As morning breaks, the rooster crows, announcing the start of another day of hard labor for the people of the East End.
In this land of industry, shipyards, and factories, there is a dire need of coal, fuel, and the labor to sustain them.
Flutterpage: Good mornin'! Sir, madam, this here is your wake-up call!
Flutterpage: Rise and shine! Wakey time!
Flutterpage looks up to the gray sky above. There is only a touch of blue, and no sun, stars, or moon to be seen.
Resident: Enough! I said enough with it, girl! I'm already awake, ain't I? So, stop buzzing around!
The seasoned knocker-upper deftly dodges the basin full of foot-washing water that has just been flung out the window and slips through the alley and onto the next street.
She still has a job to do.
Flutterpage: Wakey, wakey! Morning's here!
Flutterpage: Mrs. Wilson? You awake? You can't be late again, or old Mister Pig-Eyes will be on you with his belt!
Flutterpage: What happened? Didn't she hear me?
Suddenly, she's shoved from behind.
Flutterpage: Ahhh!
Flutterpage: Oi! Who did that?
Freddy the Rascal: Shut up already, Liberti. Didn't you know Mrs. Wilson was sick?
Flutterpage: She's sick? What's wrong? It doesn't hurt like swallowin' a burnin' coal, does it?
Freddy the Rascal: Who told you that?
Freddy the Rascal: Yeah, maybe. Plenty of folks been gettin' that too. My dad says it's a curse!
Flutterpage: It's not a curse, dummy!
Freddy the Rascal: I'm no dummy, Liberti. You are! Believin' anythin' what that hag told you! She's a dirty, ugly, old liar, and she's the one who cursed everyone here!
Freddy the Rascal: She's a toad! A toad what can't get out of her house to see sunlight, and decided to curse us all just 'cause she didn't like the fair!
Flutterpage: Have you gone off your rocker, Freddy! Just leave me alone! I got work to do.
Freddy the Rascal: That's work, eh? You call knockin' on people's window work?
The boy rolls up his sleeve and pats his bicep.
Freddy the Rascal: I climb up in the steam turbines to tighten up the screws, and I clean them chimneys from the inside. Think you can do that, eh?
Flutterpage: But I don't want to tighten screws or climb up chimneys! I don't like the smells.
Freddy the Rascal: Oh, so you like the smell of this black fog, do you? All thanks to your wicked hag friend.
Flutterpage: Go away!
She whips a clothesline pole at the boy's knee with a sharp crack.
Freddy the Rascal: Ow-ah!
The boy leaps toward the girl but loses her among the heap of rags.
Freddy the Rascal: Huh?
He swivels his head toward the sound and stands there shocked as Flutterpage deftly leaps over him.
Freddy the Rascal: What the ...
Flutterpage: The fog lady taught me this.
Freddy the Rascal: Lady? You mean that hag? I should've guessed you'd be that ugly toad witch's apprentice!
Flutterpage: You're not my friend anymore!
She runs off deeper into Cross Street.
The old mansion looks just as it always does. From the strange garden to the ominous building half lost in the haze of the smog.
Even so, Flutterpage is hit by an unusual feeling, one she can't quite place.
Flutterpage: It's not snail delivery day, but after she threw me out of the house last time, maybe I'll go apologize.
Flutterpage: Maybe then I can learn some more tricks from her, or at least read her books!
Vines Carbuncle: Squeak?
The creature eyes her wearily.
Flutterpage: Hello, hello!
Flutterpage: Now, why didn't you let Ms. Tooth Fairy in last time? She's not a bad person. She even gave me some flyin' medicine. It was sweet and sour.
Flutterpage: You think Ms. Willow's lonely? She needs new friends, and maybe some flyin' medicine too?
Vines Carbuncle: Squeak!
The Carbuncle seems to reject her assessment, leaping side to side in a clear display of defiance.
Flutterpage: But this time I won't go through the window. Not that I get why she was so mad? Was it that I stopped her from eatin' breakfast maybe?
Flutterpage: Well, time to figure it out. I bet if I walk in from the front door, she won't be so angry.
Flutterpage enters the garden like she always does, except this time, the Carbuncles don't make way for her.
Vines Carbuncle: roar
They leap at her.
Flutterpage: What's wrong?
Flutterpage swings the clothesline pole, but fails to drive them off. They close in on her, malice in their eyes.
Fortunately, reinforcements come galloping through the smog.
Brimley: Ms. Flutterpage? What in the blazes are you doing here?! Good lord! I hope you didn't get hurt!
Flutterpage: Mr. Hat!
Brimley: Ms. Bartley, I'd advise you to please stay a safe distance back.
Caroline Bartley: No ...
Caroline Bartley: Just look at the state of this garden. Oh, Charlotte, what have you been through to fall this far?
COMBAT
Brimley: Thank goodness, you're in one piece.
Flutterpage: I ... I don't get it. They ain't never bit me before.
Brimley: Well, you must always stay alert when you encounter critters, even in a familiar place. That's some genuine ranger's advice.
Flutterpage: A ranger? Are you really a ranger? Can you be a ranger without a real horse? Will I get a hat like you if I get to be a ranger?
Brimley: Errrrr.
Fortunately, a hat's range of expressions doesn't include awkwardness, or much else for that matter.
Flutterpage: Hi, Miss. Are you here for the lady livin' here?
