Scrooge Page #2

Waiter.

Yes.

More bread.

Take me extra, Sir.

No more bread.

- no, Sir.

Scrooge.

Jacob Marley.

Scrooge.

Hu - hu- humbug!

Oh...

Hum...

- bug.

Scrooge.

Aaaaaaaaah!

Who are you?!

Ask me who l was.

All right, all right!

Who were you then?!

ln life, l was your partner,

Jacob Marley.

Oh!

What do you want with me?!

Much.

Huh, Huh!

Huh, huh, huh!

ln that case, ...

can you sit down?

l can.

Well do it then!

You don't believe in me.

l don't.

Why do you doubt your senses?

Because a little thing affects them.

A slight disorder of the stomach

makes them cheat.

You...you ...

might be an undigested bit of beef.

Huh! ...a piece of cheese...

a fragment of an underdone potato.

There's more of gravy than a grave in you,

whatever you are.

Do you see that toothpick?

l do.

You're not looking at it!

But l see it not withstanding.

Oh.

Well then, l've...

l've just got to swallow this and...

and be tortured for the rest of my life

by a legion of hob goblins,

all of my own creation.

lt's all humbug, l tell you!

Wahahahahaohoh! ! ! !

Mercy! ...mercy, mercy!

Man of the worldly mind,

do you believe in me or not?

Yes, l do, l do, l do, ... l must.

But why do you walk the earth?

And why do you come to me?

lt is required of every man

that the spirit within him should

walk abroad with his fellow men.

lf it goes not forth in life it is

condemned to do so after death.

lt is doomed to wander

through the world! Aaaaaah! Woe is me! ! !

And witness what it cannot share,

but might have shared on earth

and turned to happiness.

Why are you fettered?

l wear the chain l forged in life,

l made it link by link

and yard by yard. l girded it on of my own

free will and of my own free will...

l wore it.

You have my sympathy.

- Ahhhh...

You do not know the weight and length

of strong chain you bear yourself.

lt was full, as heavy and as long as this,

seven Christmas Eve's ago and

you have labored on it since.

lt is a ponderous chain.

Mark me!

ln life, my spirit never roved beyond

the limits of our money changing hole.

Now l am doomed to wander

without rest or peace...

incessant torture and remorse.

But it was only that you were

a good man of business, Jacob.

Business! ! ! Mankind was my business!

Their common welfare was my business.

And it is at this time of the rolling

year that l suffer most.

Hear me!

My time is nearly gone.

l come tonight to warn you that you have

yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate.

A chance and hope of my procuring,

Ebenezer.

Thank you, Jacob.

You were always a good friend of mine.

You will be visited by three spirits.

- What?

Was that the chance of hope

that you mentioned, Jacob?

lt was.

- Oh, well...

ln that case, never-mind.

l think l'd rather not.

Without their visits you can not hope

to shun the path l tread.

Expect the first when the bell tolls One.

Look to see me... no more.

But look here...

that you may remember for your own sake,

What has passed between us.

Why do they lament?

They seek to interfere for good

in human measures.

And have lost their powers...forever.

Are you the spirit who's coming

was foretold to me?

l am.

Who and what are you?

l am the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Long past?

- No, your past.

And what is your business here with me?

Your welfare.

My welfare?

- Your reclamation then.

Take heed, rise, and walk with me.

Through the window.

- Are you afraid?

l-but l- l am a mortal and...

l'm liable to fall.

There but a touch of my hand and

you shall be upheld in more than this.

Good heavens!

You know this place?

- Know it?!

l was a boy here.

They are but shades of the things

that have been.

They do not know we are here.

Look!

There's my old school.

How lonely and deserted it looks.

Not quite deserted.

A solitary boy, yourself Ebenezer,

forgotten by his friends

is left there still.

l know.

Ebenezer!

- Fan!

lt's Fan!

Oh, dear brother, l have come

to bring you home.

Home, home, home!

Home?

- Yes!

Home for good and all!

Home forever and ever.

Father is so much kinder than he used

to be that home is like heaven.

For you, perhaps,

but not for me.

He doesn't know me,

nor even what l look like.

Same as l hardly know you

now that you're quite a woman.

Ma-ma must have looked just

as you look now, just before she died.

Perhaps that is what has changed

his mind towards you.

He spoke to me so gently one night

when l was going to bed,

that l wasn't afraid to ask him, just once

more, that you might come home.

And he said, "Yes, you should," and sent

me in the carriage to bring you,

and you're never to come back here

anymore,

and you're never to be lonely again.

- Never to be lonely again.

Never, as long as l live!

Then, you must live forever, Fan.

Nobody else ever cared for me.

Nobody else ever will.

You must live forever, Fan!

Oh, dear brother, what nonsense!

Everyone loves you very much.

You must forgive Pa-pa

and forget the past.

For our dearest mother's sake.

Oh, Fan...

- There, there.

Bring down, Master Scrooge's box.

Your sister was always a delicate creature

whom a breath might have withered.

But she had a large heart.

- She had.

She died a married woman and had,

l think, children.

One child.

- True, your nephew.

She died ... giving him life.

As your mother died, giving you life.

For which your father never forgave you,

as if you were to blame.

You recall this, no doubt.

Recall it!

Why bless my soul!

lt's Old Fezziwig's!

l was apprenticed here.

Look there's Old Fezziwig and

Mrs. Fezziwig, top couple!

Oh, was there ever a kinder man?

And yet, what does this party cost him

in your mortal money?

Three or four pounds, at most.

ls that so much that he

deserves your praise?

Oh, but it's not that!

The happiness he gave us, his clerks and

apprentices, and everybody who knew him.

lt was as great as if it had...

as if it had cost a fortune.

What's the matter?

- Nothing.

Something, l think.

- No, no, no, no...

Just that l'd like to have a word with my

own clerk, Bob Cratchit, just now.

That's all.

Turn and see yourself in love,

Ebenezer Scrooge.

lt's only a shilling ring, Alice,

but one day, it'll be a gold one.

...when l'm rich enough.

- Oh, it's a beautiful ring!

But l mustn't accept it.

Why not?

Because it's not good enough for you?

Oh, no, no.

Oh, because l'm not rich enough

for you?

How foolish of you,

of course not!

But you're still so young, you may

have a change of heart one day.

Oh, dearest Alice,

if ever l have a change of heart

towards you,

it'll be because my heart has ceased

to beat.

And it makes no difference that l'm poor?

l love you because you're poor,

not proud and foolish.

Will you...

always feel like that?

As long as l live,

...longer...forever and ever.

Then, ...

l accept your ring.

Alice

Ebenezer

God Bless you, Alice,

From now to eternity,

we, two, are as one.

l've seen enough!

- Yet more awaits you.

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