The apocryphal stave: or Humbugs

What could have happeneded if Mr Scrooge  had never woke up at one in the morning?

What if Jacob Marley just burnt in hell wrapping up his hands while waiting for his old pal?.I am going to tell you what actually happened that Christmas eve:

Mr Scrooge went back to his home in that huge building abandoned by any human being and now occupied by the most similar way of life to Ebenezer Scrooge, the rats.

He looked to the sign where his name and Marley’s was before he left the office, but there was nothing there, no face, no spirit, no chains, no dragging feet...

When he traspassed his threshold there was no shiver  running down his spine, no undying cold. No laments, wood creaking or doors opening. Nobody went upstairs, nobody  to advised him of his terrible fate. He will finish his sticky dinner and go to bed as usual. He would sleep the whole night. Nothing, not even the wind  would dare to disturb the old and bad tempered Scrooge.

Little little Timmy would die the following year  while the rich man spent the rest of his life doing the thing he liked the best. Not spending a penny. The only spirit he would meet would be the creepest one. They will start a long journey together the day that  a robber found him dead, seated on his armchair wearing his nightgown. He died as always lived, alone. Nobody cried, nobody said a conforting word about him.

At least, we know that he is not alone. That he and J. Marley are both carrying the weight of their actions. Maybe you could see him, during the Christmas eve, when the wandering spirits cross the earth ,dragging his own chains, the last in the line of ghost looking at the children  playing with the snow and muttering “humbugs”.