Is There A Doctor In The Village?/Part 3

"Interesting that Jokey would use a fake epidemic in order to make Dabbler feel that his newly-acquired skills as a practitioner of medicine would be useful," Polaris said while rubbing his chin in thought.

"I honestly didn't know that was what Jokey was smurfing, Polaris," Smurfette said. "I was just trying to offer my own services as a caresmurfer when Jokey and those who were smurfed with the pink spots showed up at Dabbler's door that day."

Then Polaris saw that at the same time in that day, Dabbler was already busy treating an injury that Smurfette had received. "I'm so glad that you're my first patient, Smurfette," Dabbler said, sounding delighted as he was wrapping up Smurfette's right foot in a bandage. "Not that I'm glad that you smurfed your toe, of course. but..."

"Are you sure all these bandages are necessary?" Smurfette asked as she saw her foot completely covered in them.

"You can't be too careful, Smurfette," Dabbler said. "Now I want to smurf two tablets of smurfenol and..."

"Doc...oh, Doc, you've got to help us!" the two of them heard Jokey moan. They looked and saw that Jokey and several other Smurfs were covered with pink spots all over their bodies, and they didn't look all that well.

"Oh my gosh...it's a smurfedemic!" Dabbler gasped. "Smurfette, I need your help to smurf them all to the infirmary. I can treat them much better in a place that isn't so crowded."

"Yes, Doctor...I mean, Dabbler, right away," Smurfette said. "Follow me this way, please."

The Smurflings watched as Dabbler and Smurfette helped bring the pink-spotted Smurfs to the infirmary. "Walloping weasels, what's smurfing on here?" Sassette asked.

"Beats me, Sassette," Snappy said. "Looks like the grown-up Smurfs are smurfing down with something."

"We might as well smurf our distance from them, Smurflings...it may be contagious," Nat said.

"They don't seem too ill to me," Slouchy said with a shrug. "Oh, well, might as well let them smurf their rest." - Inside the infirmary, Smurfette tended to the pink-spotted Smurfs to make them comfortable as they were lying on the hospital beds, while Dabbler consulted the Physician's Reference Manual to find out what it was that those Smurfs had come down with.

"Smurf it to me straight, Doc...I can take the news," Jokey said, sounding really desperate. "How bad is it?"

Dabbler found something in the manual that gave him a bit of pause, but he realized that he had to tell Jokey and the others for their good. "Well...according to the manual, you have what it calls the Spotty Pink Plague," he responded. "As for the symptoms, it smurfs that after the spots appear, the victim will become irritable..."

"I hate irritable," Grouchy said.

"And exhausted...," Dabbler continued.

"Well, I have been tired lately," Lazy said as he let out a yawn before settling himself to sleep.

"And then smurfs blurry vision...," Dabbler continued.

"That's me all right," Brainy said as he adjusted his glasses.

"And severe itchiness...," Dabbler continued.

Jokey sat up in his bed and started scratching himself. "Oh, yeah. Hey, you Smurfs, do any of you feel itchy?"

"Oh...as a matter of fact, I do," Vanity said, as he and he fellow Smurfs also sat up and started scratching themselves.

"And the symptoms will smurf worse until the victim finally...," Dabbler read on until he came to the part that made him gasp in fear.

"Finally what, Doctor?" Jokey asked.

"You don't want to know, but I can smurf you that it isn't good," Dabbler said as he closed up the manual.

The bedridden Smurfs groaned in fear as they continued scratching, not sure that they would want to know their final fate. "That does sound really serious," Hefty said, feeling a lump forming in his throat.

"Gosh, it smurfs like it's going to be the end for us," Clumsy said.

"I hate the end," Grouchy said.

"But hang on, my fellow Smurfs, because the manual says there is a cure, and I'll be back with it as fast as I can," Dabbler said resolutely before he left the infirmary.

"There, there, you Smurfs, it's going to be all right," Smurfette said as she went to press a cool wet cloth on a Smurf's forehead to make him feel better. And then she saw that the pink spots were now on the cloth. "Huh? What's this?" she wondered.

"Uh-oh, now the Spotty Pink Plague is spreading," Clumsy said in fear as he saw the pink spots on the cloth.

Smurfette dabbed her finger on one of the spots and realized what it actually was. "Why, it's nothing but paint!"

"Paint?!?" the bedridden Smurfs said together, shocked at the revelation.

Suddenly Jokey burst out laughing. Smurfette hobbled over to his bed and gave him a mean stare. "Jokey Smurf, how could you smurf this!" she demanded.

"Hey, I was only trying to help make Dabbler feel useful," Jokey explained while still laughing. "I was smurfing various Smurfs at night when they were smurfing in their beds...I was so quiet that they didn't even know I was there...and then I simply smurfed the spots on their faces. By morning I also smurfed myself the spots and simply pretended that I was sick. Oh, you should have smurfed the look on every Smurf's face when they got up and smurfed at themselves."

"Well, what are we going to do when Dabbler smurfs back?" Smurfette asked, not liking what she heard.

"I don't know...probably take his cure and have a miraculous recovery, I guess," Jokey said before he laughed again.

At that moment, Tapper and Duncan McSmurf had entered the infirmary. "Jokey Smurf, I should have known you would be smurfing up to your old smurfs again," Tapper said indignantly.

"You smurfed a can of pink paint on the ground outside a house," Duncan McSmurf added. "That was very sloppy of you."

"Come on, you Smurfs, it was just a harmless joke," Jokey said as he was surrounded by a group of Smurfs all staring daggers at him. "I just wanted to help Dabbler out, that's all."

"Harmless?" Hefty said, sounding riled up. "I'd like to smurf you outside right out and show you something 'harmless'!"

"Uh, yeah, Jokey Smurf...a real shame on you," Clumsy said in agreement.

"Oh no!" Brainy said as he was busy reading through the manual. "I've just found the cure for the Spotty Pink Plague. It says that we must smurf swamproot from a place called Brackish Bog."

"Brackish Bog? Oh no, that's where the Bog Goblin lives!" Smurfette cried out.

"It's so dangerous that even Dabbler wouldn't be foolish enough to go there...or would he?" Jokey said as he continued to scratch himself.

"Great Smurfiny Crickets, we need to smurf after him before the Bog Goblin gets him," Tapper said.

To be expanded.