Aseh

Violet, Sunny, and Klaus Baudelaire were bright young siblings in a dark, old world which is, astronomers tell us, filled mostly with dark material. The siblings lived in a mansion with their two parents and a large library. Violet, at fourteen, was a polite and pretty girl with dark brown hair and a love for inventing contraptions. Klaus was her younger brother and a book worm, and the baby, Sunny, liked biting things with her four sharp teeth.

On a Monday in August the siblings took a trolley from their home to the beach to spend the afternoon building cities in the sand and skipping stones on the surf. It was a gloomy day with thick fog, and out of the fog walked a banker who was a friend of their parents, whom they had met a few times at social events., named Mr. Poe. Mr.

Sunny made a gawking noise that meant "Why is Mr. Poe walking through the fog to meet us here on the beach?"

The children then discovered that Mr. Poe was there to inform them that their parents had died in a fire which had destroyed their entire home. Mr. Poe expressed his sincere sympathy, and informed them that they would be brought to the closest relative that could be found, which was a Count that they had never heard of whose home was very near by.