THE MISER AND THE ORPHAN- A Christmas Carol Story

CHAPTER 5: CHRISTMAS PAST PART II

When Scrooge and I landed, we landed on the floor of what seemed to be a mining area filled with workers, all men women and children, and a few horses. Everyone was working, except a few who were breathing in the stuffy, smoggy air and coughing.

"Behold. The Scrooge and Marley anthracite coal mine in the country of Wales. One of your later commercial ventures, after you and Mr. Marley met at the corn exchange., both buying up bankrupt businesses from men like your father." 

We saw the spirit again, but this time, he was a mine factory worker, covered with soot from head to foot.

"And this was one of your most profitable ventures." The spirit continued.

"Oh, this should be good." I muttered to myself in silent glee as we moved with the spirit.

We heard a horse wheezing, and stopped to look.

"Poor thing." Scrooge remarked.

"'He is pure air and fire.' Evidently, when William Shakespeare wrote that about a horse, he'd never seen one put down a coal pit. Not much is pure down here." The coal miner said.

"Yes, I can see that." I remarked nervously.

"I remember when we bought the mine, I tried not to think about the horses." Scrooge recalled.

"You made this place profitable by cutting down on the excessive use of oak timbers. Before you and Marley bought the mine, they had used timber quite extravagantly...to support the roof." The miner said.

We heard a whistle bow, followed by rumbling and creaking. Then shouts of fear.

"Collapse!" A boy shouted.

Right away, we saw the roof start to give, and my heart sank for those miners, and I wondered if they would ever make it out alive. I started to run with Scrooge.

"No harm can come to us because we are not here." The miner advised. "But they are not so lucky. Recall...this was midnight on Christmas Eve, and this is the Christmas gift for 27 men and women and boys and multiple ponies."

"I'm sensing a pattern here with Christmas." I said. "First, with your sister rescuing you from that awful school, sir—now with these poor miners!"

"You tried not to think about the horses, but did you ever think about the human souls?" The spirit continued.

"Pull us up! In the name of God! Pull us up! In the name of God, the timbers won't hold! Save us! Save us! Pull us up!" One man shouted desperately among the other poor miners who screamed and shouted just as desperate as he was to get out.

I felt sick to my stomach once again as I heard their cries for help.

"The only thing you didn't count were the victims. They were lost in your darkness." The miner said as we watched the scene unfold before us.

I screamed in horror as the timbers and the roof collapsed on all of them. I breathed shakily as the scene plunged into darkness.

"Spirit, where...where are we? Is this hell?" Scrooge asked, panting.

"No. We are now back in your 30th year, Ebenezer Scrooge." We were face to face with the spirit's original form again before he transformed yet again, this time to a businessman with a a salt and pepper beard, and a bit pudgy. "And business is booming."

The scene changed before us again. We looked to be in a factory with money printing nonstop and the workers tending to the printers.

"Come. Come quick, or we'll miss it." The spirit advised.

"All right," I wiped my eyes and hurried, Scrooge behind me.

"I—I would just like to explain the Christmas mine collapse and its causes, which aren't at all how you characterized them." Scrooge said.