A Christmas Carol Aftermath: Work to Be Done by ShakespeareFreak, literature
Literature
A Christmas Carol Aftermath: Work to Be Done
Ebenezer Scrooge looked around, wide-eyed, as they entered the massive room. Jacob had called it “The Counting-House,” but it looked more like a library, only many times larger than any library he had ever seen. St. Paul’s and ’Change would have both fit many times beneath the soaring vaulted ceiling, which reached so high that looking up at it was dizzying. He expected if he’d still had a mortal body, he might have passed out merely trying to comprehend the immensity of the space. Uncountable high shelves divided this area into corridors, and tall rolling ladders and a system of winding bronze stairs and walkways allowed workers to access the higher levels. The shelves were filled with books, which Scrooge immediately recognized as ledgers, each one bound in leather and embossed with a different name on the spine. Some of the names were common enough, and he even thought he spotted one or two names of people he’d known personally, but others seemed strange and unpronounceable to him,
A Christmas Carol Aftermath: Tim by ShakespeareFreak, literature
Literature
A Christmas Carol Aftermath: Tim
Less than a fortnight after Ebenezer Scrooge passed into the next world, Emily Cratchit fell ill. She had not been well for months, but now she could barely leave her bed. The doctor said there was nothing that could be done but pray for a miracle. Threatened with the impending loss of his mother on the heels of the death of his dear friend, Tim Cratchit — now a fine young man, hale and healthy (save a slight limp he would forever walk with) — began to slip into despair. He spent less time at home, throwing himself into work (he was a ’prentice at the firm now run by his father and Fred). He was brief with his wife, cold to his son, and snapped at Fred when he gently suggested he take some time off to process his grief. Ebenezer was distraught. He remembered far too well how the death of his sister had shaped his own life, and he saw echoes of his past regrets in Tim’s behaviour. One day, he voiced an idea that had been growing in his mind to Jacob. “Couldn’t I visit him?”
A Christmas Carol Aftermath: Marley's Grave by ShakespeareFreak, literature
Literature
A Christmas Carol Aftermath: Marley's Grave
Scrooge’s funeral was very well-attended. In some dismal alternate world, he had been buried in a pauper’s grave and long since forgotten; but here, now, it seemed half of London was there to see the old man off to his eternal rest. He had touched so many lives, and everything he had touched had seemed warmer and happier for it. Fred, his reddish-blond hair now streaked with grey, held his youngest daughter’s hand as she wept. Fred himself tried to hold back his tears; Uncle Ebenezer had asked people not to grieve, but to make his funeral a celebration of his life. Beside Fred stood the Cratchits. Bob, wrinkled and balding, but somehow still with a boyish charm about him, smiled even through his sorrow. Emily Cratchit, his good wife, had been too ill to attend — Emily often felt poorly these days — but the rest of the family was there, most with their own families and children. A young man (who had once, a long time before, been a sickly little boy with a crutch) stood straight and
A Christmas Carol Aftermath: Fan by ShakespeareFreak, literature
Literature
A Christmas Carol Aftermath: Fan
The young woman stood anxiously in some bright, indeterminate scene, waiting. She was lovely, but her form was delicate, even fragile — in life, she’d always been a frail creature. And yet, her face held in it a kind of strength, and she carried herself with a quiet sort of power, in marked contrast to her doll-like appearance. Her wide blue eyes held fire in their depths; yet her smile was gentle and kind. A voice was heard from behind her. “Fan!” She whirled about to see a young man, perhaps a few years older than her. His brown hair and hazel-green eyes stood in marked contrast to his pale, golden-haired sister: Ebenezer had inherited his mother’s dark hair and complexion, while Fan, born of their father’s second marriage, had her mother’s fair skin and bright blue eyes. “Ebenezer!” She ran to him and threw her arms about him in an instant. “Dear, dear brother!” She showered his face with kisses, while he laughed and twirled his little sister around. “Oh, dear brother, I almost
