Read Online A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket - Free Book Online

thought. "I wish I could tell you. But it's like that part of my brain has been wiped clean. It's like I was asleep from the moment I walked into that building until right there at the lumbermill." "But you weren't asleep," Violet said. "You were walking around like a zombie. And then you caused that accident and hurt poor Phil." "But I don't remember those things," Klaus said. "It's as if I ..." His voice trailed off and he stared into space for a moment. "Klaus?" Violet asked worriedly. "... It's as if I were hypnotized," Klaus finished. He looked at Violet and then at Sunny, and his sisters could see that he was figuring something out. "Of course. Hypnosis would explain everything." "I thought hypnosis was only in scary movies," Violet said. "Oh, no," Klaus answered. "I read the Encyclopedia Hypnotica just last year. It described all these famous cases of hypnosis throughout history. There was an ancient Egyptian king who was hypnotized. All the hypnotist had to do was shout 'Ramses!' and the king would perform chicken imitations, even though he was in front of the royal court." "That's very interesting," Violet said, "but..." "A Chinese merchant who lived during the Ling Dynasty was hypnotized. All the hypnotist had to do was shout 'Mao!' and the merchant would play the violin, even though he had never seen one before." "These are amazing stories," Violet said, "but..." "A man who lived in England in the nineteen twenties was hypnotized. All the hypnotist had to do was shout 'Bloomsbury!' and he suddenly became a brilliant writer, even though he couldn't read." "Mazee!" Sunny shrieked, which probably meant "We don't have time to hear all these stories, Klaus!" Klaus grinned. "I'm sorry," he said, "but it was a very interesting book, and I'm so pleased that it's coming in handy." "Well, what did the book say about how to stop yourself from being hypnotized?" Violet asked. Klaus's grin faded. "Nothing," he said. "Nothing?" Violet repeated. "An entire encyclopedia about hypnosis said nothing about it at all?" "If it did, I didn't read any of it. I thought the parts about the famous hypnosis cases were the most interesting, so I read those, but I skipped some of the boring parts." For the first time since they had walked out of the gates of the lumbermill, the Baudelaire orphans looked at the eye-shaped building, and the building looked back at them. To Klaus, of course, Dr. Orwell's office just looked like a big blur, but to his sisters it looked like trouble. The round door, painted black to resemble the pupil of the eye, looked like a deep and endless hole, and the children felt as if they were going to fall into it. "I'm never skipping the boring parts of a book again," Klaus said, and walked cautiously toward the building. "You're not going inside?" Violet said incredulously, a word which here means "in a tone of voice to indicate Klaus was being foolish." "What else can we do?" Klaus said quietly. He began to feel along the side of the building to find the door, and at this point in the story of the Baudelaire orphans, I would like to interrupt for a moment and answer a question I'm sure you are asking yourself. It is an important question, one which many, many people have asked many, many times, in many, many places all over the world. The Baudelaire orphans have asked it, of course. Mr. Poe has asked it. I have asked it. My beloved Beatrice, before her untimely death, asked it, although she asked it too late. The question is: Where is Count Olaf? If you have been following the story of these three orphans since the very beginning, then you know that Count Olaf is always lurking around these poor children, plotting and scheming to get his hands on the Baudelaire fortune. Within days of the orphans' arrival at a new place, Count Olaf and his nefarious assistants, the word "nefarious" here means "Baudelaire-hating", are usually on the scene, sneaking around and committing dastardly deeds. And yet so far he has been