Smallville with Rankin Bass. Merry Christmas! … In June…
Disclaimer: Smallville and any other DC characters I use in this belong to Warner Brothers, DC Comics, and their respective creators while the Stingiest Man in Town belongs to Rankin-Bass. I own nothing.
The Stingiest Man in Metropolis
Prologue: Lex Luthor
Holly-ho!
Holly ho-ho-ho!
Holly ho! Tally ho!
Sing a Christmas Carol written long ago.
Chloe Sullivan was hanging out in the Luthor Mansion when we walked up.
"Written long ago." Chloe repeated when she noticed us. "The merriest of Merry Christmases to you."
"Who are you?" I asked?
"Who am I?" Chloe exclaimed. "Chloe Sullivan. Welcome to the home of the kindest and most generous man in Metropolis, Lex Luthor." Lex continued.
"What?" My friend Rob asked in shock.
"You're surprised I call Lex kind and generous." Chloe observed. "Well, you can take my word for it. True, Mr. Luthor wasn't always so jolly. There vas a time when he was as mean and miserable as the counting house in which he conducted his business. The offices of Luthor and Strange. Now Hugo Strange was dead to begin with, but old Lex never paid to have Strange's name crossed out.
There was a mean and stingy man
Named as Lex Luthor.
His heart was hard and cold
Because he was the devil's boar.
While he set down to count the gold
That is mind could never leave.
Young people in the square outside…
"Merry Christmas!" Several children called out, disrupting Lex's train of thought.
Celebrated Christmas Eve.
"Away!" Lex shouted, brandishing an umbrella. "Away with you and your 'Merry Christmas'!"
The children scattered upon seeing Lex.
"Christmas." Lex scoffed as he sat back down. "Bah humbug. Humbug!"
"That used to be his favorite word." Chloe explained to us. "My mom was the housekeeper for Lex's family before she passed on, so he had me stay and do my mother's old work load. Oh, Lex was a tight-fisted man. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, covetous old sinner. Until that Christmas Eve, not too long ago, when the ghosts came. My new friends, allow me to tell you a Ghost Story for Christmas. The Stingiest Man in Metropolis."
And you'll hear it too, in a few days, hopefully. So keep an eye out.
