A Christmas Carol Page #2

Jacob Marley.

Can you sit down?

- I can.

- Do it then.

You do not believe in me.

I don't.

Why do you doubt your senses?

Because the littlest thing

can affect them.

A slight disorder of the stomach

can make them cheat.

You may be an undigested bit of beef.

A blot of mustard.

A crumb of cheese.

A fragment of underdone potato.

There's more of gravy than of grave

about you, whatever you are.

Mercy! Dreadful apparition,

why do you trouble me?

Man of worldly mind,

do you believe in me or not?

I do! I must!

Woe! Woe is me!

You are fettered in chains. Why?

I wear the chain I forged in life.

I made it link by link and yard by yard.

Do you recognise its pattern?

Can you imagine the weight and length

of the chain you bear?

It was as heavy and long

as this seven Christmas Eves ago.

Oh, yours is a ponderous chain.

Jacob, tell me no more.

Speak comfort to me, Jacob.

I have none to give.

I cannot stay.

I cannot linger anywhere.

Mark me, in life, my spirit never walked

beyond our countinghouse,

never roved beyond the narrow limits

of our money-changing hole.

Now endless journeys lie before me.

Seven years dead

and travelling all the time?

The whole time. No rest, no peace.

You must've covered

a lot of ground in seven years.

I was blind!

Blind! I could not see my own life!

Squandered and misused.

Oh, woe...oh, woe is me!

But you were always

a good man of business!

Business!

Mankind...was my business.

The common welfare was my business.

Charity, mercy, forbearance,

and benevolence were all my...

Hear me! My time is nearly gone.

I will. But don't be hard upon me,

Jacob. Pray.

I am here to warn you

that you have yet a chance

at a hope of escaping my fate.

A chance of my procuring, Ebenezer.

You were always a good friend

to me, Jacob. Thank 'ee.

You will be haunted by three spirits.

That's the chance and hope?

- I'd rather not.

- Expect the first

tomorrow when the bell tolls one.

Couldn't I take them all at once,

and have it over with, Jacob?

Expect the second the next night

at the same hour.

And the third upon the next night,

when the last stroke of 12

has ceased to vibrate.

Look to see me no more.

Ah!

Ah!

I'm sorry.

I wish I could help you.

Ah!

Oh!

Ah!

Ah!

Are you the spirit whose coming

was foretold to me?

I am.

Is it possible that

you might put your cap on?

Would you so soon put out,

with your worldly hands,

the light I give?

No, no! No, no! I'm so sorry.

I meant nothing by it.

I meant no of fence.

I just thought I...

Who and what are you?

I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Long past?

Your past.

Rise.

And walk with me.

But I am modal and liable to fall.

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