The Carnivorous Carnival

what kind of freakish luck they have. A person with normal luck would arrive at a carnival in comfortable circumstances, such as in a double-decker bus or on the back of an elephant, and would probably have a pleasant time enjoying all of the things a carnival has to offer, and would feel happy and content at the end of their stay. But the Baudelaires had arrived at Caligari Carnival in the trunk of an automobile, and had been forced to put themselves in uncomfortable disguises, take part in a humiliating show, and place themselves in dangerous circumstances, and, as their freakish luck would have it, had not even found the information they were hoping to discover. So it probably will not be a surprise to you to learn that Hugo's name was not printed on the piece of paper in Count Olaf's hand, or Colette's name, or the name of Kevin, who was clasping his equally skilled hands together in nervousness as Olaf finally unfolded the paper completely. It will not surprise you that when Count Olaf announced what the paper said, the eyes of the entire crowd fell on the disguised children. But although you might not be surprised at Count Olaf's announcement, you might be surprised at the announcement that one of the siblings made immediately afterward.

'Ladies and gentlemen,' Count Olaf announced, 'Beverly and Elliot, the two-headed freak, will be thrown to the lions today.'

'Ladies and gentlemen,' Violet Baudelaire announced, 'we are thrilled to be chosen.'

Chapter Eleven

There is another writer I know, who, like myself, is thought by a great deal of people to be dead. His name is William Shakespeare, and he has written four kinds of plays: comedies, romances, histories, and tragedies. Comedies, of course, are stories in which people tell jokes and trip over things, and romances are stories in which people fall in love and probably get married. Histories are retellings of things that actually happened, like my history of the Baudelaire orphans, and tragedies are stories that usually begin fairly happily and then steadily go downhill, until all of the characters are dead, wounded, or otherwise inconvenienced. It is usually not much fun to watch a tragedy, whether you are in the audience or one of the characters, and out of all Shakespeare's tragedies possibly the least fun example is King Lear, which tells the story of a king who goes mad while his daughters plot to murder one another and other people who are getting on their nerves. Toward the end of the play, one of William Shakespeare's characters remarks that 'Humanity must perforce prey upon itself, like monsters of the deep,' a sentence which here means 'How sad it is that people end up hurting one another as if they were ferocious sea monsters,' and when the character utters those unhappy words, the people in Shakespeare's audience often weep, or sigh, or remind themselves to see a comedy next time. I am sorry to report that the story of the Baudelaire orphans has reached a point where it is appropriate to borrow Mr. Shakespeare's rather depressing sentence to describe how the Baudelaire orphans felt as they addressed the crowd gathered at the edge of the lion pit and tried to continue the story they found themselves in without turning it into a tragedy, when it seemed that everyone was eager to hurt one another. Count Olaf and his henchmen were eager to see Violet and Klaus jump to their carnivorous deaths, so that Caligari Carnival would become more popular, and Madame Lulu would continue telling Olaf's fortune. Esmй Squalor was eager to see Madame Lulu thrown into the pit, so that she could get all of Olaf's attention, and the Baudelaires' coworkers were eager to help, so they could join Olaf's troupe. The reporter from The Daily Punctilio and the other members of the audience were eager to see violence and sloppy eating, so their visit to the carnival would be worthwhile, and the lions were eager for a meal, after being whipped and denied food for so long. It seemed that every member of humanity gathered at the roller coaster that afternoon was eager for something awful to occur, and the children felt awful as Violet and Klaus stepped toward the plank and pretended they were just as eager.

'Thank you, Count Olaf, for choosing my other head and I as the first victims in the lion show,' Klaus said grandly in his high-pitched voice.

'Urn, you're welcome,' Count Olaf replied, looking a bit surprised. 'Now, jump into the pit so we can watch the lions devour you.'

'And do it quickly!' cried the man with pimples on his chin. 'I'd like my carnival visit to be worthwhile!'

