And nobody got it worse, than Scrooge s employee at the auction house, Bob Riker.

Transcription

1 STAVE I: MARLEY'S GHOST TINY KIM: Winter s Veil is here. The ground is beginning to freeze and a chill is in the air. Friends and family are enjoying the season, sharing in the merriment and glee, and singing joyful Winter s Veil Carols. Everybody is in the holiday spirit everybody, that is, except for Davnika Scrooge. SCROOGE: Bah. Humbug. TINY KIM: Scrooge is a horrible, horrible person. She is a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping,clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. Her mean-spirited ways don t let up around Winter s Veil, either! If anything, they get worse as the lights and decorations spring up each year. Hard as it might be to believe. And nobody got it worse, than Scrooge s employee at the auction house, Bob Riker. RIKER: Missus Scrooge? I know the price of coal has gone up lately, but do you think we might be able to stoke the fire? My hands are so cold, I can barely hold onto my quill. SCROOGE: Fire, Mr. Riker? I think not. Coal costs money, and this firm is in the business of making money. No, I m afraid you will simply have to add another pair of mittens. Now go and what is that awful sound? RIKER: Awful sound? Ms. Scrooge, that s the sound of the orphan children singing Winter s Veil carols! SCROOGE: Orphan children, eh? Well, by all means, invite them in! Get them out of the cold night and into the office! RIKER: Really, Ms. Scrooge? You mean it? SCROOGE: Of course! Then I can set their hair on fire again. You get your abominable holiday singing and your precious heat. It s win-win. RIKER: I I SCROOGE: You re wasting my time Riker. Now get back to work. I expect those ledger books on my desk before you leave tonight. RIKER: But it s Winter s Veil! And it is already 10 pm!

2 SCROOGE: Well then, I suggest you work quickly. RIKER: But ma am, I have to go back to my family! We always gather for Winter s Veil to share stories and delicious Smokeywood Pastures cheese and sausage assortments! It s tradition! SCROOGE: Let me hear another sound from you, and you'll keep your Winter s Veil by losing your job! You'll want all day off tomorrow, I suppose? RIKER: If it s quite convenient, ma am. SCROOGE: It's not convenient, and it's not fair. If I was to pay you a half wage, you d think yourself, ill-used no doubt. Yet you don t think twice about my paying a day s wages for you to stuff your face with cheese. RIKER: But, ma am, it s the holidays. And it is only one day out of the year! SCROOGE: Hrmph. A poor excuse for picking my pocket every December. But I suppose you must have the whole day. There s probably a law or something. Now, if you ll excuse me, I ll be off for the night. TINY KIM: And so Riker went back to work, and Scrooge went home for the night. No lights or decorations adorned her house, and no family or even a faithful dog awaited her return. Scrooge had no Winter s Veil traditions she did what she did every night after work: eat some Smokeywood Pastures ham, have a nightcap and fall asleep reading the financial newspapers. But this Winter s Veil Eve something strange happened. SCROOGE: Huh? What? Who s there? I hear you sneaking around, you scoundrels. Clear off before I -- HARKLEY! HARKLEY: OoooOOOooOOoOOoOOOOooOOOoo SCROOGE: But, how? Harkley, you re dead. You ve been dead almost seven years now. HARKLEY: Yes. And now, Davnika Scrooge, I ve come from beyond the grave to haunt YOU on Winter s Veil. /em shakes ghostly chains

