A Christmas Carol: The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

The Phantom was wrapped in a black robe that hid its head, its face and its body, leaving nothing to be seen but one outstretched hand.“Are you the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?” asked Scrooge. The Spirit did not answer, but only pointed onward with its hand.“Ghost of the Future, I fear you more than any spirit I have seen,” said Scrooge, his legs trembling. “But I know you mean to do me good. Lead on!”

In the heart of the city, a group of businessmen were talking about a man who had died the night before.“It’s likely to be a very cheap funeral,” laughed one, “because I don’t know of anybody who will go to it.” “I’ll go if lunch is provided,” said another.Scrooge looked for his own future self among the merchants, but another man was standing in his usual corner.

Then the Phantom led him to a dirty little shop in a poor part of town, where an old man named Joe bought old rags, bottles and stolen things.Three people came in, each with a bundle, and every one of them had taken things from the dead man’s house.One woman had even pulled down the curtains from around his bed while he lay there. “He frightened everyone away when he was alive,” she laughed, “so he could help us when he was dead!”“Spirit,” said Scrooge, shaking from head to foot, “I see, I see. The case of this unhappy man might be my own.”

Suddenly he stood beside a bare bed, where a body lay under a sheet, alone, with nobody to weep for it. The Phantom pointed at the head, but Scrooge had no power to lift the cover.“If anyone feels anything at this man’s death, show me,” begged Scrooge — but the only feeling the Ghost could show him was a poor young couple’s relief that the man they owed money to was dead.

Then they came to Bob Cratchit’s house, where the noisy children sat as still as statues, and their mother said softly that Bob used to walk very fast with Tiny Tim on his shoulder.Bob came home from visiting the green place where his son was buried. “My little, little child!” he cried, and he broke down all at once.Yet he told them how kind Scrooge’s nephew had been to him that day, and he made the family promise never to forget poor Tiny Tim.

At last the Phantom brought Scrooge to a neglected churchyard and pointed down at one grave.“Are these the shadows of the things that will be, or are they shadows of things that may be, only?” asked Scrooge, but the Ghost only kept pointing.Trembling, Scrooge crept closer and read his own name on the stone: EBENEZER SCROOGE. “No, Spirit! Oh no, no! I am not the man I was!”“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present and the Future!” As he held up his hands in a last prayer, the Phantom shrank and turned into his own bedpost.