Part 7
He fell forward face first into his bed. He looked up and it was morning. He stopped crying and I crawled out of his pocket and ran up to the window.
"I'm home", Bustopher said.
"Yes the bedposts were his own", a well known voice said and I felt someone pick me up and put me in his pocket. "The bed was his own. The room was his own!"
I grinned up at Munk and Quaxo.
"Hi girl we're back!" Quaxo yelled to me.
"We promised we would be", Munk said. "But the thing that made Scrooge happiest of all was that his life lay before him and it could be changed." We watched Bustopher pace his room happily.
"I will live my life in the past, present and the future", he said happily. "Oh Jerrie and Teazer Marley", he said and knelt. "Oh heaven in the Christmas time be praised for this day. I say it on my knees Jerrie and Teazer, on my knees!" He saw his bed curtains. "Oh they are not torn down. They're here… and I'm here. Oh it's a miracle." He ran by a mirror and looked at himself in it. "Oh! Oh…" he went away from it again.
"I don't know what to do", he went on. Geez talk about flipping out. "I'm as light as a feather. I'm as happy as an angel. I'm as merry as a schoolboy."
Quaxo looked at Munk.
"Um do you think it safe for us to be up here", he asked.
"Scrooge is saved what could happen now", Munk asked. He really shouldn't have said that… The window burst open and we fell down… again. Bustopher had flung it open and looked around. He saw a small boy.
"You there boy", he called. It was little Pouncival, the singer from the day before. He looked up at Bustopher.
"What me?" he asked and Quaxo ran past him. "Uh that is… what me sir?"
"What's today", Bustopher asked.
"Pardon?"
"What today my fine fellow?"
"Today? What, today is Christmas day!"
"It's Christmas day? I haven't missed it. The spirits did it all in one night! They can do anything they like. Of course they can! Of course they can."
"Uh of course they can haha."
"Do you know the poultry shop in the next street?"
"Uh yes sir I do."
"An intelligent lad. A remarkable lad."
"Aw…" Pouncival blushed.
"Do you know whether the price turkey has been sold in the window?"
"Oh the one twice as big as me? No it's still there."
"Oh it's a pleasure talking to you lad. Go and buy it."
"Be serious."
"I am being serious. Buy it for me and I'll give you a shilling. No I'll give you five shillings." He threw a purse to the kitten.
"Wow!" Pouncival exclaimed and ran off towards the shop.
"And so the boy was off like a shot", Munk began but Pouncival ran into them.
"Uhm sorry", he said and continued to run. Munk and Quaxo got up.
"And a few moments later", Munk went on. "Dressed in his finest Scrooge appeared on the streets of the city to wish merry Christmas to all the world."
Bustopher went around saying Merry Christmas. He even said it to Munk and Quaxo. He picked me up, kissed my cheek and sat me on his shoulder.
"Merry Christmas!" he said. I just sat there happily.
"Everyone was out and about on this fine morning", Munk went on as if nothing had happened. "And soon he encountered to familiar faces." It was those twins from the foundation! They looked terrified when they saw him.
"M-m-mister Scrooge", the tom, Coricopat, stuttered.
"Pardon me", gentlemen", Bustopher said gently. "But about the charity donation you asked about before yesterday put me down for…" He whispered something and they gasped.
"Mister Scrooge", Coricopat said. "That much?"
"Not a penny less."
"Oh my goodness I don't know what to say… I wish there was something we could give you."
His sister gave Bustopher her red scarf.
"A gift", he asked and she nodded. "A gift for me?" She nodded again and he put it on. "Thank you. Fifty times and a Merry Christmas."
