As the clock struck the hour with a resounding chime, Slops stirred and then suddenly recalled Marley’s words. Would a spirit really appear?
Beyond the drapes of her four-poster bed, a gentle glow filled the chamber and Slops trembled at the sight that might befall her. Cautiously she drew back the drapes, her breath held and her heart pounding.
A small child stood before her, luminescent in the dark of the bedroom. “Are you the spirit whose coming was foretold to me?” asked Slops, bewildered at the sight.
“I am the ghost of Griftmas Past,” said the child in a delicate lilting voice.
“But you are just a child!” exclaimed Slops.
“I have lived for over nineteen hundred years,” the spirit said. “Come, I have much to show you.”
She took Slops to the window, which flung wide as if by witchcraft. The spirit reached her tiny hand towards Slops, who hesitated but then grasped the cold fingers in her own. “Spirit, I am mortal and liable to fall,” Slops protested, indicating the window towards which the spirit moved.
“A touch of my hand and you shall fly,” explained the tinkling voice. And before she knew it, Slops was soaring above the Essex coastline.
“Spirit, what is that light up ahead? It cannot be dawn.”
“It is the past.” And with that, Slops and the spirit flew into the light and came to rest in a place Slops remembered very well indeed.
“This is my school!” exclaimed Slops. “Oh it was a horrible place for a child like me.”
Slops and the spirit watched as caring teachers gently tried to cajole the young and obstinate Slops into putting more effort into her schoolwork. Their frustration and disappointment was palpable.
The pair watched the young Slops walk home to be greeted warmly by Mama Slops and Big Dave Slops MBE, who, the spirit noted not unkindly, was wearing slightly humiliating trousers.
The table was set for a feast, with the other Slops youngsters tucking in and talking excitedly. An older man in grubby overalls was smoking by the back door and flicking the ash from his pipe in the direction of Mama Slops whenever the opportunity presented itself.
The room was warm and welcoming but the figure of young Slops sat petulantly, poking at the food with a fork and ignoring entreaties from everyone except the elderly pipe-smoker. He goaded young Slops into uttering insolent words and crude retorts at Mama Slops, before slipping a shiny crown into young Slops’ eager hand.
The spirit glanced at her companion but saw no indication of remorse in the older Slops’ face.
“I’ve seen enough here,” Slops said, noticing the spectre’s gaze. “Shall we go somewhere else?”
“Of course,” replied the spirit. And in a moment they were outside a modestly sized letting on Royal Mews.
“Ah. The poverty years,” said Slops, sagely. “This was a hard time for me, to be sure.”
The pair watched a procession of young mothers entering Slops’ abode to be greeted with cake and festive music whilst the babes played on the floor with Slops’ own child.
“Well, the real poverty came a bit later,” explained Slops, hastily. “I think I probably had emptied a few oil lamps by then though.”
Slops watched as the years performed their terrible dance. She saw herself move from one letting to another, packing her belongings in a cart pulled by a horse called Yaris. At one point a bereft looking man of Asian descent walked past them carrying bags that smelled of excrement. “That had nothing to do with me!” insisted Slops, willing the spirit to continue the journey through the years with greater speed.
“Oh look! There I am dragging trunks filled with Practical Cookery on a Bootstrap to the Post Office!” Slops exclaimed, excitedly. “I really don’t understand why people were so ungrateful about that. Look at how hard it is for me!”
The spirit did not reply.
Slops saw suitors come and go, each departure hitting her like a punch to the face. “Why do you delight in torturing me?” she beseeched the ghost. “Haven’t I suffered enough from all the people who LEFT?”
“These are the shadows of what has been. They are what they are, do not blame me. Our time here is almost done,” said the spirit, wondering if Slops had learned anything at all from viewing the reality of her past.
“I think I should like to go back now,” Slops told the spirit, in a manner reminiscent of the young Slops they had seen at the family table some moments before.
“As you wish,” replied the spectre. “There are still two more spirits to visit with. Listen and learn. Your fate depends upon it.”
Slops was quite overcome at this suggestion and fell to her knees in a dramatic fashion, weeping loudly and - the spirit thought - a little excessively.
When Slops opened her eyes the spirit was gone and Slops found herself back in her own bedchamber. She tossed and turned, wracked with anxiety for the visit of the next spirit, but soon fell into a dreamless sleep.