BETTE

Light flashes up in the room. The curtains of her bed are drawn aside and
SCROOGE, starting up into a half-recumbent attitude, finds herself looking into the
face of an unearthly visitor. It is a strange figure -- like a child: yet not so like a
child as like an old man. Its hair, which hangs about its neck and down its back, is
white as if with age; and yet the face has not a wrinkle in it, and the tenderest
bloom is on the skin. The arms are very long and muscular; the hands the same, as
if its hold were of uncommon strength. Its legs and feet, most delicately formed, are,
like those upper members, bare. It wears a tunic of the purest white, and round its
waist is bound a lustrous belt, the sheen of which is beautiful. It holds a branch of
fresh green holly in its hand; and, in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem,
has its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But the strangest thing about it is, that
from the crown of its head there springs a bright clear jet of light, by which all this
is visible; and which is doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a
great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm.

SCROOGE

(laughing)

You look like Tyrone Power and his date, Errol Flynn, on party night, if you know what I
mean.

The spirit does not respond.

SCROOGE

Alright, I'll play ball. But, it's the middle of the night, you'd better tell Mr. DeMille that I'm
NOT ready for my close-ups.

She laughs again, the spirit does not.

SCROOGE

Fine.

(flatly)

Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming is foretold to me?

GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST

( The voice is soft and gentle. Singularly low, as if instead of being so close beside her, it
were at a distance. )

I am.

SCROOGE

Who, and what are you?

GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST

I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.

SCROOGE

Long past?

GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST

No. Your past.

SCROOGE

You're Ralph Edwards, and this is my life, right?

GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST does not reply.

SCROOGE

I have an idea. It's a funny little game. It's called "Why don't you cover your head before
we all go blind!"

GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST

What? Would you so soon put out, with worldly hands, the light I give? Is it not enough
that you are one of those whose passions made this cap, and force me through whole
trains of years to wear it low upon my brow?

SCROOGE

Well, if I knew you'd have kittens I wouldn't have mentioned it.

(she gets a pair of sunglasses and puts them on)

So, Shiny, tell me, why are you here?

GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST

Your welfare.

SCROOGE

My welfare? You sound like Eve Harrington. No, no. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool
me twice and you get bitch slapped.

No response, but a small smile, from the GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST.

SCROOGE

If it's my welfare you're truly interested in, just like darling Eve, it seems to me that a night
of unbroken rest would have been more to that end.

GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST

Your comeback then. Take heed.

This gets SCROOGE'S attention. GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST puts out its strong
hand as it speaks, and clasps SCROOGE gently by the arm.

GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST

Rise, and walk with me.

SCROOGE

If you think that I'm going out at this ungodly hour, dressed like this, you are sadly
mistaken. Beside, I feel a bit of a sniffle coming on. Be a darling and go on without me.

The spirit's grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand, is not to be resisted.
SCROOGE rises: but finding that the Spirit is pulling her toward the window, clasps
his robe in protest.

I am mortal and liable to fall.

GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST

( laying his hand upon her heart )

Bear but a touch of my hand there, and you shall be upheld in more than this.

SCROOGE

A touch of your hand there and you'll be upheld in court. I may be just a woman, but I
can still kick you where it counts.

SCROOGE burns the spirits hand with her cigarette. He removes it quickly from her
chest and brings it to its mouth.

GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST

What a bitch.

SCROOGE

(brandishing the lit cigarette)

What?

GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST

Um, I said, lets take a trip.

As these words are spoken, the set revolves, they pass through the wall.