. 'The poem stops there.'

Klaus frowned. 'There's nothing else in the telegram?'