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Scrooged: Chapter 2: A Break?
I used to love Christmas. As a kid in New York, I'd make snowmen to portray kids at school I didn't like and I'd pelt them with snowballs and watch as they melted in the sun come Spring. In Carmel, Christmas meant going to the Mission's annual Winter Formal, which meant Jesse.
Now I found myself dreading the approach of the twenty-fifth of December. To me, Christmas now means old memories and broken hearts.
Perhaps that's why I'm always moody this time of the year. Yeah, it's all his fault. All Jesse's fault.
"Merry Christmas, Suze!" Cee Cee had shouted through the phone at me this morning. I almost felt like screaming "Bah, Humbug!" but thought it was a little too cliché.
"Miss Simon," yelled a large man in a very tight suit. He had a graying bushy mustache and a balding head. He kind of reminded me of Uncle Vernon from Harry Potter. He even had a son that looked like Dudley. I'd hardly ever seen his wife, but she seemed scrawny and small next to this big man. Harry's aunt never seemed so insignificant. I guess the similarity only went so far as father and son. Hopefully they didn't have an orphaned teenage wizard hidden in their linen closet…
"Yes, Mr. Crosby?" I said sweetly. Okay, so I was a suckup. So what? He had sounded kind of angry when he'd called my name.
"Sit down," he said, motioning to an empty chair across from him at his desk.
I sat, folded my hands in my lap, and prepared myself for whatever he would say.
Mr. Crosby, my boss, shuffled through a stack of official-looking documents. "Miss Simon," he started.
Oh no, this was going to be bad. He was using his I'm-the-boss-everything-I-say-goes-and-don't-you-forget-it-ever voice. I crossed my fingers under the desk.
"It seems," he continued, "that you have been working many long hours lately." I nodded and he continued. "Tomorrow," he announced, "is Christmas."
Well, duh!
"I want for you to take tomorrow off. You are not to come within one hundred feet of this building."
Wait, what?
"You, Miss Simon, have been working yourself too hard. You need a break."
"A break," I repeated slowly, making sure I'd heard him correctly.
"Ah, so you've heard of them," he teased.
It was true. I'd been working long nights lately. I was always the first one here in the morning and the last one to leave at night.
You may be wondering where "here" is. I work at a psychologist's office as the personal secretary to Dr. Crosby himself.
Yet, for some reason, he insists that he be called Mr. Crosby, not Dr. Crosby, by his coworkers. He believes that just because he went to school for a few extra years does not make him better than us.
So yeah, I'm a secretary. Bet you never would have guessed. Suze Simon taking orders from someone other than herself.
This is what my life has come to in the past couple of years. I dropped out after only a semester at No Cal, got a job taking orders from a superior, who wants me to believe that he is not superior, except when it benefits him most, and lost the love of my life.
"Mr. Crosby, sir," I said as politely as possible. "Working tomorrow is no problem. In fact, I have to catch up on some paperwork."
"Paperwork," he repeated.
"Ah, so you've heard of it." He laughed.
"Miss Simon, you are not working tomorrow and that is final, you hear?" His voice was stern. His mind was made up.
"Yes, Sir."
I got up and left, making sure to show my unhappiness by closing his door hard. Not slamming it exactly, not hard enough to get me into trouble, just enough to let him know that I was not happy.
What was I going to do? I had a whole day off tomorrow. Christmas Day, in fact. Cee Cee had invited me to Christmas dinner at her and Adam's apartment, but I had refused. I was happy for Cee Cee, but she and Adam were too much for me to handle. I couldn't stand seeing them happy and in love while I was miserable, lonely, and foul-tempered.
I'd lost the Suze I once knew. And I didn't even care.
00 Later 00
"No, Mom, I'm sorry. I have to work tomorrow…Well, tell Andy that I'm sorry but I can't make it to dinner tomorrow…I know it's Christmas…Yes, Mom, I know how Andy gets when I miss dinner…No, Mom, I'll be fine…promise…Love you too…Bye."
Okay, so I lied. So what? It was my universal excuse: I have to work. It worked every time.
I collapsed onto the couch and flipped on the TV. "Tonight, you will be visited by three spirits…"
A Christmas Carol. Great. I flipped the channel. "Scrooge," said a ghostly voice. Huh? I flipped it again, but no matter how many times I changed the channel, the movie never changed. How could every channel be showing the same movie at the same time?
I stared at the screen, dumbfounded. Then Bob Marley's ghost filled the screen. "Susannah Simon," it said. "Tonight, you will be visited by three spirits."
Huh? Did he just say- No, It couldn't be. Maybe I went a little overboard on the coffee earlier.
"You're the product of an undercooked potatoe, a bad piece of meat, or perhaps some cheese," the Scrooge on screen announced to Bob's ghost.
Wait, isn't that what I just said, basically?
"Suuze," Bob said, his ghostly voice filling the small apartment. "Expect the first when the clock strikes one."
"The first spirit?" I asked it, not that I expected him to reply. He was, after all, just the product of a highly paid actor, cheesy special effects, and the loads of caffeine that I'd just ingested.
He nodded. "Yes, Suze. Expect the first spirit at one." And then the TV went black. I screamed and ran.
I ran out the door, down the hall, and, after realizing I had nowhere to go, back into my apartment and into my bed, pulling the covers safely over my head. As if that would help.
There was a knock at the door. I looked at my watch. Only 11:30. Couldn't be the spirit yet.
"Miss Simon?" a voice called out from the other side of my closed door. "It's Mrs. Marber. From 12B?" When there was no response from me, she continued. "I thought I heard you scream. Miss Simon, are you alright?"
I slowly got out of bed and opened the door. "I'm fine, Mrs. Marber. Thank you."
"Oh, it's no problem, Dear. We apartment mates gotta stick together, watch out for one another. You know, this reminds me of a time back when I was about your age. I-"
But the rest was cut off as I closed the door in her face. I know, I'm a terrible person and I'm going to Hell. At least then I'll finally know what happens to ghosts after I mediate them. Or exorcise them.
I went back to bed, hoping that I'd wake up the next morning to find it all a dream.
But I couldn't sleep. I really had consumed a lot of coffee.
So, I grabbed a book, turned up the heater, and sat down to read.
00 Later 00
I must have finally dozed off. The next thing I knew, I was awakened by the tolling of a bell.
Hm, that was strange. I didn't even have a clock that chimed out the hour. The closest thing I had was a watch I'd gotten from Burger King that told corny jokes when you pressed a button.
So what was with the chiming?
"Suze," said a ghostly voice from behind me. And really, what was with the ghostly voice? Ghosts sounded just like everyone else. So what was this ghost's problem? Then I remembered.
Calm down, Suze. It's just a ghost. You've delt with loads of ghosts in the past. I turned around slowly and was surprised at what I saw.
If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was…
"Hello, Suze, I'm the Tooth Fairy."
Tooth Fairy?
"Sure she did, Jesse! She kissed you and I'm the Tooth Fairy!"
R&R. The next chapter might take a little while to get up mostly b/c I don't own the Mediator books. Unfortunately. If I had the last chapter of Twilight, I could update sometime today, but since I have to remember and make some of it up, it may take me a little while. If any of you really want an update, if you have Twilight, would you plz copy the last chapter and send it to bluEyedgrrl gmail. com? I will update today and dedicate the chapter to you!
Love,
Tennisgurl