I can tell you my stories. But only if you’ll really listen.

Client 2’s hand pauses on the screen door.

WHITE FOX (CONT’D)

You must sit over there, in the far corner of the room.

After a moment of reflection, Client 2 nods and walks over to the far corner, where he sits with a few creaks of his old bones.

White Fox sits up, her eyes scrolling back to a different time and place.

WHITE FOX

Where should I start? You know parts of my story already.

CLIENT 2

Start at the very beginning, please, so that I might understand. Before you landed in that unsavory hovel I plucked you from.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. OLD-FASHIONED HOME - DAY

The home is on cobblestone streets in front of a canal. Industrious people mill about the street in conservative dress.

WHITE FOX (V.O.)

This is the story of my first home as White Fox, in the home of the gray-haired woman who paints herself young.

A YOUNG WHITE FOX with pure black hair and delicate features appears lugging a bag. She approaches the home and knocks hesitantly. She cannot be more than eight years old.

WHITE FOX (V.O.)

I was an innocent then, or so I like to think.

GRAY-HAIRED WOMAN opens the door. Her face appears beautiful and ageless, if heavily made-up. Only her signature gray hair reveals her age.

GRAY-HAIRED WOMAN

(beckoning White Fox inside)

Ah, the child. Come in, come in.

WHITE FOX

I’m M—

Gray-haired Woman shushes her and looks behind her at those milling about the neighborhood.

GRAY-HAIRED WOMAN

Don’t mention them. Your family is gone now.

My, pretty as a fox you are. No, child, from now on, you are to be called FOX.

Gray-haired Woman turns her back and reenters the home. White Fox follows her inside, lugging her bag.

INT. OLD-FASHIONED HOME / LIVING QUARTERS - DAY

A messy, if traditional home.

Several young women flurry about moving pots of strange liquids and creams. The smell is foul, and White Fox wrinkles her nose.

Gray-haired Woman leads her toward a long hallway and points to a door.

GRAY-HAIRED WOMAN

This will be your room. I expect it to be tidy at all times.

INT. OLD-FASHIONED HOME / LIVING QUARTERS - DAY

WHITE FOX sweeping floors as other girls get dressed in green robes and thick makeup—some even blackening a coin shape on their eyelids so they would appear to be attentive even when their eyes were closed for a blink.

INT. OLD-FASHIONED HOME / KITCHEN

WHITE FOX (V.O.)

She was a fair guardian if not a sentimental one.

White Fox eating a meal of plain broth and rice with the Gray-haired Woman as other girls leave the house elegantly dressed.

WHITE FOX

Madame, how old are you?

Gray-haired Woman tuts.

GRAY-HAIRED WOMAN

How very rude. Ladies do not speak of their age.

WHITE FOX

I only ask because you look so young, and yet you have gray hair.

GRAY-HAIRED WOMAN