A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Part 9.
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The scene changed and he was near a bed. It had no blankets or curtains. There was only an old sheet with something under it – the body of a dead man. The Ghost pointed at the head, but Scrooge couldn’t pull down the sheet and look at the dead man’s face. He was shaking with terror. The body was cold, rigid, and alone in that dark room. ‘How terrible!’ thought Scrooge. ‘Not a man, woman or child to say that he was kind to them in life and to remember him with love!’ Then he heard the sound of rats behind the walls. Were they waiting, were they going to jump on the bed and…?
‘Spirit!’ he said. ‘What a horrible place! I’ll always remember this scene. Can we go now?’
But the Ghost still pointed at the dead man’s head.
‘I understand,’ Scrooge said. ‘But I can’t do it. I ask you to show me somebody who is sorry that this man is dead.’
The Ghost took him to Bob Cratchit’s house. The mother and children were sitting round the fire. They were quiet, very quiet. The little Cratchits sat like statues in a corner. Peter was reading.
‘When is Father coming?’ he asked. ‘He’s late. But I think he walks slower now.’
‘I remember when he walked very fast with – with Tiny Tim on his shoulder,’ said the mother. ‘But Tiny Tim was very light – and his father loved him so much. Ah there’s your father at the door!’
Bob came in. He drank some tea while the two little Cratchits put their faces close to his, saying, ‘Don’t be sad, Father!’
So Bob tried to be cheerful; but suddenly he cried. ‘My little child! My little boy!’
He went to a room upstairs. It looked as bright and happy as Christmas. He sat on a chair next to the bed. There was a little child on it. It was Tiny Tim, and he wasn’t sleeping. He was dead. Bob kissed the little face; then he went downstairs.
‘I met Mr Scrooge’s nephew in the street.’ he told the family. ‘He asked me why I was so sad. When I told him, he said he was very sorry and wanted to help us. I think he’s going to find a job for Peter.’
‘He’s a very good man,’ said Mrs Cratchit.
‘Yes. Children, when you all leave home in a few years, you won’t forget Tiny Tim, will you?’
‘Never, Father!’ they all cried.
‘Thank you. I feel happier now,’ Bob said.
Scrooge said to the Ghost, ‘Oh, please tell me who that dead man was!’
The Ghost took him near his office, but it didn’t stop.
‘Wait!’ said Scrooge. ‘My office is in that house. Let me go and see what I’ll be in the future.’
The Ghost continued walking. Scrooge ran to the window of his office and looked in. He saw an office, but it wasn’t his. Everything was different, including the man at the desk. He followed the Ghost again. It stopped at the gate of a cemetery.
‘Am I going to learn the dead man’s name now?’ asked Scrooge.
The Spirit led him to a grave. He went near it, trembling.
‘Before I look at the name,’ he said, ‘answer me one question. Is it really necessary for these things to happen or are they only possible?’
The Ghost didn’t answer.
‘I mean, if men change their lives and become better, will the future change too? Is this what you want to tell me?’
The Ghost was silent. Scrooge went slowly towards the grave, still trembling. He read the name on the gravestone: EBENEZER SCROOGE.
He fell on his knees. ‘I was the dead man in the bed! Oh, Spirit! Oh no, no! Listen, I’ve changed. I won’t be the same man as before. Tell me there is still hope – please! Tell me that if I change my life, the things that you have shown me will be different!’
The Spirit’s hand trembled.
‘I will celebrate Christmas with all my heart!’ Scrooge continued. ‘And I’ll always try to have the Christmas spirit – every day of the year! I will live in the past, the present and the future. I will not forget the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me that I can clean the name off this stone!’
Scrooge held up his hands to the Ghost but suddenly it vanished. There was only a bed-curtain in front of his eyes.