3 SCROOGE: What do you want with me, o Ghost of Jacob Harkley? HARKLEY: Much. In life, we were business partners, Scrooge. No, more than that, we were friends. But in death, I learned how wrong I was about so many things. In life, we have chances to do right and to be good people. But in my life, I was a miser and a skinflint, and I loved money more than people. I wear the chain I forged in life, Scrooge. I made it link-by-link, and yard-by-yard. I fashioned it out of my greed, my indifference, and my uncaring. I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. You have a chain just like it, Dav. A chain you ve been forging for yourself, just waiting for the day you die. And you should know that it was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Winter s Veils ago. You have labored on it, since. It is a ponderous chain! SCROOGE: (scared) Harkley! It can t be all bad, can it? Please, give me some kind of comfort, Hark. Something. HARKLEY: I have none to give. I am here tonight to warn you, that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. A small chance, but a chance nonetheless to escape an eternity of endless regret and never-ending torment. SCROOGE: You were always a good friend to me, Hark. Thank you. Thank you for giving me HARKLEY: You will be haunted by Three Spirits. SCROOGE: Oh. HARKLEY: Look to see me no more; and look that, for your own sake, you remember what has passed between us! (Hark leaves invisibility potion?) STAVE II: THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS TINY KIM: And so Scrooge was left alone with her thoughts. Soon, she fell asleep again, despite her best efforts to stay awake. Suddenly, though, the clock struck thirteen, and then things started to get weird. SCROOGE: (waking up suddenly) What? Huh? Oh nothing. Wow, what a weird dream. I haven t thought about Harkley in ages, and all that nonsense

4 about gho- GCPAST: Hello. SCROOGE: GAH! GCPAST: I m the ghost of Winter s Veil Past. Specifically, YOUR past. This is the first step on your reclamation, Davnika Scrooge. Take heed. Rise, and walk with me. (Magical Effects) GCPAST: Here we are in the past. SCROOGE: Wow, that was quick. GCPAST: Do you recognize this place, Scrooge? SCROOGE: I yes! Yes, this is the very town I grew up in! There s the post office, the candy shop, the adult bookstore, and the gristmill. Why, the place hasn t changed a bit, even after all this time. GCPAST: Yeah, well, in reality the place was razed to the ground a few years back in a freak lantern accident. This is the past, remember? SCROOGE: (oblivious) All these decorations! And the people! Everybody s so festive and happy. So much laughing and singing. GCPAST: Yeah about that. These are but shadows of things that have been. Honestly, most of them probably died in the fire. They have no consciousness of us, though. Even though it is Winter s Veil Eve, the school is not quite deserted. A solitary child, neglected by her friends, is still there. SCROOGE: Wow. She must be a real loser if her friends all ditched her on oh. It s me. I should have seen that coming. GCPAST: Yeah, most likely. Come on, let s take a closer look. (SCROOGE and GCPAST walk over to Penfold, who is sitting on the ground) SCROOGE: Wait. Why am I gnome? And male? GCPAST: There are laws about children appearing in supernatural reenactments. It s easier to cast gnomes. Sorry. Children and animals. It s a

5 tremendous amount of red tape. SCROOGE: (sighs) Oh, all right. GCPAST: What were you doing here alone, Scrooge? Here in this dark, cold, lonely schoolhouse when all the other gnomes were off dreaming of fruit and nut gift baskets and summer sausage platters, fresh from Smokeywood Pastures? SCROOGE: I was reading. Fabulous stories of high fantasy and great drama. Intrigue. Fairy Tales. Epic poems with supernatural warrior kings. I ate that stuff up. It filled me with such joy to live out the stories. (pauses) I wish no. It is too late now. GCPAST: What s the matter? SCROOGE: Nothing. There was a boy singing a Winter s Veil Carol at my door last night. In retrospect, I wish I had given him something. A bag of pennies. A toothbrush, perhaps. Something. GCPAST: What did you do? SCROOGE: Flicked firecrackers at him until he started to cry. GCPAST: Err OK. Let s move on. (more magic effects) GCPAST: Does this look familiar? SCROOGE: Oh! Yes, this is the warehouse where I was apprenticed! Is it is there a party going on? GCPAST: There s a window over there. Why not peek in and see? SCROOGE: (Facing away from the ghost) Why, it's old Fezziwig! Bless his heart; it's Fezziwig alive again! Wait, why is Fezziwig a Draenei? He actually WAS a gnome. GCPAST: We used all our gnomes for kid s roles. SCROOGE: It looks like the annual Winter s Veil party. They ve pushed all the desks to the side of the room and are dancing around to a fiddler. There are