"Here's your turkey Mister Scrooge", Pouncival said coming up to us with the biggest turkey I'd ever seen! Actually… why do you guys eat turkey at Christmas? We never do that…
"Follow me lad", Bustopher said pointing at him and started singing. (Again watch the video… easier to do that than describing everything)
With a thankful heart, with an endless joy
With a growing family, every girl and boy
Will be nephew and niece to me (Nephew and niece to me)
Will bring love, hope and peace to me (Love, hope and peace to me)
Yes and every night will end, and every day will start
With a grateful prayer and a thankful heart
With an open smile and with open doors
I will bid you welcome, what is mine is yours
With a glass raised to toast your health (With a glass raised to toast your health)
And a promise to share the wealth (Promise to share the wealth)
I will sail a friendly course, file a friendly chart
On a sea of love and a thankful heart
Life is like a journey, who knows when it ends?
Yes and if you need to know the measure of a man
You simply count his friends
Stop and look around you, the glory that you see
Is born again each day, don't let it slip away
How precious life can be
With a thankful heart that is wide awake
I do make this promise, every breath I take
Will be used now to sing your praise (Used now to sing your praise)
And to beg you to share my days (Beg you to share my days)
With a loving guarantee that even if we part
I will hold you close in a thankful heart
I will hold you close in a thankful heart
Some of the cats we visited were Misto, Jemima, Bustopher's old headmaster, Asparagus. Sr. and of course the office to give the bookkeepers some coal for the next day. We ended up outside Alonzo's house and Bustopher shooed all the others away so that we could surprise the Cratchits. He knocked on the door and sternly said:
"Alonzo Cratchit!"
Alonzo opened the door terrified.
"So here you are", Bustopher said darkly.
"Uh M-M-M-Mister Scrooge!" Alonzo stuttered out."
"You sir was not at work this morning as we had discussed."
"Uh b-but Mister Scrooge sir we did discuss it, it's Christmas day you gave me the day off."
"I, I Bustopher Scrooge, would I do a thing like that?"
"N-n-n-n-n-no uh I mean yes. B-but you did."
"Alonzo I've had my fill of this."
That's when Exotica came thundering towards us.
"And I've had my fill of you Mister Scrooge", she said.
"E-Exie", Alonzo stuttered. "Mister Scrooge-"
"And therefore Alonzo Cratchit", Bustopher went on.
"And therefore you can leave this house at once", Exotica said.
"And therefore I'm about to raise your salary!"
"And I'm about to raise you right of the pavement I… Pardon?"
"Pardon", Alonzo asked.
"Yes Lonz", Bustopher said. "Raise your salary and pay your mortgage on this house."
"I… uh… uh please sir come inside", Alonzo said.
Bustopher entered.
"Alonzo Cratchit", he said. "Would you and your family care to join us for a little turkey dinner on this fine Christmas Day?" The family looked chocked. "Merry Christmas!"
"Merry Christmas!" Everyone else yelled and the house was swarmed with cats, rats, mice, birds… all sorts of creatures.
"And Scrooge was better than his words", Munk said. "He did it all and more."
"And Tiny Tumble", Quaxo asked sadly.
"Um… Tiny Tumble… who did not die!"
"Aw isn't that swell", Quaxo said happily.
"To Tiny Tumble Scrooge became a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master and as good a man as the good old city ever had. And it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that truly be said of us and all of us. And so as Tiny Tumble observed…"
"God bless us", Tumble began.
"God bless us everyone", Bustopher finished. I felt how I was hoisted up into the air and carried out of the house while they sang:
The love we found, the love we found
We carry with us so we're never quite alone
The love we found, the love we found
The sweetest dream that we have ever known
"Hey see you later", Quaxo yelled and he and Munk waved at me. I waved back grinning as I flew through the air and away from this London.
The love we found, the love we found
We carry with us so we're never quite alone
But the last thing I heard was Quaxo saying:
"Great story Mister Dickens."
"Thanks, if you liked this you should read the book", Munk answered and I laughed. I kept flying towards the skies, hearing that song the ghost of Christmas Present sang. I sang along as I flew but suddenly something pulled my away with a jolt.
I sat up and looked around me. I was in my living room, on my sofa, beside me on the armrest lied The Muppet's Christmas Carol and on my stomach lied my cat. I look at him and the movie and shake my head and go back to sleep singing:
The love we found, the love we found
We carry with us so we're never quite alone
The End