Read Online A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket - Free Book Online Page B

Cave is," Violet said, "in Lake Lachrymose. Remember she said she knew every island in its waters and every cave on its shore? I bet Curdled Cave is one of those caves." "But why would her secret message be about some cave?" Klaus asked. "You've been so busy figuring out the message," Violet said, "that you don't understand what it means. Aunt Josephine isn't dead. She just wants people to think she's dead. But she wanted to tell us that she was hiding. We have to find her books on Lake Lachrymose and find out where Curdled Cave is." "But first we have to know where the books are," Klaus said. "She told us she hid them away, remember?" Sunny shrieked something in agreement, but her siblings couldn't hear her over a burst of thunder. "Let's see," Violet said. "Where would you hide something if you didn't want to look at it?" The Baudelaire orphans were quiet as they thought of places they had hidden things they did not want to look at, back when they had lived with their parents in the Baudelaire home. Violet thought of an automatic harmonica she had invented that had made such horrible noises that she had hidden it so she didn't have to think of her failure. Klaus thought of a book on the Franco-Prussian War that was so difficult that he had hidden it so as not to be reminded that he wasn't old enough to read it. And Sunny thought of a piece of stone that was too hard for even her sharpest tooth, and how she had hidden it so her jaw would no longer ache from her many attempts at conquering it. And all three Baudelaire orphans thought of the hiding place they had chosen. "Underneath the bed," Violet said. "Underneath the bed," Klaus agreed. "Seeka yit," Sunny agreed, and without another word the three children ran down the hallway to Aunt Josephine's room. Normally it is not polite to go into somebody's room without knocking, but you can make an exception if the person is dead, or pretending to be dead, and the Baudelaires went right inside. Aunt Josephine's room was similar to the orphans', with a navy-blue bedspread on the bed and a pile of tin cans in the corner. There was a small window looking out onto the rain-soaked hill, and a pile of new grammar books by the side of the bed that Aunt Josephine had not started reading, and, I'm sad to say, would never read. But the only part of the room that interested the children was underneath the bed, and the three of them knelt down to look there. Aunt Josephine, apparently, had plenty of things she did not want to look at anymore. Underneath the bed there were pots and pans, which she didn't want to look at because they reminded her of the stove. There were ugly socks somebody had given her as a gift that were too ugly for human eyes. And the Baudelaires were sad to see a framed photograph of a kind-looking man with a handful of crackers in one hand and his lips pursed as if he were whistling. It was Ike, and the Baudelaires knew that she had placed his photograph there because she was too sad to look at it. But behind one of the biggest pots was a stack of books, and the orphans immediately reached for it. "The Tides of Lake Lachrymose, " Violet said, reading the title of the top book. "That won't help." "The Bottom of Lake Lachrymose, " Klaus said, reading the next one. "That's not useful." "Lachrymose Trout, " Violet read. "The History of the Damocles Dock Region," Klaus read. "Ivan Lachrymose-Lake Explorer, " Violet read. "How Water Is Made, " Klaus read. "A Lachrymose Atlas, " Violet said. "Atlas? That's perfect!" Klaus cried. "An atlas is a book of maps!" There was a flash of lightning outside the window, and it began to rain harder, making a sound on the roof like somebody was dropping marbles on it. Without another word the Baudelaires opened the atlas and began flipping pages. They saw map after map of the lake, but they couldn't find Curdled Cave. "This book is four hundred seventy-eight pages long," Klaus exclaimed, looking at the last page of the atlas. "It'll take