6 heaps and heaps of food on every table a veritable feast of smoked meats and cheeses, mixed nuts, and fruitcakes. Hey, there s me! I m dancing with those twins, Pat and Terry. I m having the greatest time of my life, thanks to Fezziwig and his party. Good music, good food, good times. Oh, it s breaking up now. Everybody s just overflowing with holiday cheer. It brings a tear to my eye. GCPAST: A small matter to make these silly folks so full of gratitude. SCROOGE: Small! GCPAST: Why! Isn t it? He only spent but a few gold: thirty or forty, maybe. Is that such a big deal that he deserves praise? SCROOGE: It isn't that at all! He was a great boss. He has the power to make us happy or unhappy, and to make the job either light or a chore. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count 'em up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune. Fezziwig was a great man, not because of the money he spent, but in the thousand little things he did and said each day to make people feel special and oh. GCPAST (looks smug) (magical effects and return to sleep) STAVE III: THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS SCROOGE: OK, I am clearly not going to get a lot of sleep tonight. That first visitation gave me a lot to think about. GCPRESENT: Imagine what I M going to show you! SCROOGE: Gah! Where did you come from? GCPRESENT: Beyond the grave. Ghost of Winter s Veil Present, at your service. SCROOGE: Spirit, take me where you will. I was forced to go with your friend earlier, and I learned a lot. Tonight, if you have anything to teach me, let me profit by it.

7 (magical effects) SCROOGE: Where I mean, when are we? GCPRESENT: Now. This is the present. And we re about five blocks away from your office. This is the neighborhood where your clerk, Bob Riker, lives, if I'm not mistaken. SCROOGE: Riker, always so chipper and cheerful. I've never understood how he could be so poor and so happy at the same time. GCPRESENT: Many wonder the same thing of you. How can you be so rich and yet so miserable? SCROOGE: Harumph. Why are we stopping at this house, Spirit? GCPRESENT: Behold, Scrooge, the home and family of your clerk, Mr. Bob Riker. Look at the family all gathered around the holiday table, singing carols. What a heart-warming scene, don't you think? SCROOGE: (mumbles incoherently) GCPRESENT: Look at them, Scrooge. Look how excited they are, look at the sheer joy on their faces. And why? A scrawny pig and some boiled potatoes. They act like it is a tremendous feast, don't they Scrooge? Why, they don't even have a single Smokeywood Pasture holiday ham ball, the poor saps. SCROOGE: I... I didn't realize Riker had such a large family. Or even a family at all. I just never thought about it. Wait. Who is that child over there? The one with the crutch? GCPRESENT: Ahh, that's Tiny Kim, Riker's youngest child. She's had a rough time of it so far, to be honest. The rickets and diphtheria really took a toll on her, to be sure. But they were able to start buying discount citrus fruits to combat the scurvy from the money they saved by switching from milk to non-dairy creamer. RIKER: Tiny Kim! Why are you out of your iron lung? It's not time yet! TINY KIM: But father, I do so ever want to join the family! It's Winter's Veil! I feel happy! /em dance /em cough /em lie TINY KIM: I think I will just take a moment to rest.

8 SCROOGE: Oh come on, this is a bit over the top, don't you think? RIKER: Oh, this pig is the most wondrous bounty I believe I have ever seen in my life TINY KIM: (moves to sit beside Riker) It is truly a miracle from the heavens. Hurrah! /em wheezes RIKER: Tiny Kim, do you want some more of the second-hand casserole? TINY KIM: Oh no father, I couldn't. Merely eating has left me breathless and weak. I don't have the energy to eat another bite. Perhaps I will just slump against you for a while and watch you eat if that is okay? SCROOGE: Spirit, please tell me if Tiny Kim will live. GCPRESENT: I see a vacant seat in the poor chimney-corner next to the oxygen tent, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die. SCROOGE: Oh no, no no no. Please say it isn't so. GCPRESENT: If the child's going to die, she might as well get on with it, right? Go ahead and decrease the surplus population. SCROOGE: I didn't actually say that, did I? GCPRESENT: October 11 th, 3:30pm. You were referring to a toddler in the park who sneezed. It may be, that in the judgment of the Light, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child. You should mind your words, Scrooge, until you learn what exactly the Surplus is. TINY KIM: (waves her cane around) To Mister Scrooge! The Founder of the Feast! /em wheezes RIKER: The Founder of the Feast indeed! I wish he was here. I'd give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and I hope he'd have a good appetite for it. TINY KIM: Oh, father, please be kind. It is Winter's Veil.

