Humbug Holiday by Tony Abbott

Author:Tony Abbott
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781480486904
Publisher: Open Road Media

Chapter 13

“Ha, ha!” came the bright laugh again.

“Hey, I’m pretty sure we’ve heard that laugh before,” said Frankie. “Who is it?”

The ghost waved his torch over us, and with a breeze that smelled like roasted turkey, the black air evaporated, and we found ourselves in a bright, gleaming room.

“Isn’t this better than some smelly old boat?” I said.

All the walls and halls around us were decked with holly, every candle in the place was lit and blazing, and right there in the middle of everything was Scrooge’s nephew Fred, bent over, laughing his head off.

And so was the pretty woman next to him.

“Ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha!”

“Scrooge, behold your nephew and his wife,” said the spirit, “your niece by marriage, whom you’ve never met! They have no great wealth, but they know how to celebrate Christmas!”

They sure did! In that dazzling room were a dozen other jolly, fresh-faced people, and all of them had plates or glasses, and all of them were laughing, too.

The nephew turned and spotted Frankie and me by the door. “Dear, dear!” he said. “The two children from Scrooge’s office! Well, come in, you two! Come in!”

Frankie grinned, then whispered to me, “Isn’t it strange how so many people around Scrooge know how to have a good time, but he doesn’t?”

“Good one,” I agreed. “Let’s hope Scrooge puts that on his list of things to fix. But in the meantime—let’s party!”

The nephew introduced us all around. “As these two can tell you, Uncle Scrooge said that Christmas was a humbug. And he believed it, too!”

“Shame on him, Fred!” said Scrooge’s niece. She had curly hair, bright eyes, and was really kind of cute.

“He’s a comical old fellow,” said Fred.

“He’s very rich, for sure,” I said.

“What of that?” said Fred. “He may have a million pounds, but he doesn’t do anything good with it.”

“He hates to give any away,” said Frankie. “I bet he never gave any to you, for instance.”

“Ha!” Fred exploded. “Quite right about that!”

“I have no patience with him,” said Scrooge’s niece.

“Oh, I have,” said Fred. “I feel sorry for him. I couldn’t be mad at him if I tried. He really only hurts himself. And misses out on a truly delectable Christmas dinner.”

“The more for us!” yelled someone in the back.

At that, Scrooge’s niece began to play on a harp, and sang a nice old-fashioned song in a pretty decent voice.

“Ah!” said Scrooge, tucking himself behind the spirit. “I remember that tune. My sister, Fan, knew that song. I heard her sing it often when I was young.…”

He paused, then began to cry. “Oh, dear, dear, Fan!”

The ghost looked closely at Scrooge. “The memories of a sister … yes, yes, she was a tender soul.”

Frankie let out a deep sigh. “You know, Devin, Scrooge was mean, really mean to his nephew, but I sort of feel sorry for him now. I mean, he really did love his sister a lot.”

I nodded. “Yeah. It makes you wonder if he had been with her more, and had heard

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