The Muppet Christmas Carol

Chapter Four

Scrooge lights a candle, and Nevaeh and Charles start to go inside, but they stop when they see Rizzo digging through the snow for something.

"Come on, Rizzo, we'll follow him in," Nevaeh says.

     "In a minute. I have a little bag of jellybeans over here," Rizzo responds.

     "Will you just get over here?!" Charles whisper-shouts at him.

     "All right," Rizzo groans as he stops digging and goes to join his friends.

     "Sheesh," Nevaeh mumbles, annoyed at how Rizzo can't stop thinking about his stomach for a moment.

     Charles starts to make his way inside, but Scrooge suddenly closes the door, and the door slams right into his face, messing up his nose.

     "Uh-oh," Rizzo says, and he and Nevaeh hurry to steady poor Charles. "Steady. Steady."

     "Scrooge made his way up the staircase, caring not a button for the darkness. Darkness was cheap, and Scrooge liked it," Charles narrates to the audience, his voice all messed up because of his messed-up nose, and he fixes his nose. "But the incident at the door had made Scrooge wary. Before he shut himself in for the night, he searched his rooms."

"Okay, that does it!" Rizzo interrupts, sounding fed up.

"Pardon?" Charles asks.

"How do you know what Scrooge is doing? We're down here, and he's up there," Rizzo points out.

"Storytellers are omniscient. They know everything," Charles replies.

     "Hoity-toity, Mr. Godlike Smarty-Pants," Rizzo insults him.

     "Hey, you two! No fighting in front of the audience," Nevaeh scolds them, gesturing her head toward the audience.

     "What about you, Nevaeh? You don't think he's actually Charles Dickens, do you?" Rizzo asks.

     "To tell the truth, I'm feeling conflicted about it. While it seems impossible that he's the Charles Dickens, he's gotten everything right, so far. What's gonna happen next, Mr. Dickens? To conduct a proper search, Scrooge was forced to light the lamps?" Nevaeh jokes.

     "As a matter of fact, yes," Charles replies, and just like that, light comes from the window on the second floor.

     "How did you do that?" Rizzo asks Nevaeh.

     "I don't know. I was joking," Nevaeh replies, staring at the window with surprise.

     Scrooge blows out the match he used to light the lamp and slowly makes his way in his room, ready to use his cane as a weapon. He sets the candle down on a table and looks around, and he nearly jumps out of his skin when he sees what looks like a person beside him. He throws the "person" down on the floor and whacks it with his cane, but then stops when he sees what it is.

     "Oh. It's my best dressing gown," he says, and he inspects it. "No harm done."

After changing into his nightclothes, Scrooge sits by the warm fire to eat his dinner. After a moment, the bell hanging near the fireplace rings, and Scrooge looks up at it. He decides to shrug it off, but then the bell rings again, followed by the fire going out. Fog then starts rising from the staircase, and two ghosts wrapped in chains rise from the fog, laughing.

"Look! It's Ebenezer Scrooge!" one of them says.

"Looking older and more wicked than ever!" the other adds.

"I knew he wouldn't disappoint us!" the first one says, and both of them laugh.

Scrooge fearfully stares at the ghosts.

"Who are you?" he asks.

"In life, we were your partners, Jacob. . ." the second one starts.

". . . and Robert Marley," the second one finishes.

"It looks like you. . . but I don't believe it," Scrooge seethes.

"Why do you doubt your senses?" Jacob asks.

     "Because a little thing can affect them," Scrooge replies, standing up and setting his plate down on the table. "A slight disorder of the stomach can make them cheat. You may be a bit of undigested beef. A blob of mustard. A crumb of cheese. Yes. There's more of gravy than of grave about you!"

     Jacob and Robert laugh at that.

     "'More of gravy than of grave'?" Robert repeats.

     "What a terrible pun! Where do you get those jokes?" Jacob asks.

     "Leave comedy to the bears, Ebenezer," Robert says, and he and Jacob cackle.

     "Please, Jacob, Robert, don't criticize me," Scrooge pleads with them. "You always criticize me!"

     "We were always heckling you," Robert corrects him.

     "It's good to be heckling again," Jacob comments.

     "It's good to be doing anything again," Robert says, and the two ghosts laugh.

     "Why do you come to me?" Scrooge asks them.

     And so, in song, Jacob and Robert Marley explain that because of their greed and selfishness in life, they are forced to wear the heavy shackles in death. They also warn Scrooge that if he doesn't change his ways, he will end up just like them, that he will be haunted by three spirits who can possibly save him from their fate. They then float back down the staircase, leaving him in darkness. After a moment, the fire ignites, and Scrooge walks toward his chair, staring at the staircase.