Chapter 5: Scrooge's First Love

The difference between the young man and the young woman on the bridge was in their faces. The woman's eyes were wet with tears. The man's eyes were bright and excited by the possibilities of the future. But the man tried to hide his excitement as he listened to the woman.

"There was a time when I thought your heart and mine were the same. Everything I thought, you thought. Everything I felt, you felt. It is not like that now. You have another love."

"Belle, you know I love you. But things are different now. It's time for me to go out and make some money so that we can be happy together."

"Do you think you will ever come back to me? Your love of money is too great. There was a time when money wasn't so important."

"I was young then."

"If you think those feelings are only for the young, then I feel sorry for you."

The pain in the old Scrooge's heart as he listened to this spread to the rest of his body. He held his head in his hands.

"Ghost, take me away from here. I cannot listen to another word of this!"

The Ghost of Christmas Past and Scrooge walked away from the young Scrooge and his first love. They walked over the bridge, and suddenly the weather changed. A thick fog came down and it was difficult to see anything. But Scrooge did not notice. He was thinking of the woman on the bridge and her words. Why did he ever leave her?

As Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past walked over the bridge, they walked to another time in the past. It was a time which was closer to the present. At the end of the bridge stood a small house. There were children playing outside. A woman came to the door. She was the woman from the bridge, but she was older now.

"Children, come inside. We're going to open the Christmas presents."

The ghost and Scrooge went inside with them. The house was small and poor, but a fire burned in the fireplace and the children's excitement filled the room with joy. Belle sat with her husband, smiling more and more brightly as the children opened their Christmas gifts.

"Look at Belle and her husband, Ghost! They have so many children and each one gives them such happiness. If only I could know what that man is feeling now ..."

"Very well, children. Go to your rooms and get changed for lunch."

The children all ran upstairs, screaming and laughing. When the parents were alone, the father, who was a happy and warm­hearted man, suddenly looked sad. His wife was worried.

"What is it? You look so sad you're frightening me."

"This morning, when I was leaving town, I walked past the shop of your old friend, Ebenezer Scrooge. He was inside working. I hear his partner, Jacob Marley, is dying and there was Scrooge - working on Christmas morning! He looked so alone in the world, it made me feel awful."

Scrooge turned away from the couple.

"No! No! No!"

The walls of the house disappeared. The night was dark and Scrooge was back in his own bedroom.

"Why?" he asked, but there was no one there any more to answer him.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 1805