9 RIKER: It would have to be Winter's Veil, I'm sure, for anyone to drink to the health of such and odius, stingy, unfeeling woman as Davnika Scrooge. You'll understand when you get older, Tiny Kim. TINY KIM: If. RIKER: Right, sorry. If you get older. GCPRESENT: Come. It is getting dark, and the snow's coming down pretty hard. We need to get you home quickly so you can go on your last visitation. SCROOGE: Are spirits' lives so short? GCPRESENT: My life upon this globe, is very brief. It ends tonight. SCROOGE: Tonight?! GCPRESENT: Tonight at midnight. Hark! The time is drawing near. (disappears. GCFUTURE enters) STAVE IV: THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS (during all this, GCFUTURE doesn't talk. Only emotes. ) SCROOGE: I am in the presence of the Ghost of Winter's Veils Yet To Come? GCF:... SCROOGE: You are about to show me shadows of the things that have not happened, but will happen in the time before us. Is that so, Spirit? GCF: /nods SCROOGE: OK, you're going to have to give me something here. You're the fourth dead person I've seen tonight, I've seen myself miserable and alone as a child, I've seen first hand the awful effects of my attitudes, and I think that creepy kid gave me ringworm. So while I respect that you are trying to teach me a valuable lesson tonight, I am a little strung out at the moment. Is there any chance that you could keep things kind of light and casual this time? GCF:...

10 SCROOGE: What's done is done. What's in the past, I can't change. What's happening in the present is a product of the past. But the future... the future can change. And for that reason, Spirit, I fear you and what you're going to tell me. Will you not speak to me? GCF: (points at a group of people off to the side) EXTRA1: No. I don't know much about it, either way. I only know he's dead. Kicked it last night, I think it was. EXTRA2: You know, I thought he'd never die. Any idea what he did with all his money? EXTRA1: I haven't heard. All I know is that he didn't leave it to me. He probably had it in his will to have it buried with him. Just so nobody else could have it... (laughs all around) SCROOGE: Remind me to talk to my lawyer when I get back. It does sound kind of silly when you hear someone else say it. (the two extras get ready to leave) EXTRA2: It's likely to be a very cheap funeral. I can't think of anybody who'd care enough to go. Maybe we should get a group together? EXTRA1: Only if they serve lunch.. (they leave) GCF: /em points off in the distance SCROOGE: What are you pointing at, Spirit? Is that... is that a tombstone? An open grave waiting for a corpse? Such a miserable plot: strewn with broken glass, choked with weeds, mold and mushrooms clinging to everything. /em shudders SCROOGE: Before I get any nearer, ghost, answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?" GCF:... SCROOGE: There it is, right there on the gravestone itself. DAVNICKA SCROOGE. They misspelled my name. That's just great.

11 GCF: Points at SCROOGE, and then at the grave. SCROOGE: But surely there is some way I can avoid this! I am not the woman I was. Why show me all of this, if I am past all hope! I will honor Winter's Veil in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach! (SCROOGE collapses to the ground, GCF disappears) STAVE V: THE END OF IT (SCROOGE wakes up) SCROOGE: Yes! I'm back in bed! I have seen the visions of the three spirits and made it to the other side again! I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future! What a jackass I've been! /dance SCROOGE: I don't know what to do! I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolgirl. I am as giddy as a drunken sorority girl. /em runs to the window and throws open the shutters SCROOGE: A happy Winter's Veil to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world. Hey you! Kid? No, kid, come back. Don't be scared. What's today? TINY KIM: Why Missus Scrooge, it is Winter's Veil! The most (em lets out a hacking cough) the most wonderful day of the whole year. SCROOGE: I haven't missed it. You there, Tiny Kim? Take this purse of gold. Run... err... hobble down to the Smokeywood Pasture holiday gift kiosk on the corner. I want you to buy the Lumberjack Luncheon sampler platter and a fruit basket. Take them home to your mother and father, Tiny Kim! TINY KIM: Oh thank you so very much, Missus Scrooge. It's a Winter's Veil miracle. I will rush off to do this right now. I suppose I can always reschedule my dialysis. HAPPY WINTER'S VEIL DAVNIKA SCROOGE! And may the Light bless us all, each and every one!