saudade - Klaus Baudelaire x Fem! reader

Chapter Eleven

The ferry pulled up to the dock and lowered the ramp. I followed the Baudelaires down it and watched as it floated off to its next destination.

We got to the end of the dock and Mr. Poe offered us some peppermints. Violet accepted them and we waited for Mr. Poe to leave.

"Should we have told him we're allergic?" Klaus asked.

"It didn't seem worth mentioning," said Violet. "Would you like them, y/n?"

"No thank you," I politely declined.

She nodded before throwing them into the garbage can. We looked around, seeing if there was a taxi nearby. When one stopped by the road, we got in and told the driver the address.

I had to have Sunny on my lap since no one could get up front, but I didn't mind. I just played with her on the way up. I looked over to see Klaus staring at me. We smiled at each other as the cab pulled to a stop.

We paid the driver and got out. We then found ourselves face to face with a two-story, creaky, gray house looming above us. Not only that, but it sat hanging over the edge of a cliff over the lake.

I took a deep breath before walking forward. The Baudelaires followed behind as I pushed the doorbell. It didn't make any sound, so I kept pushing it. Still, nothing.

I lifted my fist to knock but the door opened before I could. A frantic-looking darker skinned woman who looked to be about 35 years old opened it.

"Don't knock, you could get splinters. You must be the Baudelaires, and of course, Miss Snicket," she said.

I smiled and nodded as she welcomed us into her home. I walked in to see a room with no lights turned on and it seemed a bit chilly. I was glad I had several warm sweaters. I turned back to the Baudelaires and saw a telephone that must not have been in use at that point because it had a note that said not to use it.

"Do you live with our Aunt Josephine?" Violet asked.

"I am your aunt Josephine!" said the woman.

Oh boy.

"Dowow," Sunny sighed. It roughly translated to 'so much for fierce and formidable.'

I nodded in agreement. She seemed like a sweet lady, but I wasn't sure how she was supposed to protect us from Count Olaf if she was scared of splinters, electricity, and doorbells. Then again, she lived in a house that was suspended over a lake hanging on only by thin wooden planks. Of course, the house falling into the lake was the last of my worries at the moment.

"Down low? That's not very grammatically correct of you, Sunny," said Josephine.

"She's a baby, of course she's not grammatically correct," Klaus pointed out.

"That's no excuse, come children, I'll show you my library. It might just have the answers you need."

We got in there and she walked up to the window on the opposite side of the room from the doors. The window overlooked the lake.

"Lake Lachrymose. So many memories here, but I can only stand to look at it from afar," Josephine began.

"What happened? Does it have anything to do with our parents?" Violet asked.

"No, it has to do with my husband. Ike. My best friend, my partner. One of the few people I knew who could whistle with crackers in his mouth. We were all friends, your parents and Ike and me. We would gather on these shores for picnics and develop secret codes. I'll never forget the last picnic we had together. Ike didn't wait an hour after eating to get in the lake."

"Did he get cramps? That's what's supposed to happen when you don't wait," Klaus spoke.

"Yes it is, but in Lake Lachrymose, there's another problem." She walked over to a map and pulled it down. "See, part of the lake is a breeding ground for the Lachrymose leeches, which are quite different from regular leeches. They each have six rows of sharp teeth and one very sharp nose, which can smell even the tiniest bit of food from far, far away. But if they smell food on a human, they will start to swarm around him, and-"

She was cut off by the map rolling itself back up. She jumped and yelled before starting to cry.

"I'm terribly sorry, children. It is grammatically incorrect to end a sentence with the word and, but when I think about Ike, I just get so upset," she explained.

"We're sorry to have brought him up, we didn't mean to upset you," Klaus apologized.

"Aunt Josephine, you said you had answers for us," Violer brought up.

"Yes," stated Josephine before walking over to a part of the wall that had a built-in safe with a painting of Ike above it.

There must be something great in that safe, I thought, something that holds all we need to know.

Josephine stood there for a moment before anticlimactically pulling a hidden shelf over the safe and the painting.

"Grammar!" she exclaimed.

T I M E S K I P

Once we were done unpacking, we went downstairs to eat.

Josephine was sat at the table with chairs surrounding it, a bowl in front of each chair. I sat down between Josephine and Klaus and looked at the bowl in front of me.

It was a green, clear stew with some chopped cucumbers floating around in it. I scooped a bit up in the spoon and put it in my mouth. My eyes widened as I realised it was cold. Not very cold, but colder than soup should be.

Klaus realised this too. When he took a bite, he decided to speak up. "It's cold," he said.

"Yes, it's chilled cucumber soup. It's a recipe I learned while I was in Egypt. I only make chilled soups anymore because I'm too afraid to use the stove," Josephine explained.

"Our father lived in Egypt before we were born," Violet started, "Is that when you-"

"I don't talk about that."

"But there was a statue-" Klaus began.

"I said I don't talk about that."

Poor woman, I thought. Losing her husband must have been hard on her.