Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster

Note: This chapter is italicized to indicate a temporal shift; it takes place in Nan’s past when she lived with the Sweep.

The Sweep mends a hole in Nan’s coat, explaining that the thread matches perfectly because the magic needle pulls the thread from the air. Nan asks why he does not mend his own coat; the Sweep explains that he prefers to feel the breeze when he works. Nan isn’t sure that she believes him. She thinks that she sees a new hole in his coat: one that hadn’t been there before this moment.

In the present Nan has a vivid dream and realizes that the Sweep used to take thread from his own coat in order to mend hers. Hearing birdsong, she runs to tell Charlie that it is spring. Charlie has been excitedly waiting for the egg in the attic (the Nothing Room) to hatch. Nan finds him there among the broken remains of the egg. Charlie is devastated to have accidentally killed the baby bird, which dies inside its broken egg. Suddenly, Charlie, seemingly unaware that he is doing so, starts to smoke and smolder, and the baby bird comes back to life.