Flutterpage circles the unfamiliar lady, looking her up and down.
Flutterpage: Miss, you look a lot like Ms. Willow—the Fog Lady. So straight and proper like a swan.
Caroline Bartley: Ms. Willow, you said?
Flutterpage: Hmm.
Flutterpage claps her mouth before realizing she wasn't the one to utter this name.
Flutterpage: Y-Yes, Ms. Willow. Did she say you were allowed to call her that too, Miss?
Caroline Bartley: Allowed?
Caroline Bartley: sigh
Even her sigh carries an elegant, melodious quality.
Caroline Bartley: What kind of nutter has she become?
Caroline Bartley: Thank you for taking me here, Mr. Brimley. I can handle the rest myself.
She makes a gentle motion with her hand, signaling that she has finished talking.
Brimley: You're welcome. Let's go shall we, eh little tacker? It's not safe to leave you here.
Brimley: I'll escort you to the hospital. Ms. Tooth Fairy needs your help.
Flutterpage: Alright.
Flutterpage holds onto Brimley's coat as the two of them leave the garden. She looks back a few times. Caroline remains totally unmoving.
It's as though she can converse with the owner of the house through her stare alone.
Flutterpage: I thought a hospital was a big, big buildin'! This is more like a fair, only with sick people.
Patients lie on basic steel-frame beds, their once-pristine white sheets now marked with yellow and gray stains.
In the face of such a scene, the bright flags of the Uluru Games now look lifeless and limp.
Brimley: Well, you're right there, mate. It's not your typical hospital. Arthur's calling it the "London Emergency Relief Centre for Special Tuberculosis Patients."
Flutterpage: But it's still kind of a hospital, ain't it?
She doesn't linger on this thought for long. The image of the unfamiliar lady in Willow's garden won't leave her mind.
Flutterpage: Who's that Swan lady? She's not from Cross Street. How did she know Ms. Wi-Fog Lady?
Mr. Fog: Swan? I suppose you mean Ms. Caroline Bartley. We're hoping she'll be our lifesaver.
Mr. Fog appears behind them, looking rather pale.
Flutterpage: Lifesaver?
Mr. Fog: Exactly so.
There's a curious spark behind Mr. Fog's eyes. He looks straight ahead as he speaks.
Mr. Fog: See, my hat friend, we civil servants can actually accomplish a thing or two!
Mr. Fog: We found Ms. Bartley, a shining star of Uluru, a talented competitor! And above all, she's an insider.
Mr. Fog: She arrived in London days ago, looking for our Fog Lady. She claimed to be an old acquaintance. Some luck, isn't it?
Mr. Fog: If she can figure out the connection between her, the black fog, and this fiery TB—Oh! Speaking of which, that "Ms. Willow" truly has a ... special name. Heh heh.
Brimley: Heh heh? What are you laughing at? How long have you been up, mate?
A thought crosses Brimley's "mind." His partner has probably hardly slept all week.
A burst of glorious vigor illuminates the Fogwalker's face, like sunlight breaking through a gap in the gray sky.
Mr. Fog: Sleep? Who needs to sleep at a time like this? I'm more than energetic. I'm a veritable locomotive, better than ever!
Brimley: Arthur, you need to get some shut-eye, mate.
Mr. Fog: Is that what you think? That I'll just go back home for a little rest now? Now of all times? Dead wrong, mate. We've got rounds to make at the London Emergency Relief Centre for Special Tuberculosis Patients.
Mr. Fog: Come with me, my chapeau chap! We've got a city to save!
Mr. Fog grabs the hobbyhorse and forcibly drags Brimley away with him.
Brimley: Oh, alright. Ms. Flutterpage, go find Ms. Tooth Fairy, would you? She said your arcane skill might be of some help!
The two of them quickly vanish into the streets.
Flutterpage: My arcane skill?
Flutterpage: Help? How can I help a witch doctor? Maybe Ms. Tooth Fairy will tell me. But where is she?
Flutterpage: So many people here. I can hardly tell them from one another. Oh, but she has got those golden fairies with her. Maybe I can "see" them.
Flutterpage: Like how Ms. Willow taught me.
Willow: To control the wind, you need to learn to see it first.
Willow: Can you see the wind, lass?
Flutterpage: Only when it's blowin' somethin' around, like dust or old paper.
Flutterpage: But I ain't got nothin' like that with me now. I used all of it when Freddy tried to catch me. Is there anythin' else I can use?
She scans through the pale yellow smog, the fluttering Uluru flags informing her of the wind's direction.
Flutterpage: Oh, I see it!
The wind picks up, and the flags, along with the people's clothes, start to flutter in the same direction.
Patient I: What with this wind, eh? Where's it coming from? Oi! My hat!
Patient II: cough Please, is there any good Samaritan who can spare a blanket? Oh, God bless you!
The smog dissipates in the wind, and for a brief moment, the air is noticeably clearer in this small corner of the world.
At one of the beds, a little golden fairy is being held by its wings and placed into a patient's mouth.
Flutterpage: Ms. Tooth Fairy!
Tooth Fairy: Flutterpage, there you are.
She swiftly closes the patient's mouth, making him swallow her bizarre medicine before walking briskly over to Flutterpage.
Tooth Fairy: What's wrong?
Flutterpage: We've got to find a way to clear up the sky!