'Instead of watching a freak jump into the pit,' Violet said, thinking quickly, 'wouldn't you rather watch someone push a freak into the pit? That would be much more violent.'

'Grr!' Sunny growled, in disguised agreement.

'That's a good point,' one of the white-faced women said thoughtfully.

'Oh yes!' cried the woman with dyed hair. 'I want to see the two-headed freak thrown to the lions!'

'I agree,' Esmй said, glaring at the two older Baudelaires and then at Madame Lulu. 'I'd like to see someone thrown into the pit.'

The crowd cheered and applauded, and Sunny watched as her two siblings took a step toward the plank that hung over the pit where the lions were waiting hungrily. There are tiresome people who say that if you ever find yourself in a difficult situation, you should stop and figure out the right thing to do, but the three siblings already knew that the right thing to do was to dash over to the roller-coaster carts, hook up the fan belt, and escape into the hinterlands with Madame Lulu and her archival library, after calmly explaining to the gathered crowd that bloodshed was not a proper form of entertainment and that Count Olaf and his troupe ought to be arrested that very instant. But there are times in this harum-scarum world when figuring out the right thing to do is quite simple, but doing the right thing is simply impossible, and then you must do something else. The three Baudelaires standing in their disguises in the midst of a crowd eager for violence and sloppy eating, knew that they could not do the right thing, but they thought they could try to get the crowd as frantic as possible, so that they might slip away in the confusion. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny weren't sure if using the techniques of stalling and mob psychology was the right thing to do, but the Baudelaire orphans could not think of anything else, and whether or not it was the right thing to do, their plan did seem to be working.

'This is absolutely thrilling!' exclaimed the reporter excitedly. 'I can see the headline now: 'FREAKS PUSHED INTO LION PIT!' Wait until the readers of The Daily Punctilio see that!'

Sunny made the loudest growl she could, and pointed one of her tiny fingers at Count Olaf.

'What Chabo is trying to convey in her half-wolf language,' Klaus said, 'is that Count Olaf ought to be the one to push us into the pit. After all, the lion show was his idea.'

'That's true!' the pimpled man said. 'Let's see Olaf throw Beverly and Elliot into the pit!'

Count Olaf scowled at the Baudelaires, and then gave the crowd a smile that showed quite a few of his filthy teeth. 'I am deeply honored to be asked,' he said, bowing slightly, 'but I'm afraid it would not be appropriate at this time.'

'Why not?' demanded the woman with dyed hair.

Count Olaf paused for a moment, and then made a short, high-pitched sound as disguised as Sunny's growl. 'I'm allergic to cats,' he explained. 'You see? I'm sneezing already, and I'm not even on the plank.'

'Your allergies didn't bother you when you were whipping the lions,' Violet said.

'That's true,' the hook-handed man said. 'I didn't even know you had allergies, Olaf.'

Count Olaf glared at his henchman. 'Ladies and gentlemen,' he began, but the crowd didn't want to hear another one of the villain's speeches.

'Push the freak in, Olaf!' someone shouted, and everyone cheered. Count Olaf frowned, but grabbed Klaus's hand and led the two eldest Baudelaires onto the plank. But as the crowd roared around them and the lions roared beneath them, the Baudelaires could see that Count Olaf was no more eager to get any closer to the hungry lions than they were.

'Throwing people into pits isn't really my job,' Count Olaf said nervously to the crowd. 'I'm more of an actor.'

'I have an idea,' Esmй said suddenly, in a false sweet voice, 'Madame Lulu, why don't you walk down that plank and throw your freak to its death?'

'This is not really my job either, please,' Madame Lulu protested, looking at the children nervously. 'I am fortune-teller, not freak-thrower.'

'Don't be so modest, Madame Lulu,' Count Olaf said with a nasty smile. 'Even though the lion show was my idea, you're the most important person here at the carnival. Take my place on the plank, so we can see someone get pushed to their death.'